We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (film): Difference between revisions

This article is about the film. For the book, see We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed by	Dick Zondag Ralph Zondag Phil Nibbelink Simon Wells
Screenplay by	John Patrick Shanley
Based on	We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story by Hudson Talbott
Produced by	Steve Hickner
Starring	John Goodman Blaze Berdahl Rhea Perlman Jay Leno Rene LeVant Felicity Kendal Charles Fleischer Walter Cronkite Joey Shea Julia Child Kenneth Mars Yeardley Smith Martin Short
Edited by	Nick Fletcher Sim Evan-Jones
Music by	James Horner
Production companies	Universal Pictures Amblimation Amblin Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	November 24, 1993 (1993-11-24)
Running time	71 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$9.3 million (US)

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a 1993 American animated musical science fantasy comedy film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures. Based on the 1987 Hudson Talbott children's book of the same name, the film was directed by Dick Zondag, Ralph Zondag, Phil Nibbelink, and Simon Wells from a screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, and features the voices of John Goodman, Rhea Perlman, Jay Leno, Charles Fleischer, Walter Cronkite, Julia Child, Kenneth Mars, Yeardley Smith and Martin Short.

The film was released in theaters in the United States on November 24, 1993. It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics; some praised its animation, musical score and voice performances, but many criticized its short running time, narrative and lack of proper character development.

Plot

In New York City, an Eastern bluebird named Buster runs away from his siblings and he meets an intelligent orange Tyrannosaurus named Rex, who is playing golf. He explains to Buster that he was once a ravaging dinosaur, and proceeds to tell his personal story.

In a prehistoric jungle, Rex is terrorizing other dinosaurs when a spaceship lands on Earth, piloted by an alien named Vorb. Vorb captures Rex and gives him "Brain Grain", a breakfast cereal that anthropomorphizes Rex and vastly increases his intelligence. Rex is introduced to other dinosaurs, altered by the Brain Grain: a blue Triceratops named Woog, a purple Pteranodon named Elsa, and a green Parasaurolophus named Dweeb. They soon meet Vorb's employer Captain Neweyes, the inventor of Brain Grain, who reveals his goal of allowing the children of the present time to see real dinosaurs. He plans to take them to Dr. Julia Bleeb who will guide them to the Museum of Natural History and warns them to keep away from Professor Screweyes, his nefarious and evil brother who travels around causing mischief after losing his left eye several years ago.

Neweyes drops the dinosaurs off in the Hudson River in the year 1993 AD, but they are unable to meet with Dr. Bleeb. Instead, they meet a young boy named Louie, who plans on running away to join the circus. Louie agrees to help the dinosaurs get to the museum. Riding on Elsa, Louie soon encounters a girl named Cecilia, who is miserable with her life because of her neglectful parents. She agrees to run away with Louie and help the dinosaurs, and when she threw away her Thanksgiving hat, it lands on a little girl who wished for a similar hat and ends up granting her wish. To prevent mass panic, Louie decides that the dinosaurs need to stay hidden during their journey to the museum. He disguises them as floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But when Rex sees the Apatosaurus balloon coming out in the parade, Rex greets it, thinking it is real and already-intelligent like he is. Then in the process of hand-shaking, Rex unwittingly punctures the balloon, causing it to run out of air and fall on the dinosaurs, but left them unharmed. When the audience realize that live dinosaurs are among them, they fly into a panic, and the dinosaurs flee to Central Park while being pursued by the police and the army.

Meanwhile, Louie and Cecilia meet Professor Screweyes, who is running his "Eccentric Circus". Unaware of Screweyes' sinister nature, the children sign a contract to perform in his circus troupe. When the dinosaurs arrive at the circus, Screweyes explains that he delights in scaring people and believes that the dinosaurs would make a great addition to his circus. Using his "Brain Drain", pills that are the polar opposite of his brother's Brain Grain, Screweyes devolves Louie and Cecilia into chimpanzees. When he offers the dinosaurs to consume the pills and join his circus as a ransom in exchange for the two children's freedom, they reluctantly accept and Screweyes releases Louie and Cecilia, agreeing to tear up their contract in the process. Knowing their friendship will be lost forever, Rex transforms Louie and Cecilia back to their human forms with his gentle pats. And before leaving, he sadly tells the two children to remember him.

As the kids awake the next morning, they are greeted by a circus clown named Stubbs, who works for Professor Screweyes, serves them breakfast and explains everything. Upon seeing the dinosaurs returned to their natural savage states, Louie and Cecilia plan to sneak into the night's show and save the dinosaurs with Stubbs' help.

That night, Professor Screweyes opens his circus with a parade of demons and evil spirits, and then unveils the dinosaurs to the terrified audience. Screweyes says he can control Rex, and proceeds to hypnotize him, while bragging that he is never afraid. However, a crow unintentionally activates the flare lights, breaking Rex out of the trance. Realizing he has been tricked, Rex becomes enraged and attempts to eat Screweyes, making him afraid after his talk. However, Louie steps in and desperately talks Rex out of killing Screweyes. His and Cecilia's impassioned pleas and loving touches return Rex and the other dinosaurs to their kind and friendly natures. Just then, Captain Neweyes arrives in his ship and congratulates Louie and Cecilia, who proceed to kiss, while Stubbs puts on an act announcing his resignation from Professor Screweyes' employ which wins the audience over with laughter. Neweyes, Louie, Cecilia and the dinosaurs board the aircraft, leaving Screweyes to be swarmed upon and devoured by the crows and one crow flies off with his now powerless screw.

The dinosaurs spend the rest of their days in the museum, allowing children to see live dinosaurs, and thus fulfilling their wishes. Back in the present, Rex tells Buster that he and his fellow dinosaurs are still in the museum. He also reveals that Louie and Cecilia have reconciled with their respective parents and become a couple.

Rex returns Buster to his family, ignoring his brothers' taunts while hugging his mom, and Rex tells him to remember his story before leaving for the museum.

Voice cast

• John Goodman as Rex, a kind Tyrannosaurus rex.
• Rene LeVant as Woog, a Triceratops who likes to eat a lot.
• Felicity Kendal as Elsa, an elegant Pterodactyl.
• Charles Fleischer as Dweeb, a dim-witted Parasaurolophus.
• Walter Cronkite as Captain Neweyes, an inventor who brings the dinosaurs to the present.
• Jay Leno as Vorb, an alien that works for Captain Neweyes.
• Joey Shea as Louie, a brave young boy from a lower-class background.
• Julia Child as Dr. Juliet Bleeb, a worker at the Museum of Natural History.
• Kenneth Mars as Professor Screweyes, Captain Neweyes' evil brother who runs a circus.
• Yeardley Smith as Cecilia Nuthatch, a young girl from a wealthy family.
• Martin Short as Stubbs the Clown, a clown that works for Professor Screweyes.
• Blaze Berdahl as Buster the Bird
• Rhea Perlman as Buster's Mother
• Larry King as Himself

Production

Hanna-Barbera was the first company to contact Hudson Talbott about obtaining rights to his book We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, and the encounter occurred only months after its release; Universal Pictures then paid off Hanna-Barbera and purchased the rights for Spielberg to produce the film. Although Talbott had little involvement, he had many encounters with the creators of the film during production, including Spielberg who would make several calls to the author from Los Angeles and had a personal meeting with him when he first arrived in London.

The film was originally promoted with John Malkovich listed alongside Cronkite, Goodman, Child, Leno, and Short, but he did not appear in the final version.

Release

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story was part of the Dinosaur renaissance, an era starting in the 1960s that resurged the previously-obscure topic of dinosaurs into popularity; and an explosion of animated dinosaur content attributed to the success of another dinosaur flick released by Spielberg, Jurassic Park (1993), which also included Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993–94), Godzilla: The Series (1998–2000), and Extreme Dinosaurs (1997). The film was released the same year as another dinosaur flick released by Spielberg, Jurassic Park (1993), and was marketed as the more family-friendly Spielberg-made dinosaur film. Fiction in the Dinosaur renaissance presented the creatures in a more friendly and upfront manner, and We're Back: A Dinosaur Story is an example as it depicts dinosaurs in a American suburb doing activities like playing golf.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed a total of $3,707,770 on its opening weekend and a total domestic gross of $9,315,576 in the United States, resulting the film to be a box office bomb.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 38% approval rating, based on 16 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a one star out of four stars and wrote, "It's shallow and kind of dumb, and the animation is routine, and the story isn't much, and the stakes are a lot higher these days in the featurelength animation game". Variety's Daniel M. Kimmel gave the film a positive review and wrote: "In spite of narrative problems... the film's chief appeal is its central conceit -- that giant monsters... can be transformed into creatures who like to play with children". Jane Horwitz of the Washington Post also gave the film a positive review, saying: "Handsomely drawn, and directed by a four-man crew at Spielberg's British-based animation studio, Amblimation, "We're Back!" looks good, though it lacks the gorgeous background detail of a Disney feature, or the heart-tugging romance of "The Little Mermaid" or "Beauty and the Beast." In "We're Back!," science may take the place of sentimentality, but the hot-dog-gulping triceratops fills the cute quotient just fine."

Empire Magazine gave the film a two out of five stars and said, "Disappointing TV-standard film that will entertain children, but annoy their parents". Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Parents seeking innocent Kiddie entertainment should know that the dinosaurs are drugged, the children are briefly transformed into monkeys and the Professor is eventually devoured by crows". Charles Soloman of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a mostly negative review, saying, "Spielberg’s Amblimation Studio obviously boasts some talented artists, but they’re not ready to compete with the crew that made “Beauty and Beast” and “Aladdin.” The needlessly convoluted story and even pacing reduce a film that should thunder like a tyrannosaurus to one that whimpers like a kitten".

Home media

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on March 15, 1994 by MCA/Universal Home Video (currently known as Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). It was re-released on VHS on September 26, 1995. On August 11, 1998, the film was re-released on VHS as part of the "Universal Family Features" collection. On May 26, 2009, the film was released onto DVD for the first time. On November 17, 2015, the film was released on Blu-ray. During its availability at Walmart stores, it included a sneak peek at The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave.

Soundtrack

This soundtrack included the songs "Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time)" and "Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time) (Finale Version) by James Horner, Little Richard and Thomas Dolby.

Track listing

1. Main Title / Primeval Times – 4:14
2. Flying Forward in Time – 5:48
3. Welcome to New York – 2:26
4. First Wish, First Flight – 3:48
5. A Hint of Trouble / The 'Contract' – 1:49
6. Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time): performed by John Goodman – 2:55
7. Grand Slam Demons – 2:05
8. Hot Pursuit – 3:18
9. Central Park – 1:21
10. Screweyes' Circus / Opening Act – 1:12
11. Circus – 2:29
12. Fright Radio / Rex's Sacrifice – 6:19
13. Grand Demon Parade – 7:39
14. The Kids Wake Up / A New Day – 2:57
15. The Transformation – 5:30
16. Special Visitors to the Museum of Natural History – 2:12
17. Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time): performed by Little Richard – 2:56

Video game

Several video game adaptations of the film, were released in 1993 by Hi-Tech Expressions for the SNES, Sega Genesis , PC and Game Boy. The SNES and PC version was developed by Visual Concepts. The Genesis version was developed by Funcom. The Game Boy version was developed by Beam Software and is an altered version of the game Baby T-Rex.

External links

• We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story at IMDb
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