Walking with Dinosaurs 3D

The overall story is one of a misfit runt overcoming obstacles as he grows up. We've seen the story before, nothing new. CGI is impressive and they even had enough sense to include footprints the dirt, so it seems more like the dinos are grounded, more real. It was hard to tell if the background was CGI or real life film w/ dinos added. The studio decided to frame the dino story with a modern day teenager not wanting to see his uncle in Alaska. Totally unnecessary, didn't need it, wasted time. Each time a new dinosaur entered the story, the movie did a freeze frame, the dinos name and an explanation of the name was give. Very disrupting. Then the dinos would use that name to refer to that dino-as if we would call each other Homo Sapien. A lot of the dialog was a bit too cute with references back to the modern world. I took my kid, he liked it, but that was probably because it was a movie about dinosaurs regardless of content. I found it mildly annoying. Strickly kids fare.

Dinosaurs have long proved a source of fascination for human beings - the notion that magnificent lizard-beasts used to rule the world we now live in... well, it would almost be the stuff of science-fiction, except it's just pure, unmitigated science. Walking With Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie - created using the same technology pioneered by BBC Earth for its classic 14-year-old dinosaur documentary - has decided to go fully into the realm of fiction. The result is wildly uneven, featuring spectacular animation but a laboured script that only occasionally manages to rustle up some interest and laughs.

Patchi (voiced by Justin Long) is the runt of the pachyrhinosaurus tribe. Small and clumsy, he seems fated to play second fiddle to his swifter, meaner brother Scowler (Skylar Stone) for the rest of his life. He's even thwarted in pursuing Juniper (Tiya Sircar), the girl of his dreams, when his brother wrests control of the tribe. As Patchi struggles to find his destiny, his tribe keeps strictly to their migration schedule - one which routinely takes them through a literal valley of death ruled over by their world's fiercest predator: the Gorgosaurus.

In visual terms, Walking With Dinosaurs is an undeniable treat. The gorgeously-animated dinosaurs, seemingly photo-real, have been transposed onto lushly-shot live-action footage of New Zealand and Alaska. As Alex (John Leguizamo), our winged Alexornis host, swoops over the rolling terrain, it's almost possible to believe that dinosaurs still roam the Earth.

What works considerably less well is John Collee's uninspired script. It's clearly targeted at children, but in an almost insulting manner. Alex's narration manages to be funny every once in a while - a particular highlight being his discussion of the Gorgosaurus' miniscule forearms (reminiscent of its T-Rex cousin). But, in the main, the dialogue between the dinosaurs is flat and comes close to silly, while Karl Urban and his young charges wander in for a few pretty pointless shots used to book-end Patchi's narrative.

This might work quite well for the very youngest of children, but adults and anyone above the age of ten might find themselves wishing ardently for the animation to be allowed to speak for itself. It's certainly rendered in impressive enough fashion - there's plenty more soul and depth in the eyes and actions of these great beasts than in their words. As it turns out, there might be some merit to watching Walking With Dinosaurs as a silent movie: it was originally conceived as such before the powers that be decided that it had to be rendered more kid- and family-friendly (i.e., more accessible).

There have been some truly great dinosaur movies made in our lifetime: ones brimming with action and tension (Jurassic Park) and others that deal particularly well in humanity and heartbreak (The Land Before Time). Walking With Dinosaurs tries for both and ends up with neither... although, to be fair, it does march along in mostly inoffensive fashion. Just don't expect too much from its narrative.

If you see this expecting a grown-up style documentary, you'll be disappointed. It's clearly made for a very young audience, and I think they did a fantastic job in that regard.

The animation was fantastic,it was quite educational, it had characters that the kids fall in love with, and it wasn't too long. My 6 year old has been on a real dino-kick all year, and she was on the edge of her seat for this entire film. She even thought the humor was hilarious. If you like watching your kid really enjoy something, take them to this film. If you want something for the entire family, including grown ups, then you're better off with something else. I see the negative reviews, and I can't help but think that a lot of folks just have the wrong expectations.

In this movie, the dinosaurs talk, and it's so weird when compared to the hyper-realistic CGI. This film also has very unfitting music. If you removed the voiceovers and replaced the music, this would be an actually good film. If I ever rewatch this movie, I'm gonna have to remove the audio, replace the music and sound effects, and remove the scenes with the humans, and the paleontological analysis scenes. And yes, there's a version called "The Cretaceous Cut", which removes the dialog and human scenes, but it still has the unfitting music and paleontological analysis scenes.

I'll be short: Great 3d animation wrapped around a stupid script that even kids found to be idiotic. There... I was a big fan of the show, and had great expectations about this movie. After seen "land before time" and "dinosaur" I expected this movie to raise the bar, both technically and in the narrative department. Wrong. The animation is top notch, not discussion, even better that "dinosaur" that was very good already, but when it came to the screenplay, and those dialogs, man, that was painful to watch. I mean, I saw kids yawning in the theater. A story may be simple, but never boring. Dialogs may be sparse, but entertaining or funny. The dialogs here where just plain dumb, boring and cliché. 5 out of 10 for me.