DVD Reviews for Ages 4 - 12
What have we reviewed?
1) "Dinosaur" DVD – Animation
Dinosaur
This Dinosaur Walt Disney was looked forward to with great relish by many Disney fans and although when it was released the CGI was state of the art, the abilities in that field have grown exponentially and it now looks dated and due to the fact that it is what my mother would describe as a “nice wee story”, not much depth but at least it has a happy ending many adults were disappointed.
That said however was it made for adults? – No – it was made for kids and most kids will enjoy watching it – the opening scenes are spectacular and kids really don’t care about the depth and meaning in a story. It is a very much a Disney story.
It is the story of a young Iguanodon named Aladar (D.B. Sweeney) who is brought up by a group of lemurs on an island after surviving a T-Rex attack and being scooped up by a Pterodactyl. Living happily until, a meteor shower destroys their island home, forcing Aladar and the lemurs back to the mainland and other dinosaurs. Soon, the group encounters a large herd of mixed dinosaurs travelling towards the nesting grounds, which contain fertile land, along with plenty of food and water.
Aladar and the lemurs join the herd, and soon encounter Kron, a fearsome Iguanodon who is the so-called leader of the herd. Many of the other dinosaurs complain that Kron pushes them too hard and they cannot keep up. They are befriended by Baylene, a no-nonsense Brachiosaur and Eema, a feisty Styrachosaur, Aladar however becomes enamored with Neera, a female Iguanodon who happens to be Kron's sister. Needless to say, there are some tense moments between Aladar, Neera, and Kron. Neera is not interested in Aladar at first, but as their journey continues, she begins to like him more and more. Kron fears that Aladar is trying to take his place as leader of the herd, so they have many confrontations along the way. The herd is stalked by Velociraptors and later Carnotaurus, referred to as "Carnotaurs" in the film. Will they reach the nesting grounds?
Overall we would say it is a good movie for adults with kids, who can accept the fact that it is for kids and just sit and enjoy some quality time with them. The length of the movie is just right to hold a child's attention for the entire film, too.
We score this a - 
2) Ice Age (III) – Dawn of the Dinosaurs
The third film in the series about the odd prehistoric family, which is originally thrown together in Ice Age, is about to become a biological one and although it can be enjoyed on its own the characters are developed through Ice Age and Ice Age the Meltdown and it is well worth watching all three despite the fact there are no dinosaurs in the first films.
Although the first two films are not technically about dinosaurs the prehistoric mammals a mammoth named Manny, Ellie a mammoth who thought she was a possum, a sabre toothed tiger named Diego and Sid the sloth and the setting of the ice age mean it is sufficiently ‘dinosaur like’ to engage young children without the criticizing the lack of dinosaurs.
For those that insist on seeing dinosaurs the Dawn of the Dinosaurs provides just that with Sid discovering some suspiciously large eggs through a crack in the ice. When the eggs hatch they turn out to be rambunctious little T-Rex dinosaurs and this turns the film into delightful comic adventure. Sid tries to raise the monstrous little T-Rex trio and after they have destroyed the nursery for the prospective mammoth addition the mother Tyrannosaurus arrives and drags Sid and her three babies back to her world.
The stitched together prehistoric family follows her through the ice cavern to rescue Sid and find themselves in a land of dinosaurs thought to be extinct. Within minutes they meet the first dinosaur an Ankylosaurus, they are saved from a further crowd of angry reptiles by an insane, one-eyed weasel named Buckminster, or Buck. Buck agrees to take time off his intention of avenging a large Baryonyx and leads the herd through the perils of the jungle to Lava falls where the T-Rex has taken Sid and the babies.
Ellie goes into labour and a Guanlong pack strikes, causing a rock slide that separates her from Manny and Diego. Chaos ensues as Manny doubles back, Deigo fends off further attacks and Buck takes Crash and Eddie ahead to rescue Sid. Just as Sid goes over the falls, the trio swoops in on a commandeered Pteranodon only to be chased by a flock of Quetzalcoatlus on the way and saving his life. Buck then helps the prehistoric family back to their frozen world.
The animators had great fun with the differences in scale between the mammals and the dinosaurs, and the introduction of a deranged Buck pushes everything into Loony-Tune territory. Ice Age aims to tickle the funny bone and does a fine job of it. Like the previous Ice Age films the film has the sub plot of the sabre toothed squirrel Scrat and his precious acorn along with a love interest in the form of Scratte.
This is funny enough to amuse adults but try not to “see” too much in it; it is after all a movie made mainly for (young) kids. Meeting the definition of true family entertainment, Ice Age has something for everyone. Ice Age 4 is expected and rumours suggest July 2012.
