The Legend of Blanson (film)

The Legend of Blanson is the First animated feature in the Warner Bros Animated Canon. It was produced by DSH Films, Sun-Bright Entertainment and released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures and RatPac-Dune Entertainment on June 18, 2019. It is created by Dexter Standish-Hunt who made the world of Prehistoric age, and is the only major motion picture version of the Blanson property to be animated.

Blanson is sometimes considered to be the last major box office success of the Warner Bros. Renaissance before the studio's decline in the mid to late 2020s (sometimes known as Warner Bros Second Dark Age). Other critics consider Dunkrik (2017) to be the last film in the Warner Bros Renaissance. At the time of its release, its production budget of $130 million made it the most expensive animated film ever made, until topped by Disney's own $140 million Treasure Planet in 2002. It was also the first Warner Bros feature to open at first place at the North American box office since Happy Feet (2006).

It is also the last "bona fide" hit before the Warner Bros slump of the early 2020s making $171,091,819 in domestic gross and $448,191,819 worldwide. Even so, the overall commercial and critical success did not match that of the early 2010's Warner Bros movies. Today, it is seen as a modest hit. However, it should be noted that some movie critics and animation historians consider this the first film of Warner Bros Second Dark Age; mostly due to the fact it was a departure from the musical format.

Plot
In the late Jurassic Period off the coast of South America, a young couple and their toddler son escape a burning ship and land on the unexplored rainforests of South America, where they craft themselves to go on a mission in which to live their Research Facility with Soldiers in order to survive ("Crazy"). Meanwhile, a Lesothosaurus couple, Coelophysis King named Jirtech and a Human Andy are traveling with the rest of their group when their infant son is killed and eaten by a terrifying creature named Vanghol. The next day, the still-heartbroken Lesothosaurus couples. But a  Human named Andy on the boat hears a distant cave child's cry and, following it, stumbles upon the Laboratory. He enters the laboratary to find it trashed, and blood covered claw prints (as well as the corpses of the couple) on the floor. Andy rescues the toddler from a still-hungry Vanghol and returns with it to the rest of the group, but Jirtech despises the boy for his appearance. Nevertheless, Andy decides to raise the boy as her own, naming him Blanson ("Again, Wonderful Life, Keep on lovin you or Wow ").

A few years later, Blanson makes friends with Andy and Jirtech's niece, a feisty young male  Lesothosaurus  named Randall. One day, Randall and two of his friends go to a lake where the  Triceratops, Argentinosaurus and Parasaurolophus are. Randall tells Blanson he can hang out with them if he gets a hair from an triceratops being sarcastic hoping it would get rid of him, but Blanson takes him seriously, so he tries to get a scaly parts but he starts to cause a commotion with all the triceratops including a young triceratops named Zander thinking Blanson is a deadly Mudfish. Eventually, he gets the scale and sends all the triceratops (except Zander) into a stampede right into the  Lesothosaurus, almost killing a baby  Lesothosaurus. He then befriends Zander and goes on adventures with Zander and Randall ("Fine Hero or Back in the Chain Gang"). Despite his inability to compete with the rest of the  Lesothosaurus, Blanson perseveres and eventually grows into a strong, capable, and perhistoric-like grown man. When Vanghol attacks the group again, Blanson successfully fights with and kills him, earning Jirtech's respect. Blanson has a scratch on his chest, almost into his heart, but he manages to survive. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. Although Vanghol was killed, a deadlier danger has only just begun.

Blanson then notices a group of humans arriving: Family and his son Coni, who have traveled to South America in search of Lesothosaurus, along with their hunter guide Henry. Coni accidentally separates from his Parents and Henry, and then has an encounter with a horde of troodon, who chase after him. Coni runs towards a cliff and tries to jump to the other side, only to be caught mid-leap by Blanson. He screams as he is taken to a branch, where he demands to be put down. Blanson puts him down, but then the troodon get closer and he screams, "No! Pick me up!" The chase then rages on, but finally, Blanson gets Coni to safety. Curious about Coni, Blanson proceeds to examine him, at one point playing with him feet, tickling him. He then notices him gloved hand. Taking off the glove, Blanson places his hand against hims, then puts the side of his head to his chest and listens to his heartbeat, and this is when he realizes that he and Coni are the same. He takes Coni back to his camp. Blanson And Coni. (So Soon) Meanwhile, Blanson's friends, who are trying to find him, arrive at the human  quartet's campsite and proceed to destroy it, playing music on various human objects they find in camp ("Smashin' the Site"). Blanson returns Coni to camp but departs with the other dinosaurs before Rita, Josh and Henry arrive. In the jungle, Jirtech instructs the others to stay away from the campsite, but Blanson protests, believing that the humans pose no threat. Blanson secretly returns to the campsite and is introduced to the other men, and the four of them teach Blanson about the human world ("Women"); nevertheless, Blanson refuses to tell them the Lesothosaurus' location, fearing Jirtech's fury. A few days later, when the boat to America arrives, the Quartet, unable to find the Lesothosaurus, prepare to leave, and Blanson is heartbroken to see Coni depart. Henry tells him that they will stay once they find the Lesothosaurus. Blanson, eager to have the humans remain, schemes with his friends Randall and Zander to get Jirtech out of the way while Blanson shows the humans the nesting site.

Blanson leads the humans to the nesting site, but Jirtech returns, and when he sees the humans, attacks them. Blanson is forced to put Jirtech in a headlock long enough for the humans to escape, and as a result alienating himself from the Lesothosaurus though mostly Jirtech. Sympathetic, Andy takes Blanson to his biological parents' Research Facility, and he decides that he belongs in the human world. Blanson decides to depart for America with the others.

When Blanson, Coni, and couple board the ship the next day to return to America, Coni and his parents are captured by the thugs (who have also turned on the captain and his officers); as soon as he steps on the boat's deck, Blanson realizes what's going on, and after watching the thugs closing in on him, he narrowly avoids them by jumping over them and landing on one of the cages. Henry's men start climbing the cage so Blanson quickly jumps to another cage and then to the ship's mast. He briefly gets distracted after hearing Coni calling out his name as he's taken to the cargo room, but before he could even try to do something, one of the thugs takes hold of his right ankle, leaving him hanging from the mast. He shakes him off by kicking him in the face, but the rest of them are catching up with him quickly, so he climbs to the top of the mast and makes a huge leap from there, towards the ship's funnel, much to the amazement of his pursuers. He manages to reach its end and hang from it; however, he immediately finds out that the funnel is too slippery for the shoes he is wearing. He desperately tries to hold tight, but being unable to lay his own feet and keep them in place, his left hand slips away, and Blanson is left horrified as he watches his right hand slowly slip away as well. He finally loses his grip and falls from a great height, crashing right into a pile of boxes. Blanson slowly crawls out of the remnants of the shattered boxes, obviously in an enormous pain. Two of Henry's men take advantage of this and rush towards him, grabbing him and slamming him against the ship's superstructure. He uselessly tries to break free from their grip, but he's just too weak and hurting from the fall. It is just then that Henry appears on deck, firing his shotgun into the air and asking what was going on. Blanson, still trying to break free, begs for Henry's help, to which Henry teases him (pretending he didn't know him and calling him "cave man") and slams him with his gun right in his stomach. Henry then reveals that he wanted to find the dinosaurs so that he could sell them for a high price, and admits that he couldn't have done that if it wasn't for Blanson telling him where the dinosaurs were. Blanson realizes what he had done and then screams out loud in anger as he sees Henry walk away and tell the thugs to lock him up with the others.

As the crew storms the jungle, Zander and Randall hear Blanson's scream in the distance rush to rescue him and they race off to stop Henry and his men. In the ensuing battle (in which the Lesothosaurus are aided by various jungle dinosaurs), Henry shoots Blanson in the arm, grazing it, and mortally wounds Jirtech in the chest with his rifle. Blanson and Henry duel among the treetops until Blanson wrests Henry's gun away and smashes it. Henry pursues Blanson with a machete, trying desperately to stab and kill him, into a tangle of jungle vines, which Blanson uses to ensnare Henry, with one of the vines becoming looped around Henry's neck. Henry's wild slashing at the vines to free himself cuts the vines holding him in the air, but does not notice the vine around his throat, and does not cut it, causing him to fall and hang himself. Blanson then finds the dying Jirtech, who apologizes to Blanson for his behavior and accepts him as his son, but makes him, as the uncontestedly most capable of the younger generation, leader of the Lesothosaurus. Jirtech dies, and Blanson and the lesothosaurus mourn for his demise. Blanson then leads the lesothosaurus group to the new nesting grounds.

With Henry's men captured and the crew released, Coni and his Couple prepare to depart for America. Blanson reveals that he now plans to stay with the lesothosaurus group. As the rowboat leaves the shore, Rita encourages our son to stay with the boy he likes, Coni agrees and jumps overboard and returns to the shore and is soon followed by his family; the four of them reside happily in the jungle among the dinosaur and lesothosaurus ("Crazy Finale").