Dinotopia (2002) Review

 

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 26^th 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.