DVD Review: Dinosaur

If you read anything about Disney’s live action/animated spectacle, Dinosaur, I can just about guarantee that there won’t be much written about the story. That’s because there isn’t much of one there, and what’s even more amazing about that is the number of people it took to write it! A dinosaur egg is carried far away from its mother and finally lands in a forest with a family of funky-looking lemurs. They raise the little dinosaur, called Aladar, as their own, and all is well until a meteor shower destroys the family’s home. The lemurs climb aboard Aladar and they take off for safer accommodations. Along the way, Aladar is faced, for the first time, with his own kind. One thing that should always be remembered: no matter how amazing, or lovely a film is, it’s just simply got to tell a good story as well. There are two options for purchasing Dinosaur: a single disc with a nice selection of extras, or a double disc set that offers a second disc with tons and tons of extras that focus, of course, on the amazing and intricate art of digital animation. (Laurie Sevano)
DVD Picture: The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 DVD picture, derived from an all-digital source, is absolutely stunning. Images are sharply defined into the fine details of the grasses, scales on the dinosaurs and their facial expressions. Tremendous detail is given to individual hairs on the monkeys. Colors are rich and well defined, with the vegetation appearing very natural and lush. Contrast and “shadow delineation” are superb throughout. There is just the slightest shimmer noticed on occasion, but it’s hardly worth mentioning as it is not much of a distraction at all. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Soundtrack: The Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround 5.1-channel soundtracks feature a wonderful amalgamation of effects and music, along with dialogue to yield a listening experience that is wholly satisfying in terms of dimension, envelopment and fidelity. The production is simply par excellent in all respects, and the DTS version should be the preferred option for offering refinement in the higher frequencies and slightly improved spatial resolution. The strongest aspect of this soundtrack is clearly the design of the sound effects from Christopher Boyes and the crew at Skywalker Sound, crafting poignant, distinctive sounds of the dinosaurs and the primates (most of the re-recording was performed at Buena Vista Sound Studios). The integration of effects into the sound mix is absolutely compelling, as is the dialogue. James Newton Howard’s music score is an excellent recording, and is engaging with a sweeping presence across the screen and gentle to moderate surround envelopment. Much credit is also due to the atmospheric sound effects, helping to maintain a wide, spacious soundstage, while at the same time engrossing the listener into the various soundscapes of nature. The meteor shower scene in Chapter 6 is an active, energetic sequence with active split surround engagement and significant 25Hz low-end impact, along with some .1 LFE. (Those who choose to elect a back surround decoder, such as the SMART Devices CS-3X, Jr. should derive further benefit of slightly more depth in the surrounds.) This is a superlative soundtrack presentation that will not only please but will also exhibit wonderful creativity with crafting film sound. (Perry Sun)

DVD-ROM Review

DVD-ROM Enhancements Rating: Disappointing

DVD-ROM Review: After installing the PCFriendly compatible components for this title, you are brought to the great DVD-ROM main menu. From this menu, you are given links to three different areas of this disc: Dinopedia, Aladar's Adventure, and Dinosearch. There is also a link to send you online to the movie's Web site. One thing I should mention about each of the links here is, they all go to the DVD-Video portion of the disc. Also, each section does work a little better using a DVD player instead of going through DVD-ROM, as each is designed to use the arrow keys on your remote.

The Dinopedia is an Encyclopedia on Dinosaurs (those guys at Disney sure are clever). There are pictures of nine of the different dinosaurs here, and when you click on the picture you see clips from the film, as well as a narration of different facts about each dinosaur species.

Aladar's Adventure is visually stunning, but lacks in the fun factor. You walk around through a cave looking for three of your friends, water, and a way back to the nesting ground. This section is designed to use the arrow buttons on your DVD player remote, but works the same using the direction keys on your keyboard.

There is also another game included on this disc, called Dinosearch. Here you are given a background image with parts of dinosaurs hidden around it. You must find the part that matches the one highlighted in the whole dinosaur picture located at the bottom of each screen. To select the each part, you can use your mouse or directional keys to select the part of your choice, and then press the enter key.

If you Go On-Line, you are brought to Dinosaur's Web site, which is very well done. At this site, you can find information on the story, making of the movie, dinosaur biographies (similar to cast biographies), D-Cards (which are postcards you can send over the Internet), and a downloadable trailer to the movie.

When playing Dinosaur from PCFriendly, it loads to the DVD-Video main menu.

The rating Dinosaur has received may be very misleading, since this title has some great features, which are excellent for children to play around with. The reason I gave it such a low score is because there is nothing available only for the DVD-ROM users. DVD-Video users can access all of the features in the DVD-ROM section, and each is designed for those users specifically. I am very disappointed with the lack of effort the creators of this title's DVD-ROM components have shown.

Picture: 5
Dolby Digital Sound: 4.5
DTS Sound: 5

Critics' Composite Score: 3.5

Stars: The Voice Talents Of D. B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel E. Wright, Julianna Margulies, Peter Siragusa, Joan Plowright and Della Reese

This review courtesy of WidescreenReview.com