DINOTASIA – The Blu Review

The Movie –

The dinosaur has been a fascination with myself, like with so many both young and old. Such magnificent, yet enigmatic beasts that can only be imagined by those uneducated in the paleontological studies, the experts themselves cannot agree and are constantly finding themselves rewriting the textbooks on a species of creature hundreds of thousands, even millions of years prior to our very existence. This alone, on its very surface, is enough to call me thoroughly captivated.

Steven Spielberg first captured and capitalized on the possibilities of what I may call dino-tainment in 1993 with JURASSIC PARK. Even today, some nearly 20 years later, the film holds up spectacularly to the test of time. However, its the dinosaur itself whom truly stands the ultimate test of time. From cartoons and TV shows, children’s toys and public broadcasting specials, from the absolutely absurd to the most numbing narratives, dinosaurs never went extinct in our minds.

Filmmakers David Krentz and Erik Nelson bring new life to the dino-doc with DINOTASIA, a feature-length film with a brief running time of 83-minutes. In fact, this is not truly a “documentary” in the purist’s standard. No, this film is far to flamboyant for that. However, there are elements of the genre clearly at play, overshadowed perhaps by the quirkiness, the tongue-in-cheek glibness and the unmistakably poetic prose narration from legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Fully computer-animated, DINOTASIA is presented in chapters, sort of like how Tarantino presented PULP FICTION. The film is more a collection of vignettes that play to a common theme, rather than one, continuously flowing linear narrative. The time frame of DINOTASIA spans entire eras of dinosaur history, from the Triassic to the cretaceous, no period was spared. The individual stories range from the cute and charming to the risque to the violent. This is a story of survival, of birth and death, of daily life… done in a way more appealing to our modern sense of dramatic engagement than to one of scientific authenticity.

DINOTASIA makes clear early on that it means not to educate us so much as to entertain, but some minimal level of dino-knowledge can be gleaned from this film. Certainly, the more humanistic characteristics, the humorous anecdotes and escapades on display, these are meant for our pure enjoyment. To this, I confess they are hit and miss, but to find such a film presenting itself in a documentary fashion, but doing so with a sense of humor is refreshing. Have you ever pondered the experience of a dinosaur unexpectedly tripping off a prehistoric psychedelic mushroom? Look no further.

Violence was a fact of life for dinosaurs. DINOTASIA takes this to heart. Carnivores abound, especially in the skin of Tyrannosaurus Rex, whom makes multiple appearances. To those who still believe the T-Rex is king of all dinosaurs, prepare to be surprised. Sure, the big T dishes out his share of carnage, but takes it in the arm himself a few times as well. (wink, wink — that’s an inside joke) For the little ones, DINOTASIA is an acceptable enough film, with parental guidance, but parents beware of a fair amount of dino-on-dino violence of a graphic nature.

Artistically and technically speaking, the animation and design is commendable. Not nearly as accomplished as the effects in JURASSIC PARK (which, lest you forget, were greatly non-animated) but a vast improvement over so many stop-motion animated sci-fi/fantasy films and documentaries from the ’80s. In terms of the colors and attention to detail, I found myself somewhat mesmerized by the care taken, especially when one considers this anti-documentary is still based on hard science, including some relatively new and groundbreaking paleontological discoveries made since the earlier days of dinosaurs’ big screen debut.

Finally, I must give props to the peculiarity of Werner Herzog’s presence in DINOTASIA. For those who have seen Herzog’s fascinating documentary CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, his narration is a character on its own merit, lending his oddly lyrical cadence to such a subject only add to its uniquely kitsch quality. An early fan of this project, Herzog joined long-time collaborator Erik Nelson as the narrating voice for the film. Always a treat, occasionally perplexing, Herzog seemingly can do no wrong, whether he makes sense to you or not.

On one final note regarding the overall allure of DINOTASIA… imagine watching the 1991 TV series DINOSAURS, but done as CGI instead of puppets and men in suits, and produced for HBO instead of network television… and, the dinosaurs don’t speak. Imagine this, and once you stop laughing, you may be close to what you can expect from DINOTASIA… a daring, nonsensical, surprisingly non-fictional faux documentary film.

The Extras –

The extra features on this disc are fairly minimal. There is one deleted scene, which deals with dinosaur mating rites, which is interesting and mildly humorous. In addition, there is a hand-drawn version of the final story with is worth a look. The behind-the-scenes segments of the extra features may appeal to those intrigued by the highly technical process of modern animation, but there is little in this portion of the blu-ray to hold the average viewer’s attention.

• Deleted Scenes
• Extended Scenes
• Behind-the-Scenes Animator Clips

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Video Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Running Time: 83 minutes + extras
Audio: English – 5.1 Surround / Stereo
Subtitles: None.

Flat Iron Film Company brings DINOTASIA to DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, November 6th, 2012.