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DINOTOPIA: THE SERIES

 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Starring: Michael Brandon, Jonathan Hyde, Georgina Rylance, Shiloh Strong, Erik Von Detten, Sophie Ward, Lisa Zane
Director: Mario Azzopardi, Mike Fash, David Winning
Rating: PG
Year Made: 2002

 


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Format: VCD
No. of Discs: 13
Approx 546 mins

 

 


SYNOPSIS:

Following in the thundering footsteps of the groundbreaking megaseries television event, Dinotopia, comes Dinotopia: The Series, the extraordinary odyssey of a 21st-century family stranded in an amazing prehistoric utopia. But beneath Dinotopia's surface, dangers brew. Through it all endures the boundless imagination, courage and awesome wonder of a family lost in time- the last hope for the world on the verge of extinction.

DRAMA REVIEW :

Billed as a groundbreaking series of magnificent sets and state-of-the-art effects, “Dinotopia” was reportedly one of TV’s most expensive productions when it debuted in 2002. If you’re wondering why we haven’t heard of it until now, it’s because the series was also one of TV’s biggest flops – released in the States on ABC’s primetime slot, “Dinotopia” got cancelled after six episodes, leaving seven unaired. An amateurish production at best and a costly disaster at worst, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why the series went kaput quicker than you can say ‘extinct’.

The story is adapted from James Gurney’s series of children’s books, about a utopian land where humans live amicably with dinosaurs (hence the name Dinotopia). It is a hidden place on Earth unknown to the rest of the twenty-first-century civilization; our story revolves around Frank, Karl and David Scott, father and sons who were marooned after their biplane crash lands on Dinotopia. This series is actually a follow up to an original mini-series that began immediately after the Scotts were stranded, so strictly speaking our story occurs a few months (or so) after the trio arrive at Dinotopia. By this time they are somewhat settled in, with David more accustomed to the new world than the other two because he’s found a career, so to speak. As a registered pilot (of a pterodactyl-type dinosaur – Dinotopia has a whole army of them) he is for once out of Karl’s shadow, hence embraces Dinotopia; Frank and Karl are keen to find their way home when T-Rexes come a-knocking. But the island is apparently surrounded by an impenetrable storm so there’s no way out; gradually Frank and Karl accept their new fates and carry on as Dinotopians, though not before making a few ill-advised attempts at escaping.

The first two episodes are decent with relatively engaging storylines about sunstones and opal-gem-things that ward off the hostile T-Rexes. We are also introduced to the people of Waterfall City, where the Scotts are: there is the mayor Waldo Seville, his wife Rosemary and daughter Marion (who Karl romances, to the dismay of David), a talking dinosaur called Zipeau (who is apparently very wise and hence the city’s librarian), a band of outlaws trying to take over Waterfall City (or something to that effect; I am quite frankly confused) called The Outsiders, et cetera. In the name of spoiler policy I will cease to dwell on details but honestly, there is hardly anything interesting enough to tell. Sometimes the writing veers towards parody, with tongue-in-cheek references to issues of politics and social progress, but the commentary is tired and the structure well-trodden; often the dialogues sound like they were picked from a recycling bag of discarded scripts. Everything was so predictable that I ended up amusing myself by finishing off dialogues and pretending to be psychic.

If the money didn’t go into the writing department, it definitely didn’t get directed to the special effects units either because the effects were hardly anything to shout about. It may be due to VCD pixelation that image quality was compromised but from what I could see the effects looked excruciatingly superficial. Once again, it might have looked more impressive on TV or DVD but on VCD it’s hard to imagine why “Dinotopia” cost so much.

Films of the fantasy genre can only succeed when there is a complete commitment to storyline; “Dinotopia” felt half-hearted, as such confused more than it convinced. There is no sense of urgency in writing – at one point when Marion and the Scotts are reunited after a near-death experience, they literally utter no more than “It’s good to see you again,” before going along their merry way. Where great acting might have saved the day, the actors fall short, their performances perhaps restrained by increasingly whiney characters. Another point of bewilderment was the way the Dinotopians spoke in varying forms of conceited, mangled English accents only attainable by dialect-coached C-list actors. If there was a point to the accents I did not get it, unless the point was to induce annoyance and endless cringing.

All in all the production felt like an exercise in futility – a very slow and overly long exercise in futility. Dinosaurs are a well-covered territory in film and expectations of special effects are no longer the same since the world saw LOTR, so basically “Dinotopia” offers nothing new. Add to that erratic direction and blah plots, it’s no wonder the series was prematurely snuffed.

 

RATING :

Review by Angeline Chui

 

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This review is made possible with the kind support from Blue Max


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