[MOVIE REVIEW] We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)

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Title: We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

Starring:  John Goodman, Rhea Perlman, Jay Leno, Julia Child

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Adventure / Science Fiction

Company:   Universal Pictures

Directed by: Phil Nibbelink, Simon Wells, Dick Zondag and Ralph Zondag

Year: 1993

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated G

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

The movie starts off with a young bird wanting to run away from home because he got embarrassed by his mother coddling him in front of his brothers.  But then, the young bird meets up with a tyrannosaur named...Rex and Rex then starts telling the little bird about how he and the other dinosaurs came to New York City.  When a kindly inventor named Captain NewEyes brings the dinosaurs from their era and gave them a cereal brand called "Brain Grain" in order to make the dinosaurs smarter, he sends the dinosaurs on a mission to get to the Museum of Natural History.  When the dinosaurs finally reach New York City, they meet up with two kids named Louie, who is a young boy with a tough attitude and Cecilia, a young girl who comes from a rich family. The two kids then accompany the dinosaurs to the Museum of Natural History, but unfortunately, they meet up the evil Professor ScrewEyes, who wants to turn the dinosaurs back into their feral states in order to showcase them in his terrifying eccentric circus.

I will admit that when I first heard about this movie, I wasn't that excited to watch it and I actually was afraid to watch it the first time.  But, then I finally caved into this movie and I ended up enjoying it!  I loved the way that this film explored the importance of family and friendship as the dinosaurs' friendship with Louie and Cecilia is what helps them make it on their journey to the Museum of National History and help them try to resist the evil temptations of Professor ScrewEyes.  I also really loved the voice acting in this movie as all the voice actors gave it their all in voicing these characters.  John Goodman did a fantastic job at voicing Rex as he makes Rex have a booming sounding voice while having a gentle tone to his voice to show Rex's kind nature.  Yeardley Smith did a great job at voicing Cecilia as she made Cecilia sound so adorable.  The animation was also fantastic as it was quite ahead of its time and I especially loved the scenes of New York City being lighted up as the lights look so gorgeous.  The late James Horner's music was the highlight of this film as it sounds so beautiful and uplifting and I always wanted to get the soundtrack for this film!

Some of the issues that I have with this film is that there is a lack of character development.  There are some characters that weren't quite fleshed out, like Professor ScrewEyes himself and I wanted to learn more about the backstories of these characters, so I would have a better understanding of them.  Also, there were times where the themes of this movie were a bit clunky in its execution, like the theme of family in this film.  I can see how Rex is trying to teach the little bird at the beginning of the film about the importance of family since Louie and Cecilia both had family problems of their own and it connects with the little bird's predicament.  But, I don't see how the family theme connects with the dinosaurs themselves since they never really mentioned their own families to Louie and Cecilia and the movie never really implied that the dinosaurs considered each other as a family.

Overall, "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" is a great film for anyone who loves films that deal with dinosaurs and for anyone who is looking for a more family-friendly version of "Jurassic Park."