[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."

[MOVIE REVIEW] The Thief and the Cobbler (Miramax Version) (1993)

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Title: The Thief and the Cobbler

Starring:  Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Beals, Jonathan Winters, Vincent Price

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Romance / Adventure

Company:   Miramax

Directed by: Richard Williams

Year: 1993

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated G

Buy on:  Amazon

The movie starts off with a young and poor cobbler named Tack, who was living a peaceful life until he met up with a thief and it was then that his life changed forever.  When Tack accidentally interrupts a parade in honor of Zigzag the Vizier, Zigzag then puts Tack into jail and all would have been lost for Tack if Princess Yum Yum had not fallen in love with the cobbler.  To make matters worse, the thief ends up stealing the three golden balls that were protecting the kingdom from One-Eye's army and Tack and the Princess ended up going on a journey to retrieve the balls before it's too late!

I will admit that when I first heard about this movie, I wasn't that interested in it because I was a little freaked out by the character designs.  But, after watching this movie, I ended up enjoying it a lot more because of the creativity being put into this film!  Now, I know a lot of people had complained about this movie being too similar to Disney's Aladdin, but in all honesty, the idea of this movie actually surfaced WAY before Disney's Aladdin came along (it was established in the 1960s actually)!  The sad story behind it though was that the film didn't get released until the 1990s and by then, there were a lot of changes to the movie that differed heavily from the original vision (luckily, there's a recobbled version of this film out there, that I will hopefully see soon)!  The voice acting was very well done in this version of the original script, especially with Jonathan Winters providing inner quips for the thief himself and I also loved the character designs, as they were quite bizarre yet creative to look at!  Probably, one of my most favorite scenes in the movie was the famous chase scene between the thief and Tack as it shows just how bizarre this film can get at times!

My biggest issue with this version of the movie was that there seems to be too much narration and inner monologues with the characters in places that they don't really need to talk and that distracted me from the movie at certain points.

Overall, "The Thief and the Cobbler (Miramax Version)" is a treat to check out if you are looking for a more fun loving version of Richard Williams' original classic!

[MOVIE REVIEW] Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)

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Title: Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Starring:  Edward Asner,  James Earl Jones, Don Knotts, and Scott Grimes

Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Fairy Tale /  Remake 

Company:  Filmation Associates

Directed by: Hal Sutherland

Year: 1987

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated G

Buy on:  N/A

This movie is basically a sequel to the original “Pinocchio” and the movie starts off with Gepetto giving Pinocchio a jewel box to take to the Mayor. As Pinocchio goes to town to deliver the jewel box, he meets up with Igor and Scalawag, two con artists who eventually convince Pinocchio to give them the jewel box, which ends up getting Pinocchio into trouble with Gepetto.  Pinocchio was so upset about disappointing his father that he decided to run away and get the jewel box back.  It was then that Pinocchio ended up getting into all kinds of strange and frightening situations such as meeting the frightening Puppetino at the circus and eventually meeting up with the Emperor of the Night!

Now, when I heard that Filmation was making a sequel to the famous Italian classic "Pinocchio," I was quite surprised and satisfied with the results!  I loved the fact that there was a sequel to "Pinocchio" to begin with since I did wonder what Pinocchio's adventures would be like after he was transformed into a real boy and we managed to get one in this movie!  I honestly like the dark and edgy feel of this film as it really grabbed my interest and some scenes (like the infamous puppet transformation scene) had really stayed with me ever since I was little!  The voice acting was fantastic in this film as all the voice actors really gave everything they got for this film.  Probably my favorite voice acting was from James Earl Jones as the Emperor of the Night as he made the character extremely scary and mysterious and I was really interested in the character!  The animation is surprisingly better than what we usually get with Filmation as the characters move much fluidly and the action sequences were quite well done!

The only problem with this film was that it seemed like the plot was a rehash of the original Pinocchio story as we still get a storyline about Pinocchio trying to figure out what is right and wrong, having a conscience who would guide him and having two con artists scam him and get him into more trouble.  The only thing that was actually different in this story was the Emperor of the Night as he proved to be scarier than the previous villains in "Pinocchio."

Overall, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is a great film for anyone who is a huge fan of Filmation's works and who wants to see how the story of "Pinocchio" would continue.