Walking with Dinosaurs

Outstanding animation but nothing new

One of my expectations when I first saw the trailer of this movie is that it would be a journey in my mind to travel – something new to be learned and watched about dinosaurs. But ofcourse, expectations are not always met.

With its live background filmed in New Zealand, my eyes were captivated to its exceptional graphics and animation of the dinosaurs. However, just like the usual kiddy movies, the story is a commonplace –there’s nothing new along with its unclear plot.

Anyway, the story started out with an enthusiastic kid and a skulking teen with their paleontologist uncle bringing them to dig in to a site. The fact that the skulking one isn’t interested about dinosaur fossils is like showing the audience that not everyone’s really interested about dinosaurs. But suddenly, a raven popped out of nowhere, narrates them the amazing “Walking with Dinosaurs” story, then the teen gets interested.

 So what’s the story?

The raven, known as Alex, turns in to an Alexornis and was  a symbiotic friend of the main character. A tribe of Pachyrinosaurus migrates from a land because of climate change. The main “Pachyrinosaurus” there is called “Patchi”, whose head has a hole that whistles, making him recognized by the group. He’s always with his brother “Skyler” ever since their father died fighting another type of dinosaur to protect them.

The movie goes  along with different types of dinosaurs being featurized out of nowhere. At some point, I felt like they wanted to turn this movie in to a documentary because this “featurizing” of dinosaurs took, I guess, a little bit long, with its corny and so-so jokes.

The catch: I never thought it would end being  a love story. A pack of T-rex like creature attacks the tribe and the adults and the young got separated. Juniper, another young Pachyrinosaurus and Patchi’s crush, jumped off the river  with a strong current and Patchi followed, along with his brother. Don’t worry. They survived. The river’s current slowed down by a huge rock and Juniper got hit there, consequently getting an injury on her front leg. Patchi accompanied her and Skyler was a bit annoyed. While they were walking near to the shore, they saw another group of non-attacking dinosaurs set in, walking, not interested to bother the three. From there, Skyler separated from Patchi and joined these dinosaurs. So, yeah. Patchi and Juniper were left together, and all the romance flows over in.

A few years later, they were already adults and the leader of the tribe wanted to challenge Patchi. Patchi felt afraid and unsure but suddenly, Skyler appears, moves Patchi away,and challenges the leader. Fortunately, he won. What’s sad is that he’s also in love with Juniper, and so she had to be by his side in front of the tribe, leaving Patchi no choice. Skyler was filled with angst and pride for I don’t know what reason and he made strict rules. There on they continue with their long migration. But somewhere along the way  while they were walking on ice, Patchi felt that the ice is going to break and that they should go back. He warned Skyler but he wouldn’t listen. The ice suddenly cracks and Patchi tells everybody to retreat and go back to where they came from. From there on, he becomes the leader of the tribe, and gets his love back.

Meh.

I felt cloyed. For a teenager, I’m expecting more action on screen. But suddenly….it turns to romance, like one of those princess movies. Despite that fact, I love dinosaurs and I enjoy watching them. The first part gave me thrills the same way as it did when I was a kiddo. For the graphics, the animators are much to be thanked for. For the story, I’m sorry – it doesn’t deserve much praise as it ought to have.