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Admittedly, I am not a person who enjoys television. The commercials simply get in the way. Aside from Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers games, I seldom watch a television program for more than a few minutes. "M*A*S*H," "Cheers," "Married With Children" and the few other television series I have enjoyed are now in syndication. "Greg the Bunny" is the rare exception to shows I followed. Sadly, that show will most likely never see a second season. The one aspect of television that I do appreciate is the mini-series. The depth and detail of a story that can be told in four to eight hours is far greater than what is typically seen in a cinema house. "The Blue and the Gray," "The Stand" and "Dune" are among my favorite television mini-series. However, I have watched them all on LaserDisc and DVD. When "Dinotopia" came to my doorstep, I had never even heard the title previously. Needless to say, I had no idea what this film was about. My first poor guess was it was the tale of a petting zoo for dinosaurs that was under facing extinction by a stingy corporation and a band of children had to find a way to keep it running. I figured it had to at least be a children´s film. I was wrong.
With not being an avid watcher of television and completely missing the existence of "Dinotopia," I have no idea of how successful the miniseries was. With a little digging around on the Internet, I was able to discover the original budget of the miniseries was roughly $80 million dollars. For a four hour miniseries, that is a good budget but it still does not allow for the wow and spectacle that a two-hour theatrical production will exhibit with an identical budget. With this modest budget, and Jim Henson´s Creature Shop handling creature effects eased my apprehension of viewing "Dinotopia." Alice Krieg was the only recognizable name of the cast and her performance as the Borg Queen in "Star Trek: First Contact" wasn´t enough to warrant watching this title on star power. You could easily say that I was not entirely sure that I wanted to sit down and invest the six hours or so that would be needed to review the DVD. Again, I was wrong.
I´m going to just avoid beating around the proverbial bush and get right to the point. "Dinotopia" was great fun. My expectations were completely blown out of the water and the production is easily one of television´s most grandiose productions. Some of the dinosaur effects rivaled that of "Jurassic Park." The story was joyous and full of adventure. The cast was remarkably good considering the amount of blue screen acting the young actors were subjected to. The premise of a utopia where man and sauropods existed together in harmony, where man wrote in a dinosaur alphabet and dinosaur spoke in man´s tongue sounded silly and sometimes came across as odd, but the execution and wondrous world created by the filmmakers easily overcame any shortcomings. It reminded me in some way of televison´s old "Land of the Lost," but without the Sleestacks. The sense of adventure and storytelling was reminiscent of the old serials that influenced George Lucas in his making of "Star Wars." I am perfectly content that I was wrong in my original hesitance and thoughts of "Dinotopia," and I am glad that I sat down for four and a half hours and watched the mini-series in its entirety.
In "Dinotopia," Karl (Tyron Leitso) and David (Wentworth Miller) Scott are two teenage brothers who survive an airplane crash at sea. Their father Frank (Stuart Wilson) is lost with the small plane. They are quickly found by a peculiarly dressed chap by the name of Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis) who is having a bit of fun with dynamite. Cyrus takes the boys to a small village where they are surprised to discover that dinosaurs still roam the Earth and are looked at as equals by the human villagers. They are even more taken aback by the lovely Marion (Katie Carr) who manages to satisfy an angry dinosaur with a bad toothache. Both of the boys quickly fall in love with the innocent Marion, who is to escort them to Waterfall City. During their journey to Waterfall City, they realize that a pack of Tyrannosaurus Rex is attacking villages because the source of power for these villages is dying out. These sunstones are what maintains harmony between man and dinosaur by keeping predators away. It is also what provides power to the cities and villages.
David, Karl and Marion arrive at Waterfall City to report the news to Marion´s father and town mayor, Mayor Waldo (Jim Carter). They boys are newcomers to the island and instant celebrities. However, they must enroll in a school to learn the Footprint Language and adapt to life on Dinotopia. The librarian, a friendly dinosaur named Zippo (voiced by comedian Lee Evans) provides housing for the boys while they learn the ways of the island. Strife arises between the two already-distant brothers when David begins to accept and love the harmony that Dinotopia provides. Karl´s greatest concern is finding a way to return home and leave the land where the inhabitants laugh at the notion of walking on the moon. While all of this goes on, nobody is doing anything about the sunstone problem.
Without getting into too much detail, the Scott brothers each are sent in different directions. David is sent to learn to be a skybax (Pterodactyl) rider and Karl must remain at a hatchery and raise a baby hydrosaur he names Twenty Six. Marion is sent to accompany David and learn what is causing the winged pterosaurs to grow more violent with each passing day. Eventually, the problem with the sunstones elevates and David and Karl must join Zippo, Marion and Cyrus in an adventure to find more sunstones below ancient ruins. If they succeed, the Dinotopia will survive. If they do not, then Dinotopia and all of its residents will perish to the carnivores.
"Dinotopia" brings more to the table than just a tale of adventure and reptiles. Racism is a large focus of Karl´s character development. He mistrusts the "Scalies" and does so with the influence of Cyrus, who lost a leg to a Scaly and will never trust them again. The parenting of Twenty Six brings Karl´s racism to a point where he must re-evaluate his view on those that are different. The literature and manner of the dinosaurs attitude also suggests that they are the ones in control and simply using humans for labor and assistance. This adds another level of complexity to the plot. Romance and conflict between the three principal actors is heavily involved in the storyline and the introduction of another female who finds a liking to David and causes tension between David and Marion. Politics, greed, deceit, loyalty and a great deal more unravels over the running time of the miniseries.
Yes, the talking dinosaurs may not be the easiest thing to swallow. Zippo playing ping-pong was certainly silly. Television and a story of this vein require some amount of suspension of reality. Once you look past the devices that are included to secure a younger audience, "Dinotopia" is a splendid adventure that I found more enjoyable than "The Phantom Menace" and many other Hollywood action/adventure pics. I was very pleasantly surprised with the character depth and underlying themes presented by the film and my captivation was complete. I sat down and watched "Dinotopia" from beginning to end and only took a five-minute break between disc changes to secure myself a glass of iced tea (this was a common practice when my only source of home video was the LaserDisc). Sometimes it is bad to judge a book by its cover or name and I was nearly guilty in doing so.
Video:
I´d like to spend a couple of more minutes discussing the look of this miniseries. It was utterly amazing at times, and at a few times the effects was typical of what you would expect from a television miniseries. The Tyrannosaurs attack sequence looked just as good as what was seen in the first "Jurassic Park" and some elements of that sequence looked to be directly adapted from the Spielberg helmed adventure. The Brachiosaurus looked very impressive. Some dinosaurs, like Zippo and a few others were not as photo realistic and these effects did hinder the suspension of reality required to fully accept a talking dinosaur. Waterfall City reminded me heavily of "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" digital landscape of Naboo. A few sets completely blew me away. Others just screamed ´soundstage.´ My final evaluation was that this was the most epic and impressive television movie or miniseries I had ever seen.
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