Studio:
Walt Disney Pictures
Producer:
Pam Marsden
Directors:
Eric Leighton, Ralph Zondag
Co-Producer:
Baker Bloodworth
Editor:
H. Lee Peterson
Production
Design: Walter P. Martishius
Effects
Supervisor: Tom Bryant, Neil Krepela
Musical
Score: James Newton Howard
Voice
Cast: Ossie Davis, Della Reese, Joan Plowright,
D.B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Samuel E. Wright, Julianna Margulies, Hayden Panettiere,
Pete Siragusa
Synopsis: Combining state-of-the-art computer character animation with stunning digitally-enhanced live-action backgrounds, Walt Disney Feature Animation transports moviegoers back to prehistoric times for an incredible adventure involving dinosaurs. An action-filled drama with elements of humor, Walt Disney Pictures' Dinosaur focuses on the journey of a three-ton Iguanodon named Aladar, who is raised from the egg by a clan of lemurs and eventually reunited with his own kind. With flaming meteors devastating the landscape and water in diminishing supply, the dinosaurs find themselves in a race against time to reach the safety of their nesting grounds. When Aladar comes to the aid of a group of misfits unable to keep up with the breakneck pace of the herd, he makes an enemy of Kron, the stone-hearted leader of the group. Faced with such perils as treacherous rock slides and attacking Carnotaurs, Aladar and his friends must overcome tremendous obstacles before they can settle into a new life in a beautiful valley. This remarkable film represents a major advance for computer animation and Disney's in-house feature debut in this medium.
Awards:
Domestic
Release Date: May 19th, 2000
Budget:
$ 200 million +
Comments:
From the program for the 1997 Australian
Effects and Animation Festival: In dazzling photo realistic style, Dinosaur
recreates a critical moment in prehistory when the greatest beasts the world
has ever known gave way to the most unlikely creatures of all - the ancestors
of man. In this CGI landmark film, Disney explores one of history's most compelling
dramas.
George Scribner, left the project and was
replaced by story head Thom Enriquez.
Disney has animated the film in a very original way. Most CG flicks (i.e. Toy Story) are animated with an animator (or two) taking an individual shot and animating all the characters in that shot. For Dinosaur, Disney has used a process similar to that used for traditional animation. A Lead Animator will do the main motion of the character, then pass the shot off for an Assistant Animator to do the secondary motion (fingers, toes, etc.) and check for objects passing through each other (intersections).
Actor D. B. Sweeney (Fire in the Sky) voices the main character. Kiefer Sutherland, Juliana Margulies, Joan Plowright and Alfre Woodard are also involved in the project. Sweeney said the dinosaurs in the movie would be CG, while the environments would be filmed on location in various settings, like the jungles of Kauai. The film wouldn't be as scary as Jurassic Park (he kept comparing it more to Toy Story), but it would feature as a major plot point the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Sweeney's character sounds pretty strange -- he said he played a dinosaur who had been raised by lemurs who becomes a sort of saurian Moses and leads the lemurs to safety after the asteroid ends the age when his own kind ruled the earth. Through the Sweeney dino's efforts, the mammals are then free to take over higher niches of the ecosphere of the earth.
Dinosaur claimed a victim the penultimate week of march 98. 31-year-old Mathew Gordy, was filming live-action background plates for the computer-animated dinosaurs to roam on when a part of the equipment came into contact with power lines electrocuting Gordy. Another worker, 33-year-old David Riggio, was also injured on the set. The filming of the movie was taking place off Highway 178 in Poison Canyon in the Mojave Desert, which is a couple hundred miles from downtown Los Angeles. Disney officials extended their "deepest sympathies" to Gordy's family and heartfelt concerns and best wishes'' to Riggio. Disney has stopped all filming on the set until they determine how the accident happened. This film marks the first time that Disney Feature Animation is tackling computer-animation and thus far the results have been rather disastorous.
Dinosaur is a gamble creatively
as well as economically. For those willing to work within the confines of established
technologies, computers allow producers to make films faster and more cheaply.
But in the case of the highly ambitious Dinosaurs, Disney has learned
that pushing the creative envelope comes at a price of about $200 million. Although
it was known that Disney had set up a special unit at the former Lockheed Martin
aircraft plant in Burbank to work on the film, the scale of the project had
not been previously reported.
The realism of the dinosaurs, particularly
their eyes, was said to be extraordinary. Others who saw assembled footage marvelled
over images of lemur monkeys with long flowing hair, a tough cel in silicon.
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This unofficial Dinosaur site is maintained by Pau Perez. All the pics and stuff are ©Walt Disney Pictures.