Dinosaur (2000)
A Disney original story.
A Carnotaurus attacks a mixed-species herd of dinosaurs, destroying an Iguanodon nest and killing a Pachyrhinosaurus. The lone surviving Iguanodon egg is stolen by an Oviraptor, and after a series of mishaps, arrives at an island inhabited by prehistoric lemurs, and hatches. Plio, the daughter of lemur patriarch Yar, names the baby Aladar and raises him alongside her daughter Suri, despite Yar's initial objections.
Several years later, a fully grown Aladar watches the lemurs take part in a mating ritual, in which Plio's awkward teenage brother Zini fails to do so. Moments after the ritual ends, they are interrupted by a meteor crashing into the Earth, creating an explosive shockwave that destroys the island. Aladar and Yar's family flee across the sea to the mainland. Being the only survivors, they mourn the others, before moving on.
While crossing the burnt deserted wasteland, they are attacked by a pack of Velociraptors. They escape by joining a multi-species herd of dinosaur refugees heading for the communal Nesting Grounds. Falling afoul of callous Iguanodon herd leader Kron, they retreat to the end of the line and befriend the old Styracosaurus Eema, Ankylosaurus Url, and her equally elderly friend Baylene, a Brachiosaurus who is the last of her kind. They travel for days without water to the site of a lake, only to find it seemingly dried up. Kron orders the herd to move on and let the weakest perish, but Aladar stays behind with a weakened Eema. He and Baylene dig until they find some water for them. The rest of the herd follows suit, and Kron's sister Neera, impressed by Aladar's compassion, begins to grow closer to him.
Meanwhile, two Carnotaurus, driven out of their usual hunting grounds by the meteor, have been tracking the herd and ambush a scouting party led by Kron's Altirhinus lieutenant Bruton. Surviving the attack, a badly wounded Bruton warns of the approaching predators. Ushering the herd away from the lake, Kron deliberately leaving Aladar, the lemurs, the elderly dinosaurs, and the injured Bruton behind, hoping that they will slow their pursuers down. The abandoned group takes shelter in a cave as night falls, but the Carnotaurus arrive at the cave during the night and attack. Fending off the attacking predators, Bruton sacrifices himself to cause a cave-in that kills one of the Carnotaurus, forcing the survivor to retreat.
The group ventures deeper into the cave, but they reach a dead end. Blocked on both sides, Aladar briefly loses hope, but Baylene encourages him to not give up, using her strength to smash through the wall, revealing the other side to be the Nesting Grounds. While the group briefly celebrates, Eema notices that a landslide has collapsed the usual entrance into the valley. Realizing the imminent danger the herd is in, Aladar rushes off to warn Kron, finding him forcing the herd to climb over the landslide, unaware of the sheer drop on the other side. When Aladar tries to warn the herd, an enraged Kron attacks him and a brief fight ensues but Neera intervenes on Aladar's behalf. She and the herd follow Aladar, while Kron tries to climb the cliff-face by himself.
The surviving Carnotaurus, which has been following the herd since its departure from the cave, arrives and charges them. Aladar rallies the herd to stand together against it, forcing the Carnotaurus to back off before it notices Kron and attacks him instead. Aladar and Neera rush to save him but fail to stop the Carnotaurus from fatally throwing Kron against the cliff. Fighting the Carnotaurus, Aladar manages to push it towards the edge of the cliff, where the ground gives way, causing the Carnotaurus to fall to its death. He and Neera mourn Kron, and then lead the herd to the Nesting Grounds. Sometime later, a new generation of dinosaurs hatches, among them Aladar and Neera's children, and the lemurs find more of their kind.
TRIVIA
Technology
Disney’s department The Secret Lab did the CGI for the characters in Dinosaur.
The film makers utilized a technique called the Dyno Cam where they placed the camera on a cable between 2 towers in order to capture the perspective of a large roaming dinosaur.
Visual Style
Dinosaur features an interesting mix of CGI characters with live-action backgrounds. The production team created the backgrounds for Dinosaur using footage from different places around the world including Venezuela, Hawaii, Florida, Australia, Western Samoa, Jordan, and California. In some cases, the footage from different locations were combined to create more amazing landscapes.
Notable Scene(s)
Opening scene of the egg traveling through different locations
The destruction of lemur island