Customer Reviews

Dinotopia - The Series

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

DINOTOPIA THE SERIES is another in the long line of television shows that were cancelled before they could fully blossom. It is not by any means a deep, revelatory, challenging show. If you are looking for accurate, Issac Asimov-style sci-fi... it ain't here. What we're talking about is just an entertaining, fun show. Some of the episodes could have been better, but overall... it was fun watching it. It was way better than I expected... with good continuity from the miniseries. You get lots of dino action (great effects), neat production design, and a good cast. The characters are interesting. Originally I thought I would have a problem with the new actors (all are totally different from the mini-series), but I quickly grew to like them. One thing... this show is not aimed at kids... its really for teenagers and up. Nothing bad in it that I wouldn't show my 5 year old niece. If you like LAND OF THE LOST, then you'll enjoy this series. And it's a bargain .... 13 episodes for a great price. The only thing is that the last episode ends with a huge cliff-hanger, and we'll never know what would have happened because ABC axed the show. But then, I guess it wouldn't hurt us to use our brains to come up with our own ending, right? Bottom line... great price, many hours of enjoyment, good characters.. and great dinosaurs. What more do you want?

In other Hallmark shows, at least they had an ending for the series(Merlin,Alice in wonderland, etc..), but the ending for this series left the viewer hanging, and i hate when a series does that. I was hoping to see if they had a second season on here of dinotopia: the series, but to no avail, i have found none. Verry dissappointing...

I'm into the second DVD and had to pause to register a bit of disappointment. The TV series spinoff is beautifully filmed, with all the believability that the CGI dinos produced in the miniseries. But true to the books or even the miniseries it is not, and I found it a little disturbing that instead of "breathe deep, seek peace", this version of Dinotopia is concentrating more on the human violence and vices of the outside world than the one created by James Guerney. As for the intelligent dinosaurs, I thought there would be more roles for them, but instead we get the soap opera love triangle, constantly rampaging T. Rexes, a Matriarch who goes from a pillar of strength to a bit of a wimp, and focus on lawless group of brigands (an entire clan, led by a Xena-like female outlaw, had to replace the Crabbs I guess). I mean, the stories are interesting. But there are a lot of disappointments if you were really expecting the magic to continue.

I purchased Dinotopia the Series for my 11 year old son. He had just finished reading the book that the series was based on for a school project. He just loved the series, as did I. I would recommend this as a good family series.

My son (now 10) and our family fell in love with the original Emmy award winning Dinotopia mini-series with it's 'all star' cast. That's also available as two DVD set edited into a superb long film with interesting 'making of' extras. My son absolutely couldn't tolerate this spin off series when they changed all the actors, and has only just started watching it a year or two after we bought it on DVD. He really likes the series now (as he admits he has forgotten what the orginal cast were like).

This Dinotopia series has a more jocular mood with the old charactor's presented in a more likeable way than the original moody and angry or pious (bordering on pompous in the Mayor's case) tone of the original. However I preferred the darker original style, and missed classy Brit's Katie Carr and Jim Carter as the Dinotopians and American's Wentworth Miller and David Thewlis as the believable in-fighting step-brother's coping with their sudden change of lifestyle and recent loss of their father. I also really, really missed Lee Evans as dinosaur Zippo's voice, Terry Jone's as the messenger's birds voice and Tyron Leitso as hustler Cyrus Crabb. However I really like the fact this Dinotopia series DVD set has all the episodes listed seperately so that the cliffhanger, end music and titles remain, greatly helping to set the pace. I felt the merging of the original mini-series into a single very long film on DVD was less succesful than keeping the episodes seperate as screened - which also allows an episode before bed-time for the kids.

The 'unknown' new cast of this spin-off series make a good go of it though, but I do find the change of mood and cast very annoying. I wish they had just bought in completely new character's with this new cast and ignored the previous mini-series. But of course any Dinotopia is better than nothing. Other than the whinges above, this is a very fun series, less serious and Dino-preaching than the original and with more of the Pirate's of the Caribbean feel (as it now has pirates). It is therefore probably well suited to older pre-teens and young teenagers (probably boys mainly). Once we get going, I'm sure we'll all enjoy the series, as on TV we kept missing vital episodes. This 3 DVD set has all 13 episodes listed separately plus a few 'featurettes' on making Dinotopia etc... So overall, very recommended, particularly as no more promised Dinotopia seems to have materialised. We got it very cheap via Amazon resellers.

I love this movie, it is long and a great story and it really does give a look into a mystical "what if" world. My children adore it and the dinosaurs are so life like!

Really wished they would continue this series as the kids loved the movie.
There is a bit of static on the Intro for every episode, but other than that a great all around movie.

I had never seen the TV show so my expectations were for more dinosaur action. I was disappointed that the story line was really for older kids than my grandchildren who were watching it (3-5 yrs.)and there is very little dinosaur action. Nothing wrong with this for the right audience.

We love this DVD. Our grandsons spent the weekend with us and just loved the movie. My husband and I watch this movie at least once a year just for the joy. Small toddlers may get scared by some of the scenes. I would keep it to 6 years and older.

My kids really enjoyed the movie, so when I saw that there was a series made, I thought it would be great too, especially since Hallmark made both of them. Well, I was disappointed to see that the series did not stick to some of the original themes of the movie, new characters, and alot more gore. They still did not show alot of blood, but it was too scary for my youngest to watch and I was nervous about a couple of the next youngest having nightmares. So far we only have viewed the first two episodes, and I'm afraid the remainder will only be viewed by my older ones. Such a shame as the original was enjoyed by all of us.