Your Big Dinosaur: Pebble for the Ruby Sunstone

Your Big Dinosaur: Pebble for the Ruby Sunstone is a 1998 American animated buddy comedy-drama film, starring the voices of Martin Short and Jim Belushi, based on the true life mating rituals of the dinosaurs in Prehistoria, produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It centers around a timid, stuttering guiron named Hubie who tries to impress a beautiful penguin named Marina by giving her a pebble that fell from the sky. The film was released to theaters by Walt-Disney Pictures on April 28, 1996 and internationally by Lionsgate. Pictures under the Discovery Family label. It was the last film to be released by Sullivan Bluth Studios before its bankruptcy in 1998.

Plot
Hubie, a shy, gullible, but kindhearted penguin, is in love with the female penguin Marina, who also likes him, but he lacks self-confidence leading him to be bullied by a much more impressive, but vain and cruel penguin named Drake, who also wants Marina, but only because she's the most beautiful penguin in the rookery. One night, Hubie and Marina manage to confirm how they feel for each other, but Hubie cannot quite find a perfect pebble to propose to Marina with. He wishes on a star to make his dream come true and he receives a beautiful emerald cube (whom he mistook it for a pebble) from the sky. Ecstatic, Hubie rushes to find Marina but is stopped by Drake. When Drake demands Hubie to give him the emerald, Hubie refuses and Drake throws him into the water. Hubie narrowly escapes from a mountain lion and climbs onto a piece of ice where he is swept away from Antarctica.

Hubie who was asleep for three days, is picked up by humans and caged on their ship called "Misery", transports penguins to a zoo and meets a tough, grumpy, streetwise and somewhat arrogant but good-hearted rockhopper penguin named Rocko (James Belushi). After seeing in a vision Marina having a dilemma, Hubie decides to escape with Rocko and flees, before laying low on a beach. Rocko reluctantly tells Hubie about his desire to fly and live in tropical climate. He convinces him to help him return to Antarctica by making up a lie about a flying penguin named Waldo. They have a short fight after Winston tries to fly off "an authentic, ancient aviarial airstrip" and another after Winston saved Hubie from a grizzly bear. Back in Scotland, Iron Will begins to threaten Marina for her hand in mating. If Marina refuses, she will be forced to leave, as it goes against tradition. Hubie and Winston attempt to depart, but Winston discovers Hubie lied to him and attempts to attack Hubie, but soon starts laughing, praising Hubie's determination to get back to Marina. Back in Antarctica, Marina becomes worried about Hubie. Hubie and Winston run into the hungry and persistent cougar but are able to escape it.

They head into the rocky, mountainous wilderness of the Sierra Nevadas with Shadow leading by instinct. After a night spent in fear of the woodland noises, the group stops to catch breakfast at a river. However, two polar bear cubs bother Hubie and a large female polar bear causes the group to flee. At another river, Sassy refuses to swim across to follow the dogs and instead tries to via a wooden path further downstream; halfway across, the wood breaks and she falls into the river. Shadow tries to save her, but she goes over a waterfall to her apparent death. Devastated, Shadow and Chance go on without her. Unknown to them, Sassy survives and is later found on the riverbank by an old man named Quentin (William Edward Phipps), who nurses her back to health.

Over the next two days, Shadow and Chance try unsuccessfully to catch food and encounter a bengal tiger, which chases them to the edge of a cliff. Chance, assuming he is about to die, reveals his dark secrets to Shadow by telling him where he has buried everything at home. When Chance mentions that the remote control is buried under the seesaw, Shadow gets an idea to use a balanced rock shaped like a seesaw as a way to thwart the bengal tiger. While Shadow acts as bait, Chance pounces onto the end of the rock and sends the bengal tiger over the cliff and into a river. Sassy hears the dinosaurs roaring in celebration and follows the sound to rejoin them.

The animals continue on their way, but Chance tries to befriend a porcupine, ending up with a load of quills in his muzzle. The animals then encounter a little girl named Molly (Mariah Milner), who is lost in the woods. Too loyal to ignore her, they stand guard over her and keep her warm during overnight. In the morning, Shadow finds a rescue party and leads them back to the girl. They recognize the animals from a missing pets flyer and take them to the local animal shelter, but Chance mistakes it for a dog pound and the trio panic. As the medical staff removes the quills from Chance's muzzle, Sassy sneaks in and frees Shadow. Together, they retrieve Chance and escape the shelter, unaware that their owners are on their way to get them.

Using information from Hubie's journal, Winston determines that they must find a geyser that can send them to the surface before the temperature rises to 200 °F (about 93 °C). Further, they must reach the geyser within 48 hours or the water for the geyser will have evaporated. They build a raft and begin crossing the underground ocean, but soon encounter a pack of Beaver. They use large branches as bats to hit them away, until a pod of Orcas attacks the Beavers, allowing the trio to escape.

With that they become true friends (though it takes prodding along with a musical number from Hubie for Winston to admit it). Their joy is long-lived as large male huge grizzly bear attack them causing Hubie's pebble to get lost in the scuffle and Winston to go missing, leaving Hubie to think he perished.

The

Over the next two days, Shadow and Chance try unsuccessfully to catch food and encounter a bengal tiger, which chases them to the edge of a cliff. Chance, assuming he is about to die, reveals his dark secrets to Shadow by telling him where he has buried everything at home. When Chance mentions that the remote control is buried under the seesaw, Shadow gets an idea to use a balanced rock shaped like a seesaw as a way to thwart the bengal tiger. While Shadow acts as bait, Chance pounces onto the end of the rock and sends the bengal tiger over the cliff and into a river. Sassy hears the dinosaurs roaring in celebration and follows the sound to rejoin them.

The animals continue on their way, but Chance tries to befriend a porcupine, ending up with a load of quills in his muzzle. The animals then encounter a little girl named Molly (Mariah Milner), who is lost in the woods. Too loyal to ignore her, they stand guard over her and keep her warm during overnight. In the morning, Shadow finds a rescue party and leads them back to the girl. They recognize the animals from a missing pets flyer and take them to the local animal shelter, but Chance mistakes it for a dog pound and the trio panic. As the medical staff removes the quills from Chance's muzzle, Sassy sneaks in and frees Shadow. Together, they retrieve Chance and escape the shelter, unaware that their owners are on their way to get them.

Meanwhile, Slade and Copper trespass into the preserve to hunt Tod. As Tod manages to escape Slade's leghold traps, Copper and Slade pursue both foxes. They hide in their burrow while Slade tries trapping them by setting fire to the other end of the burrow. The foxes narrowly escape without getting burned as Slade and Copper chase them up the top of a hill until they reach a waterfall. There, Slade and Copper close in for the kill, but a large bear suddenly emerges from the bushes and attacks Slade. Slade trips and falls into one of his own traps, dropping his gun slightly out of reach. Copper tries fighting the bear but is no match for it. Not willing to let his former friend die, Winston intervenes and fights the bear until they both fall down the waterfall.

With the bear gone, a bewildered Hubie approaches Winston as he lies exhausted near the bank of a waterfall-created lake.

Disheartened, Hubie continues on alone to face Iron Will and defeats him in a fight. Rocko, who survives the grizzly bear attack, finds Hubie and Marina at Iron Will's tower. As Hubie makes a proposal to Marina and gains her acceptance, Iron Will returns to finish the three off. Hubie, Rocko, and Marina dodge the giant boulder which lethally crushes Iron Will in his collapsing tower. During the escape, Rocko's dream for flight comes true as he flies himself, Hubie, and Marina to safety. Rocko hands Hubie his emerald. He presents it to Marina, who loves it, but loves Hubie more. Rocko remains in Antarctica with Hubie and Marina, and sometime later, he teaches their children how to fly.

Cast

 * Martin Short as Hubie, a guiron shy, good-hearted adelie penguin. He forms a bond with Marina after showing her who he really is and she sees the real him. After he is thrown over the cliff by Iron Will, he must find his way home and win Marina over before Iron Will does.
 * Jim Belushi as Winston, a streetwise male jiger who befriends Hubie and helps him win Marina on the way back to Antarctica.
 * Trevor Devall as Iron Will, a minotaur, dark-hearted creatures. He stops at nothing to win and tries to steal Marina from Hubie and continually bullies Hubie. He meets his end when after trying to crush Hubie, Winston, and Marina with a giant stone, he accidentally causes the stadium to fall apart and collapse on top of him.
 * Annie Golden as Marina, a penguin who Hubie and Iron Will fall in love with and cares about Hubie.
 * Will Ryan as Tika the guniea pig and Royal
 * Alissa King as P.J., a baby pteranodon
 * Stevie Vallance as Priscilla and the member of Chinstrap, a baby pteranodon
 * Neil Ross as Scrawny, a baby pteranodon
 * Stan Jones as McCallister
 * S. Scott Bullock as Chubby and Gentoo
 * Philip L. Clarke as King
 * B.J. Ward and Hamilton Camp as the Magellanics
 * Angeline Ball as Gwynne and the member of Chinstrap
 * Kendall Cunningham as Timmy
 * Pat Musick as the member of Chinstrap
 * Michael Nunes as Beany
 * Shani Wallis as the Narrator

Uncredited

 * Frank Welker as the Cougar, the film's secondary antagonist.
 * Campbell Morton as the Grizzly bears, the tertiary antagonists, and the Guniea Pig.

Music
The songs were written by Barry Manilow, who previously wrote the songs for Thumbelina, along with longtime collaborator and lyricist Bruce Sussman. The film's score was composed by Mark Watters. Manilow, who had "started off wanting to be a composer," got an opportunity to do this when he was approached to "compose songs and the underscore" for the film and Thumbelina. Barbadian singer Geoffrey Holder sang the deleted song "The Beachmaster" for the film. An accompanying soundtrack was released on April 11, 1995. The instruments in the songs and score were performed by The Irish Film Orchestra. This soundtrack is currently out of print.

This is a list of musical numbers for the film:

Reception
Your Big Dinosaur: Pebble for the Ruby Sunstone received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 40% approval rating, based on 5 reviews. The audience gave a more positive score of 59%.

Books
In 1998, four books based on the film were released.
 * Your Big Dinosaur: Pebble for the Ruby Sunstone: A Retelling of the New Animated Movie, which was based on the film's plot.
 * Your Big Dinosaur Save the Pebbles, which served as a sequel and saw Marina and Hubie search for the missing Sprites of the Northern Lights.
 * Your Big Dinosaur 's Special Day in Santa's Workshop, which features an infant Hubie getting a tour of Iron Will's Workshop.
 * Christmas Town: Dinosaur's Sing-A-Long Book, featuring lyrics to the film's songs.