Movie review: We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

[Cretaceous Crab]

My soon-to-be 7-yr-old is in his dinosaur phase at the moment, and has, among many other programs, started watching "We're Back" since he discovered it on Netflix.

I remember seeing this when it first came out. Looking back at it now as an adult, I how its a shame this movie was not better. As an Amblin animated feature in the same style as An American Tale and The Land Before Time, it certainly had the potential. The general premise is golden: dinosaurs brought back from prehistory to make kids' dreams come true.

But somewhere along the way in production, the story got rather clunky and somewhat confusing...at least to me anyway. Even John Goodman couldn't carry all the weight in his role as the voice behind "Rex" the Tyrannosaurus. The animation was also not as well done as the other aforementioned films.

The film always left me with some questions:
1.) Why does Professor Screweyes have a screw eye to begin with? and why & how does it bestow mystical powers to him?
2.) Why was the contract that Louie & Cecilia signed to join the circus so binding that the dinosaurs had to make a deal with Screweyes, when Stubbs the Clown (who presumably also under contract) simply quit and walked away from his employer no strings attached?

Anyone else feel this way?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I remember reading the original books and enjoying them as a kid.  The movie was sorta Don Bluth like, but the premise I think was too simple so they convoluted it with a villain ( actually a great villain who could have told a lot more of his story. )   

Neweyes, his brother only says he was driven mad by the loss of his eye many years ago.  I feel they were to be like Yin and Yang , sort of like in Doctor Who, The Doctor and the Master.  Both have time travel tech but Screweyes is very much like Ray Bradbury's Mr. Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes..see how messy this getting? lol

Stubbs originally worked for that circus when it was called the " Legitimate Circus " lol   then Screweyes took it over.  He was probably still working on the old contract and hadn't made a new one with the Prof.

[Cretaceous Crab]

Good points.

I also felt that the contract signing scene was very reminiscent of the Little Mermaid, including the part where King Triton agreed to take Ariel's place with Ursula.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Yeah there were a lot of animators/concept artists pulling from a LOT  of areas..I wish we had a dvd/bluray with more behind the scenes to make sense of it.  The only real noteworthy thing on Wiki was it was put together in the U.K. at the same studio/time as Fieval Goes West.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27re_Back!_A_Dinosaur%27s_Story_(film)