Best movie of this year hands down!

To me, this movie is perfection.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Steven Spielberg might not be the first thing that comes to mind whenever animation is brought up but, believe it or not, he's actually made a big impact to the industry. He has collaborated on two of Don Bluth's movies, directed The Adventures of Tintin, and produced some of Warner Bros. most famous cartoon shows. He has also formed two animation studios which include the studio Amblimation and its more famous successor, DreamWorks Animation. The former studio only produced three animated movies before closing its doors in 1997 though sadly its films don't really live up to the ones from its successor. I think 'We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" is a good example of why. I originally watched the film when I was about seven or eight years old and had forgotten about it over the years. Upon rewatching it, I realized how bizarre and strange this movie was. It's one of the weirdest animated movies ever made and that's saying a lot given the kind of movies coming out now.The movie follows four dinosaurs in prehistoric times named Rex, Elsa, Dweeb and Woog (John Goodman, Felicity Kendal, Charles Fleischer and Rene LeVant), who have been living ordinary dinosaur lives until a futuristic ship arrives and gives them a breakfast cereal that makes them very intelligent as well as giving them the ability to talk and think. They are then met by the pilot of the ship named Captain Neweyes (Walter Cronkite), who informs them that he is planning on putting them in a live exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History to entertain children. However, before they are zapped into a present day New York City, Neweyes warns the dinosaurs to beware of his crazy evil brother Professor Screweyes (Kenneth Mars). Once they arrive in the Big Apple, the dinosaurs run into two runaway children named Louie and Cecilia (Joey Shea and Yeardley Smith), who plan on joining a circus. From there on out, the dinosaurs are in a crazy journey around the city with bizarre adventures to follow.The film is based off of a children's book written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott. I feel that the source material was just too bizarre and too short for a full-length animated movie. In general, it's a strange somewhat circuitous story to explain, which becomes less about the dinosaurs and more about those two runaway children. It also has too many bizarre moments to even count; notable examples include the films opening scene where Rex is playing golf, and the scene where the dinosaurs are discovered resulting in the police being called in to arrest them. Some of the casting choices also seemed off. Both Walter Cronkite and Julia Child were cast in this movie, but neither seem to fit the roles properly. Although they didn't have lead roles, it felt odd hearing their voices coming out of animated characters. As for the animation, I had some mixed feelings. The scenes were colorful and bouncy, and the character designs are unique and, thankfully, were not an attempt to copy Disney's designs. However, I feel that the digital clean-up could have been better. While watching this movie, it became very clear that the animation was scanned into a computer as I saw pixels around the characters quite a few times. I don't know if this was a home video problem or not, but it was distracting either way. I also felt like they could have spent more time on the character development. The dinosaurs are likable characters and have some quirky charm to them, but they're not as much of the focus as those two children, who are mainly just there to be cute. Louis is your typical 'tough guy' and Cecelia is the stereo-typical girl that is able to melt his heart with her cute looks and nice attitude. Professor Screweyes is also your run-of-the-mill villain; he's just some random evil old guy with no good in him whatsoever. The story would have been much better with an interesting villain. The one thing that was well done was the music composed by the late James Horner. The score is beautiful to listen to and has a sweeping feel to it but it's sadly not enough to hold this movie up."We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" is probably one of the poorest examples of an animated movie with Steven Spielberg's involvement. The film is not horrible per say, but I don't feel it's as strong as any other animated movies he's worked on. The story is very bizarre and strange, the animation looks a little too pixelated, and, in general, the characters are just underdeveloped. I feel that for those that want a stronger animated dinosaur movie with Spielberg's involvement, they should instead look at The Land Before Time and leave this film as a fossil.Note: This review was originally written and published May 7, 2017 for Rotoscopers "Indie-Mation Club".

I just can't see anyone over five truly enjoying Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story simply on its own terms. It's a children's movie that works for nobody but little, little children. Even when they're five, by showing them this movie you could be pushing it. I've stood by my realization and claim that one of the contributing factors to a child's growth, development, and success is their imagination and experience to things other than what they're used to. What you find in this film could easily be substituted by a more ideal episode of PBS's Dragon Tales.The selling point (which also serves as the most surprising name on the project) is executive producer Steven Spielberg, who of course made the other dinosaur movie released in 1993 that deserves no introduction. It's baffling to the mind to think that Spielberg, whose dinosaur epic is now the quintessential motion picture about the ferocious beasts, would want his name stamped all over a kiddie flick with minimal heart and imagination. A better investment would've been to bet on Disney, whose pictures were sweeping up money at the box office like disposed trash. Hell, if he would've waited a few years, Pixar would've been on its way. And then Dreamworks.But what's done is done, and now we have a mediocre children's film on our hands, bearing the name of one of cinema's finest men. Our story revolves around an orange Tyrannosaurus Rex named Rex (voiced by John Goodman) and his dinosaur friends, who run into Louie (Joe Shea) when they are transported in time to present day New York City. Louie is a young boy, who is running away from home to join the circus and feels lonely and helpless in the world as both his parents have neglected him. He then meets Cecilia (voiced by Yeardley Smith - who voices Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons - explaining why her voice sounds like a blend of Lisa's and Cindy Brady's), another neglected soul, leaving Louie with a source of companionship and empathy. That's all well and good, until an evil circus owner (Martin Short) reveals his plans to kidnap the kids, leaving the dinosaurs as their only source of rescue.The plot alone makes this a very strange movie. Certainly not frightening to its target audience, but weird it definitely is, consistently giving us goofy situations, a laughable villain, and a repetitive strain of events before the ends credits roll. There's also a rather bleak color drawing style to the film that had me craving the likes of that polished, fluent Disney style. Certain images (like the character's themselves) seem to be over-colored, the color-palette itself is never consistent, and the cityscapes seem as lifeless as the dinosaurs themselves.And the final point of criticism is the length of the picture, further cementing the fact that We're Back! is as unsubstantial as it is. It credits itself at seventy-two minutes, when in reality, minus the credits (which are slowed down meticulously to try and pass for feature length) it's roughly sixty-five minutes, even making this an inconceivable TV special. The fact that thousands of parents had to nestle in their theater seats for a drab sixty-five minute affair makes me upset in ways just as inconceivable.We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story isn't detrimental to the intelligence of your children the way some franchise are, put it's not particularly vital either. It's a decidedly random film, featuring one modestly-catchy but forgettable song, repetitive events, lame characters, an archetypal villain, and blatantly obvious voice-acting. At least hearing Walter Cronkite will give the parents something to be entertained by.Voiced by: John Goodman, Julia Child, Jay Leno, Martin Short, Walter Cronkite, Joey Shea, and Yeardley Smith. Directed by: Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells.

If you thought, "The Land Before Time", was the only animated film with Dinosaurs, guess again. Because on Thanksgiving Day 1993, there was an animated film called, "We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story". The film was a box-office bomb and got a lot of negative reviews (Yes, Rober Ebert did a review of the film and he didn't like it).The animation in this film was very sloppy, the story and the plot were lame, I didn't care for any of the character's, and the movie was more of an acid trip.But I did like John Goodman and Walter Cronkite's voice acting and the song, "Roll Back the Rock (To The Dawn Of Time)"."We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story", is a lame animated film that is not worth watching at all. If you're looking for a good animated film with Dinosaur's in it, watch, "The Land Before Time".

After the huge success of Jurassic Park, Amblum Entertainment knew that making an animated movie about talking dinosaurs would certainly be a smash hit. Unfortunately, this movie only took in less than 10 million dollars in the USA, and got mostly poor reviews. I can see why the reviews were bad. This is a strange cartoon, and sometimes, for little kids (who this is geared towards), this can be really scary.With the scarce running time of 72 minutes, or 65 without end credits, this flick moves at a brisk speed. It has to introduce the protagonist kids, Louie, the street wise tough kid, with a soft side just dying to get out, and Elsa, the sweet little girl who sounds oddly similar to Lisa Simpson. The dinosaurs have to be introduced, including how they became smart and nice, and what they're doing in New York city, and who brought them there. It has to scare the little kids with the evil Dr. Screweyes, a circus ringmaster who has a screw for an eye (hence the name), and fears the dark. There's much more to the plot too, including a dinosaur circus, which might scare toddlers to death, and an amusing scene where the dinosaurs walk through a parade singing a catchy tune.The animation is quite good in this film, about as good as Disney animation was at the time. The characters are likable, including the dinosaurs, all voiced by television actors, led by John Goodman as Rex, the T-Rex. The story is strange, involving rival brothers, Captain Neweyes, and Professor Screweyes. Neweyes created a cereal to make the dinosaurs less realistic and more cartoony, and Screweyes invented a potion that reverses the effect, which works on any being (including humans). Like many cartoons, this is both corny and cheesy, and parents will be looking up at the ceiling or staring blankly elsewhere to avoid the effects of the corny writing. Kids won't care.Overall, this is an okay movie, but will scare little kids. Parents won't like it, because unlike Disney, Amblum is only catering to the little kids needs, not the parents.My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 72 mins. G.