# Dinotopia



## Dave (Sep 11, 2002)

Anyone seen this?

This is a world where Dinosaurs have survived to live in peace and harmony, with the human descendents shipwreck survivors. Or at least most of them do.

It's ideal for my son, who likes anything about Dinosaurs. So, I was forced into watching it with him. Apparently, itâ€™s already been a big hit in America, but Sky One has just started to screen it, and itâ€™s on Channel 4 in the UK later this year [2002].

The Dinosaurs fly, swim, lay eggs, work machines, pull vehicles and interact with the humans, The animation is good; the same team that made the BBCâ€™s â€˜Walking With Dinosaursâ€™ made it, only these Dinosaurs can speak. That was the only problem -- the lip movements seemed out of synch with the voices. 

The Dinosaurs not only speak Saurian languages, but some speak several human languages too. Almost all the creatures are computer generated and do not exist except on screen, apart from a few special ones made by Jim Hensonâ€™s creature shop. The cutest of these is â€˜Twenty-Sixâ€™, a baby Dinosaur given to Karl to rear. â€˜Twenty-Sixâ€™ is actually a very delicate little machine controlled by two operators using hidden transmitters to move his eyes, mouth and tail.

But, it also had a fairly adult story, the character interactions, especially between the two brothers was well conceived. Itâ€™s pure Fantasy, obviously, in a very Jules Verne kind of way.

Teenage half-brothers Karl and David Scott (Tyron Leitso and Wentworth Miller) have the same Dad. They are flying off on holiday with him when they took over the controls of their father Frank's (Stuart Wilson) plane, and it crashes in a freak storm in the Caribbean. Their father is killed but the boys, both spoiled brats, survive. They discover they have been washed up on the shores of a mysterious continental island called â€˜Dinotopiaâ€™.

Comedian Lee Evans voices the neurotic Stenonychosaurus Librarian, Zippo. There is a human love interest in the shape of Marion (Katie Carr), the daughter of the Mayor of Waterfall City, capital of Dinotopia. Naturally, both brothers fall for her. And everyone is a Vegetarian. And you canâ€™t escape the island because of the â€˜Razor Reefâ€™ that surrounds it. How do we know no one can escape? â€“ Well, have you heard of it before?

But all is not happiness in this â€˜Lost Worldâ€™. Thereâ€™s a constant threat from terrifying-flesh eating Dinosaurs such as T-Rex, and also from human outlaws set on stirring up trouble.

If that wasnâ€™t enough, Dinotopia faces an even greater danger â€“ the glittering â€˜Sunstonesâ€™ that power everything, are mysteriously failing, and a dark and dangerous force threatens the land. And what lies below ground in the secret caverns.

It was designed as the pilot for a proposed weekly ABC adventure series. Co-produced by Disney Television and Hallmark Entertainment, the producer was Robert Halmi, who produced â€˜The Tenth Kingdomâ€™, â€˜Gulliverâ€™s Travelsâ€™,  â€˜The Odysseyâ€™ and â€˜Merlinâ€™.

The screenwriter was Simon Moore and I noticed that he used the same joke again â€“ just as Virginia sang â€˜We Will Rock Youâ€™ to the Trolls in â€˜The Tenth Kingdomâ€™; here Karl uses the opening lines of â€˜Bohemian Rhapsodyâ€™ in an essay on â€˜What is my life here?â€™ So obviously, we can assume he is a â€˜Queenâ€™ fan.

Moore based his script on Jim Gurneyâ€™s hugely popular childrenâ€™s book. â€œThe effects budget alone on this is $20 million, which for a TV show is a lot of money,â€ Moore says. 

Dinotopiaâ€™s Waterfall City set, is claimed to be the largest ever created for TV. Built on the back-lot at Pinewood Studios, London (where Batmanâ€™s Gotham City once stood) it takes up more than 20,000sq. Metres, and uses more than six miles of scaffolding. But, the waterfalls are all cgi too.

_Links_
http://www.dinotopia.com/
http://www.dinotopia.com/movie.html
http://www.visitdinotopia.com/Dinotopia_flash.html
http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/movies/dinotopia/
http://www.blockbuster.com/bb/movie/details/0,7286,VID-V+++263844,00.html


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## Dave (Sep 19, 2002)

No one watching this really?

It's good to find something you can enjoy with your kids, thats why 'The Tenth Kingdom' was good too.

The second episode was a little darker than the first. David and Karl meet Marion's mother -- played by Alice Kriege -- the 'Borg Queen' in Star Trek 'First Contact'.

While Karl is pronounced to be 'of the Earth' and gets to hatch out '26', David is 'of the Sky' and has to cure his fear of heights to fly on the flying reptiles in Canyon City.

Karl has already stolen a book for the David Threwell character, now he agrees to steal a sunstone in return for a map to leave Dinotopia in a boat he has repaired.


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## Dave (Sep 22, 2002)

*Final part.*

The third and final installment was the best. I don't want to spoil, but it did have some twists, maybe obvious ones, and the secrets of 'The World Beneath' and the origin of the 'Sunstones' was revealed.

Sadly though, it is a dead dinosaur! It is no more....

The second series has been cancelled....



> SCIFI WIRE -- Dinotopia Extinct?
> 
> The Hollywood Reporter, citing anonymous sources, said that ABC will pull Dinotopia from its schedule after its Dec. 26 episode. The network has a football game scheduled for the following week. After that, it plans to run movies in the Thursday 8-10 p.m. period, the trade paper reported.
> 
> Dinotopia, a live-action/computer-animated series based on James Gurney's popular illustrated books, has struggled in the ratings since its debut in November. Dinotopia initially aired as a three-part miniseries in May.


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## HeyLynny (May 13, 2003)

I really enjoyed this when it aired as a TV movie (not the series).  I still have it on tape.  And, as you can see by my alien names, I even named one of my aliens after "Zippo".


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## Dave (May 13, 2003)

Can you explain how this was shown in the US? I'm confused.

Here in the UK on Sky One and Ch4 we had a three part series last year. Now Sky One is heavily promoting a 'new series' -- this must be the cancelled second series -- how many episodes of that were made?


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## HeyLynny (May 14, 2003)

First there was a TV movie.  It aired in 3 parts.  It was great!  Then, a few months later a weekly TV series of Dinotopia aired with different actors.  It flopped.


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## ray gower (Jun 7, 2003)

Would last years Sky offering have been the mini-series?

The Dinotopia site claims Hallmark/Disney created a mini-series and a weekly series.

Either way the two shows I have seen are actually quite good, if a bit Disney in simplicity. Certainly a better effort than 'Lost World'. 
I will follow its progress with interest.


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## HeyLynny (Jun 23, 2003)

The good one was the mini series.  It aired over a 3 night span.  That was AWESOME!!!!  The series was just once a week and the show was just an hour long.


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## Arc_Angel (Jun 28, 2003)

I've watched a couple of these eps on Sky One, but I never liked em that much, not my thing!


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## philoSCIFI (Jul 22, 2004)

My favorite character would have to be 26... hehe...shes a cutie. I've got the made for tv movie on DVD somewhere.

When the show came out, I had a feeling it was going to flop. Too bad though, I think the general plot idea was good. It might have been a little corny, but it _was_ a family movie. :rolly2:


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## FeedMeTV (Sep 4, 2004)

Dinotoia is a pet favourite of mine because nobody I spoke to had ever heard of it or if they did gave me a very withering look that said "You realise you're pathetic don't you?" 

I saw the film ages ago and then a few episodes of the series but I never noticed it agin in the tv guide. I'm a little confused though... so there was a mini-series and a proper series? Have both these been in the UK?


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## Dave (Sep 5, 2004)

In the UK we got it shown as two mini-series -- the first one was in three parts (I didn't watch the second one so can't comment on it.) I think it may have been shown differently in the US (which is why people talk about it being a film.) I hope that helps.


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## FeedMeTV (Sep 5, 2004)

I see, thank you. I'll keep an eye out for it then and maybe it'll be back.


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