Dinotopia (2002) Review
Growing up in the early 2000’s, dinosaurs were a constant
source of entertainment in films and on television. In 2002, the big TV event
of the year was Dinotopia, based on
the books by James Gurney. I saw less than half of it when it first aired, but
it enthralled me, and captivated many viewers who were fans of the source
material, as well as those just tuning in to see some dinos, like myself. This
first live-action adaptation has fallen into obscurity somewhat since it
premiered nearly twenty years ago, but I think it’s worth remembering, and
still worth seeing all these years later even if you haven’t before.
The premise of the first book, Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, is Arthur Denison and his son
Will become shipwrecked and taken to an unknown island where dinosaurs have
escaped extinction, and live in harmony with humans. The dinosaurs are
intelligent and able to speak, but look exactly like their prehistoric
counterparts, and the culture is an amalgamation of many different cultures,
with unique laws, beliefs, and symbiotic relationships between the various
species. The book presents itself like a lost journal—fiction to be taken as
non-fiction—documenting Arthur’s exploration of the island and his
participation with the Dinotopians. I loved the Dinotopia movie so much when I first saw it I used to walk through
the forest and pretend I was in Dinotopia, watching all the different species,
interacting with the friendly herbivores and running away from the hungry
carnivores, writing little factoids about the creatures I saw in my notebook. I
had no idea at the time the source material upon which the show was based had
been written in a similar manner.
I don’t even know how to classify the Dinotopia miniseries, because it isn’t really your typical
miniseries or TV movie. It’s a colossal four hours long, and was shown in three
parts, advertised as a multi-part TV event, but the DVD presents it as one long
film split over two discs. It was produced by the Hallmark channel in
association with Disney, and doesn’t directly adapt the original book or any of
the subsequent sequels written by Gurney or other writers, but it sort of
functions as a sequel to the books, with the descendants of characters playing
important roles and references made to Arthur Denison’s journals.
The film wastes no time getting the main characters to the
island. Estranged brothers David Scott (Wentworth Miller) and Karl Scott (Tyron
Leitso) accompany their father on a flight in a small aircraft and get caught
in a storm, resulting in them crashing into the sea. Their father disappears
beneath the waves along with the plane, but they manage to swim to shore. This
is one change from the books that I really like. In the first book, the main
characters are said to be rescued by dolphins, which I found kind of odd, but
then it goes a step further in explaining that every person who has ever come to Dinotopia was brought by
dolphins. It’s too silly of an idea for me to buy, even in a story about
talking dinosaurs, so I’m glad they left that piece of lore out. David and Karl
are certain their father is still alive, so they look for help, and first meet
Cyrus Crabb, played by David Thewlis, who ends up being the main human
antagonist of the film. Thewlis actually gets top billing in the end credits,
and rightfully so, because he’s by far the best actor in the whole cast. My
comments on David and Karl are not as kind…
Wentworth Miller is best known for shows like Prison Break and Legends of Tomorrow, and he’s mostly well-liked, but let’s be
honest here: he is a bad actor. Not
terrible, per say, but sort of likably bad, in the same way Keanu Reeves or
Nicholas Cage sometimes are. His lines are delivered with totally artificial
emotion, and his reactions are way too casual. I’m not picking on Wentworth
Miller though, because Tyron Leitso is not much better. While neither actor
does a great job, the characters are still likable enough protagonists. David
is the goody-good book worm who is excited to learn about Dinotopia customs and
culture, and Karl is the rebellious lone wolf who doesn’t want to conform to
Dinotopia traditions. They are completely cliché, but, again, it works. This is
a fantasy tale with talking dinosaurs based on illustrated books intended for
all ages, so I’ll forgive some familiar narrative conventions.
David and Karl befriend Marion (Katie Carr) who accompanies
them to Dinotopia’s capital, Waterfall City, on a Brachiosaurus bus. She is the
daughter of Waterfall City’s mayor, and has a great affinity for dinosaurs,
helping out an Ankylosaurus with a
toothache in her first scene. During the night they are attacked by a pack of Tyrannosaurus rex, which destroy the
village and almost eat them, but the Tyrannosaurs are fended off by Skybax
riders: Dinotopians who fly on the backs of Pterosaurs known as Skybax (in real
life: Quetzacoatlus). The T-rex
attack is a genuinely thrilling sequence, but the tyrant lizard king doesn’t
make another appearance for the rest of the runtime, which I found
disappointing. It would’ve been nice to have them return for the ending, but
instead it’s nothing but thousands of Pteranodon,
which are the villainous flying counterparts to the Skybax and don’t show up
until later in the story.
Karl and David make it to Waterfall City, where they meet
the mayor, a portly goof who is dressed like a literal clown. Their requests to
have help finding their lost father are denied, and they are not allowed to
leave Dinotopia, either, which rattles Karl and leads him to scheming with
Cyrus Crabb in order to escape. They are accommodated by the librarian Zippo,
who is a six-foot-tall Stenonychosaurus
that speaks English (as well as a few other languages). Zippo is the kind of cgi
character who could have been terrible like Jar-Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels, but he is great.
He’s meticulous, curious, and speaks with a posh British accent. His voice
reminded me of Tucker’s from There’s
Something About Mary, and it turns out the same actor performed both roles.
While the cgi definitely doesn’t hold up by today’s standards and was
questionable in regards to its realism even at the time of release, remember
that audiences had only seen Gollum for the first time in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers the same year this TV movie came
out. 
Speaking of the visuals for a moment, I find them mostly
charming, but sometimes disappointing. Keeping in mind this was made for TV,
the world-building is pretty extensive and well-realized, especially
considering how elaborate the world is. Waterfall City alone is a visual feast
of stone structures and hundreds of people walking among dinosaurs wearing
colourful robes and decorations. The artwork from the books is very
respectfully recreated for the screen, with some shots looking like they were
taken right out of the book. The colour palettes are nearly exactly like those
of Gurney’s paintings and illustrations, and the designs of the dinosaurs are
comparable to his as well. 
The cgi is pretty consistent throughout, and the method used
for the creatures (practical effects in quick close-ups and cgi used for
full-body shots) was typical for the time, though the practical effects are a
little stiff and rubbery. I’d say the cgi quality is between the award-winning
quality of Walking with Dinosaurs and
the crappy quality of The Lost World TV
series (both of those programs predating Dinotopia
by only three years) though is closer to Walking
with Dinosaurs. Dinotopia also
won awards for best visuals and the same studio did the cgi for both programs,
though ultimately Dinotopia’s are very
dated and don’t hold up super well today.
David and Karl butt heads often and they end up accidentally
discovering an old temple in a swamp guarded by vicious mosasaurs that look
more like ancient crocodiles than the real prehistoric creature. The swamp
scenes are exciting, but around the second hour mark, our heroes end up at a
farm with Marion’s mother, and this whole part of the movie drags the most.
They spend way too long at the farm, and once David leaves to go train as a
Skybax rider—a position he certainly seems ill-suited to at first—the story
picks up the pace once again. Karl ends up having to adopt a baby dinosaur (a
“saurian life partner”) which he names 26, because it was the 26th
egg in its clutch and the only one to survive. 26 is a cute baby Chasmosaurus, though is incorrectly
called a Chasmiosaurus. There’s one
scene with 26 that always gets me in the feels. Karl is trying to escape the
island by taking a boat out past the razor reef, which is what prevents boats
from leaving Dinotopia, and 26 chases after him because the infant has
imprinted on him, going so far as to leap into the ocean, forcing Karl to
abandon ship and swim back to shore to save the little creature’s life.
A key mystical item in Dinotopia
is the sun stone, which is a crystal that emits light as bright as the sun, and
many of these sun stones are used to power Dinotopia and repress the darkness
and evil forces that threaten to overthrow the utopian world. These stones
become relevant to the plot later on, and it’s revealed the sun stones are
failing. Once they’re gone, it could be the end of Dinotopia, but the mythical
place known as “the world beneath” may hold the key to saving everyone.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I have to comment on it. Being
such a long movie, it has its ups and downs, but it builds well to a
high-stakes climax. However, it isn’t that exciting of a conclusion in terms of
action, especially when thinking back to earlier sections such as the Skybax
training or the Tyrannosaurus attack.
In fact, the whole ending feels a little rushed, which is a shame because the
rest of the movie is extremely well-paced, especially for something so long.
It’s still an emotionally satisfying ending though, and still makes it feel
worth watching all the way through.
Dinotopia
is an epic fantasy adventure that the whole family can enjoy, and I think it’s
still worth watching today despite being dated in multiple ways and lacking in
quality in a few areas. Apparently the idea of doing it as a
theatrically-released movie was toyed with for years before this adaptation
came to fruition, and I’d like to see it on the big screen one day, but I
understand the challenges writers would face in encapsulating so much lore into
a constrained two-hour feature. This version was an interesting experiment in
TV movies—it’s more than a miniseries, but a little less than a
theatrically-worthy film. There was an actual TV series that followed in the
wake of this one, but it didn’t click with viewers and was cancelled after one
season without all the episodes even airing. The characters were all recast and
the effects were of even lower quality. I’ve never seen it, and probably never
will. If you or anyone in your family is a dinosaur fan, I think Dinotopia is definitely worth checking
out. Just reserve a couple evenings on a weekend, watch it in two halves, and
have a fun time. 