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, it’s already been a big hit in America, but Sky One has just started to screen it, and it’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 BBC’s ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’ 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 Henson’s creature shop. The cutest of these is ‘Twenty-Six’, a baby Dinosaur given to Karl to rear. ‘Twenty-Six’ 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. It’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 ‘Dinotopia’.
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 can’t escape the island because of the ‘Razor Reef’ that surrounds it. How do we know no one can escape? – Well, have you heard of it before?
But all is not happiness in this ‘Lost World’. There’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 wasn’t enough, Dinotopia faces an even greater danger – the glittering ‘Sunstones’ 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 ‘The Tenth Kingdom’, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Merlin’.
The screenwriter was Simon Moore and I noticed that he used the same joke again – just as Virginia sang ‘We Will Rock You’ to the Trolls in ‘The Tenth Kingdom’; here Karl uses the opening lines of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in an essay on ‘What is my life here?’ So obviously, we can assume he is a ‘Queen’ fan.
Moore based his script on Jim Gurney’s hugely popular children’s book. “The effects budget alone on this is $20 million, which for a TV show is a lot of money,†Moore says.
Dinotopia’s Waterfall City set, is claimed to be the largest ever created for TV. Built on the back-lot at Pinewood Studios, London (where Batman’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
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, it’s already been a big hit in America, but Sky One has just started to screen it, and it’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 BBC’s ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’ 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 Henson’s creature shop. The cutest of these is ‘Twenty-Six’, a baby Dinosaur given to Karl to rear. ‘Twenty-Six’ 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. It’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 ‘Dinotopia’.
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 can’t escape the island because of the ‘Razor Reef’ that surrounds it. How do we know no one can escape? – Well, have you heard of it before?
But all is not happiness in this ‘Lost World’. There’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 wasn’t enough, Dinotopia faces an even greater danger – the glittering ‘Sunstones’ 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 ‘The Tenth Kingdom’, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Merlin’.
The screenwriter was Simon Moore and I noticed that he used the same joke again – just as Virginia sang ‘We Will Rock You’ to the Trolls in ‘The Tenth Kingdom’; here Karl uses the opening lines of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in an essay on ‘What is my life here?’ So obviously, we can assume he is a ‘Queen’ fan.
Moore based his script on Jim Gurney’s hugely popular children’s book. “The effects budget alone on this is $20 million, which for a TV show is a lot of money,†Moore says.
Dinotopia’s Waterfall City set, is claimed to be the largest ever created for TV. Built on the back-lot at Pinewood Studios, London (where Batman’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
My favorite character would have to be 26... hehe...shes a cutie. I've got the made for tv movie on DVD somewhere.
