‘Dinosaur’ from 2000 deserves way more praise than people realize

It’s been over two decades since the release of Walt Disney’s CGI epic masterpiece that was Dinosaur and for many people, this film has flown over their heads and some may not know of its existence.

The story revolves around a young iguanodon named Aladar who is raised by a group of lemurs on a small island. When the island is destroyed by a devastating meteor shower, Aladar and a few of his lemur friends journey out to another group of dinosaurs looking for “The Nesting Grounds”, which is said to be an untouched location that the meteor shower did not destroy.

The film stars D.B. Sweeney, Ossie Davis, Alfre Woodard and a young Hayden Panettiere. The film was also a modest box-office success grossing almost $350 million on a budget of $127.5 million. It only got mixed-to-positive reviews from critics who praised its visuals but criticized the story.

Here’s why this movie deserves way more love than it has gotten from critics.

The film is probably the most visually dazzling creation that DIsney has put out in many years. Each scale of the dinosaurs and each hair on the lemurs is so eloquently crafted and attached for each character that it seems impossible to imagine the number of hours that went into designing each character, which is something incredibly admirable.

I’m going to be bold enough and say that the film is even more stunning than the Jurassic Park films.

At its core, the film is about a family trying to find a place home and mustering up the courage to be able to do so. It’s a courageous and powerful human-like retelling of what dinosaurs might have been like 65 million years ago. It doesn’t hold back and it is incredibly rewatchable with every inch of CGI that has aged incredibly well for twenty-two years.

I know that I am going on and on about the visual effects, but that’s only because I am a very visual person and great visual effects are a hallmark of a great-looking movie to me and when I realize the number of people that worked on this project and then I see it get passed over time and time again by the general public, I realize that people have yet to appreciate this work of art that probably paved the way for the live-action disney remakes and movies like it.

I just hope there is a more positive reception down the line with this lovely feature.