We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

'We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story' is a 1993 American animated science fiction adventure film. Produced by Amblimation, Steven Spielberg's animation studio, directed by Simon Wells, distributed by Universal Pictures, and originally released to theaters on November 24, 1993 for the United States. It was based on the 1987 Hudson Talbott children's book of the same name, which was narrated from the perspective of the main character, a Tyrannosaurus rex named Rex. At the time, the movie was fairly received, but nowadays, critics have taken a disliking to this movie. Although, that doesn't stop some people from liking this movie.

Plot
The film opens with a trio of young bluebirds harassing their youngest sibling, Buster (Blaze Berdahl). As Buster leaves his family, he meets an intelligent orange T. Rex named Rex (John Goodman) playing golf. He explains to Buster that he was once a ravaging dinosaur, and proceeds to tell the story of how he came to become what he is today. 65 million years in the past in the Cretaceous Montana, Rex was a savage and frightening creature who terrorized smaller dinosaurs. As he is seen chasing a Thescelosaurus, his rampage is interrupted when a futuristic aircraft arrives, and he is then greeted by a small green alien-like creature named Vorb (Jay Leno) who lures him into the craft and force feeds him "Brain Grain", a cereal that increases a creature's intelligence. Rex is given his name and introduced to other dinosaurs that have been fed Brain Grain: Dweeb the green Parasaurolophus (Charles Fleischer), Woog the blue Triceratops (Rene LeVant) and Elsa the purple Pteranodon (Felicity Kendal), who develops an immediate crush on Rex. Later, they meet Captain Neweyes (Walter Cronkite), the inventor of the cereal and pilot of the aircraft, who then reveals his goal of allowing the children of the present time to see real dinosaurs, fulfilling their biggest wishes. He informs them that there are two people to watch for: Dr. Julia Bleeb (Julia Child), a scientist from the Museum of Natural History who will aid the dinosaurs, and Professor Screweyes, Neweyes' insane brother. He instructs them to find Bleeb and avoid Screweyes.

Neweyes drops the dinosaurs off at the East River in 1993, where they meet a young boy named Louie (Joey Shea), who plans on running away to join the circus. Upon reaching New York City, Louie realizes that the citizens would panic if they saw live dinosaurs and, with the help of Elsa, flies over the city in search of a good hiding place. During the flight, Louie comes across a girl named Cecilia (Yeardley Smith), who was crying; she explains that her parents are hardly around (saying that her father is into business, and her mother is more of a socialite). Louie convinces Cecilia to abandon her home and introduces her to the dinosaurs (Louie and Cecilia then quickly develop an infatuation for each other).

When the dinosaurs explain their goal of getting to the Museum of Natural History, Louie decides to disguise them as floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. During the parade, Rex hears all the children wishing to see real dinosaurs, so he starts to sing "Roll Back the Rock (To the Dawn of Time)" (the movie's theme song). When he sees the Apatosaurus balloon coming out in the parade however, Rex mistakes it for being real and hand shakes it too tight with his claws, causing its air sealer to pop open. The balloon runs out of air and falls on the dinosaurs, who are otherwise unharmed. When the audience realizes that live dinosaurs are among them, they fly into a panic. The local authorities are called in to stop the dinosaurs, resulting in a slapstick-filled chase scene.

As the dinosaurs lose the police, Louie and Cecilia venture to Central Park, where Professor Screweyes (Kenneth Mars) is running his "Eccentric Circus". They meet Professor Screweyes and cite their desire to join his circus. As they sign a contract, the dinosaurs arrive and try to save them. Screweyes, upon meeting the dinosaurs, explains that he delights in scaring people and believes that the dinosaurs would make a great addition to his circus. He then reveals his very own "Brain Drain", pills that are the polar opposite of his brother's Brain Grain. He demonstrates the Brain Drain on the two children, devolving them into chimpanzees; however, he makes the dinosaurs a deal: if the dinosaurs consume the pills and join his circus, he'd destroy the contract and release Louie and Cecilia; reluctantly and sadly, the dinosaurs accept the offer.

Believing that his friendship with Louie and Cecilia would be lost, Rex, reverting them back to their human selves (and thus wearing off the effects of the Brain Drain), tells the two to remember him.

As the kids awake the next morning, they are greeted by a circus clown named Stubbs (Martin Short). Upon seeing the dinosaurs returned to their natural vicious states, Louie and Cecilia, with the help of Stubbs, plan to sneak into the night's show and save the dinosaurs. Professor Screweyes claims he can control the now-wild Rex, which he succeeds in doing by hypnotizing him. Everyone watching the show gets frightened during the performance, and many run away. However, a crow accidentally activates flare lights, breaking Rex out of the trance and causing the hypnotic effect to end. The savage Rex realizes he has been tricked, becomes enraged and tries to attack Screweyes. However, Louie steps in and desperately tells Rex that killing Screweyes will not be worth it; these impassioned pleas serve to return the dinosaurs to their friendly natures. Just then, Captain Neweyes arrives in his aircraft and congratulates Louie and Cecilia, who proceed to kiss in front of a whole crowd of people; simultaneously, Elsa tells Rex her true feelings towards him, possibly sparking a relationship between the two. After Stubbs arrives to resign from Professor Screweyes's employ (which includes him giving him back most of his belongings with comedic results), Neweyes, Louie, Cecilia and the dinosaurs board the aircraft, leaving Screweyes to be swarmed upon by the crows. When the crows take off, all that is left of Screweyes is his fake eye.

The dinosaurs spend the rest of their days in the Museum of Natural History, allowing children to see live dinosaurs, fulfilling their wishes. Meanwhile, Louie and Cecilia reconcile with their respective parents, and the two become a couple.

Rex returns Buster to his family before returning to the Museum of National History, humming the movie's theme song to himself.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Unlikeable and often annoying characters, particularly with Rex, Vorb, and the main human characters Louie and Cecilia.
 * 2) Poorly-written script.
 * 3) It overuses making the camera do close-ups on the characters' eyes.
 * 4) While Rex and the other dinosaurs are the center characters of the film, they aren't the main characters as they are more of the supportive characters. The real main characters are Louie and Cecilia, both of whom don't even appear until later on in the film.
 * 5) There are low quality scenes such as Stubbs giving Professor Screweyes almost all of his belongings that drag on way too long and an unconvincing scene of Rex singing.
 * 6) A part of the film re-uses animation of Vorb telling the captain to go.
 * 7) The idea of a story about dinosaurs going forth in time to make children happy is utterly ridiculous.
 * 8) It implies that kids only like dinosaurs if they get turned into cute, cuddly Barney rip-offs, whereas a major reason as to why dinosaurs are popular with kids is because they can be big and scary.
 * 9) The crows swarming over Screweyes and leaving his screw behind is rather unsettling, and it is not really clear what they do to him, nor is his relationship to them really explained.
 * 10) There's quite a major plot hole that Buster (the little bird Rex tells his story to) would even question the fact that he is interacting with an animal intelligent enough to speak and play golf (albeit one believed to be a member of an extinct reptilian species), considering he and his family also somehow have the ability to speak. While Rex explains very early on how his own humanistic abilities came to be - by consuming a cereal that is designed and later shown to increase intelligence, personality and overall development in animals - those of the little bird remain unexplained throughout the entire film. Was some of that cereal added to the bird feeders in Central Park offscreen? There's no additional explanation as to how Rex can communicate with another animal that otherwise is not known to have the same abilities.
 * 11) There are a few animation errors like in the scene when one of the punk teenagers taunts Louie, Cecilia cries out in fear but her mouth doesn't move.
 * 12) Shameful product placements. The advertisement for Jurassic Park (which released the same year) in the Times Square scene also doesn't help.
 * 13) There's a major error with regards to Woog and Dweeb in this movie. Both of these dinosaurs were herbivores, yet when they first appear in the film, they're eating hot dogs, which are essentially meat.
 * 14) Someone mistakenly describes Dweeb as an Apatosaurus, even though he is in fact a Parasaurolophus.
 * 15) It uses the typical "the power of love can solve everything" cliché.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The animation is great, with movements are fluid and there's lots of vivid colors, since it was animated by Amblimation, the studio behind An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
 * 2) James Horner's score is pretty beautiful.
 * 3) The voice acting is decent, such as John Goodman as Rex.
 * 4) There are a couple of funny scenes that make this film somewhat likable (like when Stubs quitting).
 * 5) Stubs and Captain Neweyes are likable characters.
 * 6) Prof. Screweyes is a rather frightening villain with a neat design.

Trivia

 * Captain Neweyes' last line "And that's the way it is" is a reference to his voice actor, Walter Cronkite, who used it as a sign-off phrase on television. Years later, Walter Cronkite would voice Benjamin Franklin on the animated TV series Liberty's Kids.
 * As the dinosaurs dance around Times Square, it is possible to see a theatre marquee advertising Jurassic Park (1993), which was directed by executive producer Steven Spielberg.
 * The film was originally planned to be a TV special.
 * A scene in which Prof. Screweyes cages and chains the dinosaurs was fully animated, but ultimately cut from the movie on the grounds that it was too intense. Shots of it can still be seen in the original trailer.
 * At the very beginning of the parade scene, a marching band is seen holding a banner that says "Arcadia High School Marching Band". Steven Spielberg attended Arcadia High School in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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