Dinosaur (2000 film)

Dinosaur is a 2000 American live-action/computer-animated adventure drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in collaboration with The Secret Lab and Industrial Light & Magic. It was directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Michael Crichton, Thom Enriquez, John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs, and co-produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Pam Marsden. The film was released by Walt Disney Pictures from a co-production of Amblin Entertainment and The Kennedy/Marshall Company on May 19, 2000 and is the 39th film and the first computer-animated film in the Disney Animated Canon. At officially $127.5 million, it was the most expensive theatrical movie release of the year.

While the main characters in Dinosaur are computer-animated, most of the film's backgrounds were filmed on location. Several backgrounds were found in Canaima National Park in Venezuela; various tepuis and Angel Falls also appear in the film.

The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who generally praised the animation, direction, screenplay, musical score, voice acting and a homage to Universal's Spielberg-helmed Jurassic Park franchise. However, it became a box-office success, grossing $349.8 million over a $127.5 million budget.

Plot
The film opens with a female Iguanodon keeping a close watch on her eggs. A young Parasaurolophus accidentally wakes up a Carnotaurus who started chasing after the herd, and eventually kills a Pachyrhinosaurus. Then an Oviraptor takes the surviving egg then it was taken by a Pteranodon. The Pteranodon drops the egg by accident onto an Island called Lemur Island. Three Lemurs: Plio, Yar, and Zini found the egg when it hatched and then named the baby Iguanodon Aladar.

Years on, Plio has had a daughter named Suri and the family takes part in mating season which Zini fails to accomplish and goes without a mate. Moments after the mating season ends, a huge asteroid destroys the island and leaves only Aladar and his closest family members confirmed to be alive. The family move on and after being pursued by a pack of Velociraptors, come across a herd of various dinosaurs, led by another Iguanodon named Kron and his lieutenant Bruton. Other herd members include elderly Baylene the Brachiosaurus, Eema the Styracosaurus, the doglike Ankylosaurus Url, the friendly Tyrannosaurus Tex and Kron's younger sister Neera.

Aladar and the lemurs accompany the herd across a desert to reach a nearby breeding ground the herd has visited before. However, they are being followed by the Velociraptors and later by a pair of Carnotaurus, referred to as "Carnotaurs" in the film. After a day and a night of marching, the herd stops at a lake that appears to be dried up, but the water is revealed to be underground, by Aladar hearing it underneath because he had been trying to get Baylene and Eema across. Later that day, Carnotaurs begin stalking the herd, sending the herd into a panicked flurry. Aladar, the lemurs, Eema, Baylene, Url and Bruton are all left behind and regroup in a series of caves. The Carnotaurs attack them, but Bruton sacrifices himself to allow the others to flee, burying one of the Carnotaurs in the process. The group flee to the back of the caverns, then smash down a wall to reveal a path straight into the breeding ground. Eema spots that the usual entrance has been blocked off, prompting Aladar to find Kron and the rest of the herd.

Kron, Neera, and the herd are on the other side of the blocked-off entrance, Kron ordering that the herd climb impossibly over the wall. Aladar arrives and suggests the route through the caves due to a sheer drop on the other side that would kill the herd, which Kron objects to and accuses Aladar of stealing his role as leader. The two fight for dominance until Neera steps in and defends Aladar, deciding to go with him and the herd through his route. The surviving Carnotaur appears, causing the herd to go into a panic. Aladar convinces the herd that the only way they can survive is by standing together. They fend off the Carnotaur and get past it, but the Carnotaur then notices Kron, who had refused to follow Aladar, and decided he would climb the wall to get to the nesting grounds. The Carnotaur begins to chase Kron down. Neera notices this and rushes to try to aid her brother, soon followed by Aladar. In the fight that ensues, Kron is fatally wounded by the Carnotaur. Aladar and Tex force the Carnotaur onto a cliff edge that collapses, sending it plummeting to its death. Neera comes to Kron, but it is too late. The herd reaches the breeding ground, led by Aladar. Aladar and Neera have children as well as the rest of the herd, and the lemurs find more of their kind.

Cast

 * D.B. Sweeney as Aladar, a brave and compassionate Iguanodon who's been adopted into a family of lemurs and does what he can to make sure that the old and weak aren't left behind during the herd's migration. He serves as the main protagonist of the film.
 * Alfre Woodard as Plio, a lemur (Coquerel's Sifaka) matriarch who cares for her family.
 * Ossie Davis as Yar, a lemur patriarch whose occasional gruff demeanor is just a front covering his more compassionate interior. He is the father of Plio and Zini and the grandfather of Suri.
 * Max Casella as Zini, Aladar's stepuncle and wisecracking sidekick, Yar's son, Suri's uncle and Plio's brother.
 * Hayden Panettiere as Suri, Aladar's stepsister, Zini's little niece, Plio's daughter and Yar's granddaughter.
 * Samuel E. Wright as Kron, an Iguanodon leading a herd of dinosaur survivors who is characterized by a strict adherence to social Darwinist theory. He believes in survival of the fittest, which repeatedly clashes with Aladar's merciful manner. Apart from the Carnotaurs, Kron is the secondary antagonist of the film.
 * Julianna Margulies as Neera, Kron's sister, who ends up falling in love with Aladar because of his compassionate ways.
 * Peter Siragusa as Bruton, Kron's domineering right-hand assistant. He is betrayed and left for dead by Kron, and ultimately gives his life to kill one of the Carnotaurs to save Aladar, the lemurs, and the weak dinosaurs.
 * Joan Plowright as Baylene, an elderly and dainty Brachiosaurus (technically a Giraffatitan due to her identification as B. brancai).
 * Della Reese as Eema, a wizened, elderly and slow-moving Styracosaurus, and Url's companion.

Throughout the film, Velociraptors, Tyrannosaurus and Carnotaurus make appearances, but are not given voices. Early on, a Carnotaur attack precipitates the events that lead to Aladar's adoption by Plio and the lemurs. Later on, a group of Velociraptors chase Aladar down and later stalk the herd until they are scared away by a pair of Carnotaurs, who consistently stalk the herd in their search for food. The first Carnotaur was killed by Bruton, who sacrificed himself to save Aladar and the others during a cave-in. The second and last one was killed during a fight with Aladar and a Tyrannosaurus named Tex on a top of a cliff, where it starts to break under its weight, causing it to fall to its death.