DINOSAUR [2000 / 2013] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] The 39th Disney Animated Feature Film! Discover A World You’ve Only Imagined!
Travel 65 million years into the past and experience the age of the dinosaurs in mind-blowing Blu-ray high definition. ‘DINOSAUR,’ is Disney’s landmark special effects spectacular, makes an evolutionary leap through the revolutionary new Blu-ray technology.
For the first time ever, witness the film’s dazzling meteor storm and seeing Aladar [D.B. Sweeney] breath-taking battles in brilliant 1080p. Prepare for a stunning auditory experience with 5.1 48 kHz, 24-bit uncompressed sound – from the thundering footsteps of the deadly Carnotaurus, to the smallest leaf blowing in the breeze.
You’ve never experienced ‘DINOSAUR’ like this. Go beyond everyday entertainment with this Blu-ray High Definition.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 2000 Annie Awards: Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation for Simon O'Connor. Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag. Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production for James Newton Howard (music). Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production for Thom Enriquez. Nominated: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production for Della Reese for the voice of “Eema.” 2000 Bogey Awards, Germany: Win: Bogey Award in Silver for ‘DINOSAUR.’ 2000 Casting Society of America: Nominated: Artios Award for Best Casting for Animated Voiceover in a Feature Film for Ruth Lambert. 2000 The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards: Nominated: Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing More than $100 Million Using Hollywood Math for John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs. 2000 YoungStar Awards: Nominated: Best Young Voice Over Talent for Hayden Panettiere. 2001 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA: Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film. Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Music got James Newton Howard. 2001 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: Win: Top Box Office Films for James Newton Howard. 2001 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards: Nominated: Critics Choice Award for Best Animated Feature. 2001 Golden Screen, Germany: Win: Golden Screen Award for ‘DINOSAUR.’ 2001 Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA: Nominated: Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing for an Animated Feature for Christopher Boyes (supervising sound editor), Frank E. Eulner (supervising sound editor), Michele Perrone (supervising adr editor), Ethan Van der Ryn (sound editor), Scott Guitteau (sound editor), Andrea Gard (sound editor), Mark A. Hester (sound editor), James Likowski (foley editor), Joanna Laurent (foley editor) and John Verbeck (foley editor). Nominated: Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing for Music and Animation for David Olson (music editor) and Jim Weidman (music editor). 2001 Online Film & Television Association: Nominated: OFTA Film Award for Best Animated Picture for Pam Marsden. 2001 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards: Nominated: Best Animated Film. Nominated: Best Family Film. 2001 Satellite Awards: Win: Golden Satellite Award for Best Sound for Frank E. Eulner. 2001 Satellite Awards: Nominated: Golden Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media. 2001 Young Artist Awards: Nominated: Best Family Feature Film for Animation.
FILM FACT No.2: The film's score was composed by James Newton Howard with vocals by Lebo M, who did vocals for ‘The Lion King.’ In September 1999, it was reported that pop singer/songwriter Kate Bush had written and recorded a song for the film to be used in the scene in which Aladar and his family mourn the destruction of their island. Reportedly, preview audiences did not respond well to the song. The producers recommended that Kate Bush rewrite it, but she refused. Ultimately, due to complications, the track was not included on the soundtrack. In Asia, pop singer Jacky Cheung's song "Something Only Love Can Do", with versions sung in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, was adopted as the theme song for the film.
FILM FACT No.3: ‘DINOSAUR’ Filming Locations: Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia; California; Death Valley, Eastern California; Dumont Dunes, Mojave Desert; Lone Pine, Inyo County, California; Los Angeles County Arboretum; Ridgecrest, Kern County, California; San Luis Obispo; San Simeon; Trona Pinnacles; Florida; Seminole Ranch; Hawaii; Maui Island; Kauai Island; Venezuela; Canaima (Angel Falls), Venezuela; Western Samoa and Malamute.
Voice Cast: Alfre Woodard (Plio), Ossie Davis (Yar), Max Casella (Zini), Hayden Panettiere (Surie), D.B. Sweeney (Aladar), Samuel E. Wright (Kron), Peter Siragusa (Bruton), Julianna Margulies (Neera), Dame Joan Plowright (Baylene), Della Reese (Eema), Matt Adler (voice), Sandina Bailo-Lape (voice), Edie Lehmann Boddicker (voice), Zachary Bostrom (voice), Catherine Cavadini (voice), Holly Dorff (voice), Greg Finley (voice), Jeff Fischer (voice), Barbara Harris (voice), David Allen Kramer (voice), Susie Stevens-Logan (voice), David McCharen (voice), Tracy Metro (voice), Daran Norris (voice), Bobbi Page (voice), Noreen Reardon (voice), Chelsea Russo (voice), Evan Sabara (voice), Aaron Spann (voice), Melanie Spore (voice), Andrea Baker (voice), John Walcutt (voice), Camille Winbush (voice), Billy West (voice), Linda Harmon (Singer) (uncredited), Paul Rausmussen (Vocal Sound Effects) (uncredited) and Gary Schwartz (Additional Voices) (uncredited)
Directors: Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag
Producers: Baker Bloodworth, Enfys Dickinson, Jim Burton and Pam Marsden
Screenplay: Gregory Gunter (creative development), John Harrison (story/screenplay), Jonathan Roberts (additional story material), Ralph Zondag (story), Rhett Reese (additional story material), Robert Nelson Jacobs (story/screenplay), Shirley Pierce (screenplay), Tamara Lusher (additional story), Thom Enriquez (story) and Walon Green (based on an earlier screenplay)
Composer: James Newton Howard
Cinematography: David R. Hardberger (Director of Photography) and Steven Douglas Smith (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 LPCM Uncompressed Surround Sound
English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound
French: 5.1 DTS Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound
Spanish: 5.1 DTS Audio
Spanish: 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound
Dutch: 5.1 DTS Audio
Dutch: 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Dutch
Running Time: 82 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘DINOSAUR’ [2000] is a terrific Disney style CGI computer generated animation, that brings prehistoric giants to life in Disney's mammoth adventure and was a respectable US box office success, and this computer animated adventure film has unfortunately not managed to eclipse the performance of other Disney recent greatest hits, nor surpass the hugely entertaining PIXAR produced computer animated films in terms of style and quality. At the time, ‘DINOSAUR’ was the costliest animated feature ever, but from the first frame to the final roar it was clearly worth every penny.
The ‘DINOSAUR’ film is set 65 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period, and opens with a dinosaur egg that is about to hatch, and an Iguanodon mother forced to abandon her nest, with only one egg surviving a carnivorous Carnotaur [Frank Welker] attack, but a rampaging Tyrannosaurus Rex destroys all but one egg. The egg is taken by an Oviraptor, who drops it into a river while fighting another Oviraptor, and finally is taken by a Pteranodon to an island inhabited by lemurs and because the Pteranodon is attack in the air, has to drop the egg and of course lands into a forest, and a group of hesitant lemurs who sees the egg land, and eventually Aladar hatches who is now sadly an orphaned dinosaur and is raised by the family of lemurs, and they name the baby dinosaur Aladar [voiced by D.B. Sweeny], and raise him as their own. But what I liked about the scene leading up to when the dinosaur egg drops into the forest, is that what we get to see is the vast vistas of the prehistoric landscape, which is totally spectacular and the Disney people sure did a brilliant job of evoking of what it might have looked like 65 million years ago on planet Earth. Also on top of that, from the time the egg is picked up by the flying Pteranodon and eventually it is attack in the air and has to drop the egg and when it lands in the forest, well that whole scene last exactly 7 minutes and 30 seconds and you get to view a totally fantastic spectacular flying sequence and is like fantastic rollercoaster filmic ride and you really feel you are flying, and it is such a shame it was not filmed in 3D.
When Aladar [D.B. Sweeny] is an adult, we eventually witness a massive meteor shower upon the island and the lemurs home is totally destroyed, Aladar and his family must leave their homeland. With only Aladar, his grandfather Yar [Ossie Davis], his mother Plio [Alfre Woodard], his best friend Zini [Max Casella], and his sister Suri [Hayden Panettiere] surviving the destruction of the island by swimming to the mainland and eventually they end up following a heard of similarly displaced dinosaurs heading to the nesting grounds where it’s believed that water and protection awaits them. The journey is long, and predators are constantly hoping to attack stragglers. As Aladar struggles to keep his family safe, he butts heads with arrogant and belligerent Kron [Samuel E. Wright], the head of the herd who takes survival of the fittest to heart.
While the animated film maintains a strong moral centre, and they say that it never attempts to replicate the savage reality of such a real life situation; well to me that is totally utter rubbish, as to me it has a really strong morale stance on all aspect life’s ups and downs, especially how Aladar really grows up the long journey to the promised land. Disney's remarkable achievement is in catching up so much technical ground in four short years, establishing a computer animation studio and producing such a visually splendid animated film. To some people say the problem really lies in the story scenario, which some may find to be slightly non-Disney in style, but despite this I really enjoyed the whole experience of the Disney CGI animated film ‘DINOSAUR.’ Also what has really made me angry, again all the reviews I have read of this Blu-ray disc, is that everyone moans about how bad all the creatures look non-realistic and do not look as good as what the BBC produced of their dinosaurs, well I think all the creatures, especially the dinosaurs look totally fantastic and realistic and I felt I was there experiencing all what happens to the creatures, but what a shame it was not in 3D, the I think it would of looked even more spectacular, but despite this, it was a really enjoyable romp through prehistoric Earth.
‘DINOSAUR’ was Disney’s first attempt at entering the CGI computer generated imagery and cost a supersaurus-size $130 million failure to some critics, but the unofficial numbers put it closer to $200 million, and the most expensive CGI animated film ever made by Disney, but to me I feel Disney really delivered the goods 100%. Fearing comparisons to other animated films of the same genre that was out at the time, the budget for this became as gigantic as the dinosaurs depicted, but the saving grace was the background art which was the best part of this CGI animated film, and a massive total visual treat of great proportion, and especially for the younger generation audience. But most importantly, ‘DINOSAUR’ is for Disney aficionados and hearkens back to the animated films of the 1970s – 1980s. The real mystery is why this dinosaur film has taken Disney so long to realise their dino-mite potential, still as the say better late than never. But I hope grown-ups will goggle at the eye-boggling and mind blowing special effects, while young children will alternately cheer and cower behind the couch in the lounge with some of the much more scariest and dramatic scenes in the film, but remember children it is not real.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment brings you this Blu-ray disc in an exceptional high quality 1080p encoded image presentation and is also helped with the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I have read some very negative reviews about the image quality, but I am happy to report that I found myself very impressed with the cleanliness of this image transfer presentation. You also get moments featuring large solid image areas, where I expected to see extensive colour noise, but I could not detect any throughout the animated film. This Blu-ray really has a very firm and stable picture quality, and again I did see loads of very negative reviewers berating the image quality, talk about over the top nick picking, where I saw just 100% pure quality image resolution. Also I have also seen several reviews saying that during the film, for example a late-night cave scene about midway through where they had trouble making out what was going on, well to me this is total rubbish, as I could see everything that was going on and now and again you got blue lightning flashes going off that bathed the inside of the cave really well, so as far as I am concerned they must have a cheap rubbish Blu-ray player. What was also good to see were the black levels that are excellent. What also impressed me were the views of the prehistoric landscapes, especially with all the totally realistic actual landscapes and so very cleverly incorporated into the CGI computer animated characters. But I especially liked film's organic, earthy visual aesthetic of the animated film and to me it is an all in all good effort on the part of the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment brings you this Blu-ray disc with two main audio choices, which are 5.1 LPCM Uncompressed Surround Sound and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and I found there was not much difference, but both gave a perfectly fine sound mix experience to be sure. The sound design mix is a far more front-heavy for this big-budget animated film spectacular like this one, unfortunately even the depth and impact of the sound quality itself felt slightly muted. There was a slightly downgraded aspect with the dynamic range, such as distorted high end sounds or clipped low bass sounds for some unknown reason, and again unfortunately the surround sound use is also very restrained. Time after time throughout the animated film, especially such as the dinosaur attacks, or the night-time rainstorm of comets, the rear speaker channels hardly produced hardly any activity, and certainly nothing in this sound mix comes close to producing the "wall of sound" effect I was hoping to hear, but the sound experience that was at its best was when you got the very dramatic composed film score by James Newton Howard with certain scenes in the film, this is when all your speakers really get a good workout, but maybe Disney felt they did not want to spend a lot of money on the surround sound experience, because of the box office failure, still I would rather have this Blu-ray disc, than the previous inferior DVD release I had in my collection, but all in all the CGI computer animated film makes up for the slightly downgraded sound experience, oh well you cannot win them all.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: BLU-SCAPE: ORIGINS [2000] [1080p] [1.78:1] [6:12] Here we get to view a short high definition film that has been produced exclusively for this Blu-ray disc by award-winning filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg and his stunning breath-taking time-lapse photography and you also get view is a National Geographic type like travelogue of the film's fictional locales, and looks absolutely stunning in 1080p image resolution. It also has specially composed music by Michael Whalen. This has no connection to the Disney animated film ‘DINOSAUR.’
Special Feature: Movie Showcase [2000] [1080p] [1.78:1] [4:00] With this special feature it allows Disney studio to give us three clips from the animated film ‘DINOSAUR’ to show off the most dramatic scenes in "the ultimate in high-definition picture and sound experience," and gives us the viewer three scenes that represent the best in Blu-ray visuals and audio of the animated film ‘DINOSAUR’ that has to offer.
Special Feature: The Monster Cloud [2000] [480i] [1.33:1] [4:10] With this special feature, the Filmmaker's explain in great detail how they created “The Monster Cloud” and go behind-the-scene to view the big explosion effects, where they go into great technical detail about one of the film's awesome visual highlights, especially with the help of creating the digital effects, they used every trick in the book, like miniatures and little pyro techniques, so as to give the effects life like experience as if you were there when it happens. Contributors include: Baker Bloodworth [Co-Producer], Neil Krepela [Visual Effects Supervisor Artist], Neil Eskuri [Digital Effects Supervisor], Jim Hulin [Effects Compositing Supervisor], Terry Moews [Visual Effects Supervisor], Pam Marsden [Producer], Gerard DiNardi [Production Manager for Live Action Unit], Evan Jacobs [Vison Crew Unlimited], Steven Douglas Smith [Director of Photography 1st Unit] and Thomas Schumacher [Former President of Walt Disney Feature Animation].
SNEAK PEEKS [1080p] [1.78:1 / 2.35:1] [1:12] ‘Haunted Mansion;’ ‘Sky High;’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pear;’ ‘Eight below;’ ‘Chicken Little’ and ‘BLU-SCAPE.’
Finally, ‘DINOSAUR’ [2000] finds Disney, who worked very hard to make sure that the faces of the dinosaurs were totally expressive. But what makes the story get into your heart is seeing the characters learn and grow and overcome massive challenges. The technological mastery of ‘DINOSAUR’ is totally dazzling to watch, though, especially the textures, especially of the fur, scales, eggshell, water, and goo are all so vivid you can almost touch them, shame it was not in 3D. To some critics felt the animated film had some shortcomings, but its visuals are nothing short of total incredible spectacular images. Parents with young children who frighten easily should carefully consider whether they are ready for this animated picture, but I know for a fact that children will love the computer generated animation and especially I know that their firm favourite characters will be Aladar and his lemur friends. For me personally, I really enjoyed the whole experience of this Disney CGI computer generated animated film. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
