19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
They Came Back, But Didn't Stay, November 3, 2008
Not unlike everything else produced under Steven Spielberg's Amblimation company, "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" was a critic's punching bag and a rare find for anybody who didn't catch its original release, but even more so than
An American Tail - Fievel Goes West or
Balto, the story of four dinosaurs in New York seems forsaken by popular animation history, with seemingly more people not even having heard of it than otherwise. While the film does have its faults, this is still a lamentable fate for a feature that puts to shame a lot of what's on the market today and the DVD release of which was way overdue.
The story: four dinosaurs - Rex (John Goodman,
Monsters, Inc.), Elsa (Felicity Kendall,
Good Neighbors), Dweeb (Charles Fleischer,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit), and Woog (Rene La Vant) - gain intelligence and are transported across time by the benevolent Captain Neweyes (Walter Cronkite) so they may fulfill the wishes of the children of the modern world. Dropped in New York City, they swiftly befriend Louie (Joey Shea) and Cecilia (Yeardley Smith,
The Simpsons) - two young runaways from opposite sides of the tracks - and find themselves fleeing from panicked grown-ups as they search for the Museum of Natural History...only to find themselves the target of the spooky ringmaster Professor Screweyes (Kenneth Mars,
Young Frankenstein), who harbors sinister plans for the dinosaurs.
"We're Back!" is a children's movie, first and foremost, and was most likely aimed at kids no older than nine or ten. In other words, while there is a decent amount of action, scary parts, and humor, it's all pretty inoffensive. Problems are solved by talking and understanding rather than fighting, and you don't have to be spoiled to know from the start that there's going to be a happy ending. This rather harmless approach carries over to the characters themselves: the dinosaurs are very cuddly, and generally everybody is proved to be very warm-hearted - almost too warm-hearted for me, and probably likewise so for anybody else who grew up watching animated films where peril was commonplace.
The performances and production, overall, tend to be pretty good. In addition to Goodman, Fleischer, Smith, Kendall, and Cronkite, the cast boasts Jay Leno, Martin Short (
Treasure Planet), Julia Child, and Blaze Berdahl (
Ghostwriter) in supporting roles, creating one of the most unique voice ensembles for any film, and they all tend to do good jobs with their roles. Though it retains the trademark big-budget style prevalent in "Fievel" and could still go toe-to-toe with the visuals of a Disney movie at the time, the animation has a flaw: the outlines of human characters' features occasionally stuttering in-between frames - making a nose or mouth look less defined from one second to the next, and on occasion simply disappearing. It's not a debilitating error, but is a bit disappointing to watch happen repeatedly.
What the film does hold in its favor, though, is its ability to inspire the inner child. I know it sounds corny, but consider: who hasn't dreamed of having a special friend that no one else had or seeing a real dinosaur in your own backyard, or having that dinosaur as a special friend? That wonderful ability to warm hearts that producer Steven Spielberg forsook when he began to tackle adult fare is well at work here, with New York City seeming as magical a place as any wonderland before it became associated with real-life disasters. The film pulls off the nostalgia factor incredibly, taking us back to a time before animation turned to 3D and we had
Shrek shoved down our throats. I'm not sure how much this means to other people, but this aspect saved the movie for me.
In all, it's not difficult to see why "We're Back!" didn't do very well when it was first released, but why it remains so largely unremembered continues to perplex me. Disregard the technicalities of my three-star rating and know that the film's strengths outweigh its faults effectively, and that the movie is a secret opus for fans of classical animation. Don't deprive yourself - give it a look.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
gee, I wish I had a friend .... words like thoughs may land you with a Dinosaur troop to call your own, June 28, 2009
We're Back is one of those films which stays with you. It is a lovely film and has a great deal of depth; you have the brothers who went two different ways, one devoted his life to making his contribution to society and ultimately ended enriching his world for the benefit of all as a result of such single mindedness and the other sort to exploit the worst aspects of our nature, embittered and hateful towards all that makes life wholesome and wonderful; this is the back story, a story built on choice, we all have the choice, not the same choices are ready to everyone but at some level we all can make those choices which are either helpful to us and to those around us, we don't have to be the victims unless those circumstances are so terrible we literally have no choice at all, but for the film, the characters can choose to over come their primal natures and not give into a path which will destroy them and others, in this sense it is a very deep film as it handles something very big and delivers it back to the audience. There are other references which animators will spot, legalities which put you in mind of their industry which have very cruel loop holes which oppress talent in the work place and obvious references about drugs and saying no are there and being a good person is enough at the end for any life, even references to cereal foods which are able to enhance our intelligence are included here and scientists believe they can do that now .... well, we'll see.
The music is excellent, composed by James Horner and features a great song sung by John Goodman, "Roll Back the Rock", it can't help but make you smile as it is very delightful and amusing.
The film is wonderful work, the drawing quality does not always live up to a high standard through out but it is a top quality film and if you love it that much you can buy it's original wide screen version from America on amazon.
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