Dinosaur (2000 film)

"Disney's Dinosaur" redirects here. For the video game, see Disney's Dinosaur (video game). For the park attraction, see Dinosaur (Disney's Animal Kingdom). For the family sitcom also produced by Disney, see Dinosaurs (TV series).

Dinosaur
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Walon Green
  • John Harrison
  • Robert Nelson Jacobs
  • Thom Enriquez
  • Ralph Zondag
Produced byPam Marsden
Starring
Cinematography
  • David Hardberger
  • S. Douglas Smith
Edited byH. Lee Peterson
Music byJames Newton Howard
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution[a]
Release dates
  • May 13, 2000 (2000-05-13) (El Capitan Theatre)
  • May 19, 2000 (2000-05-19) (United States)
Running time
82 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$127.5 million[1]
Box office$349.8 million[1]

Dinosaur is a 2000 American live-action/animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in association with The Secret Lab, and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Pam Marsden, from a screenplay written by John Harrison, Robert Nelson Jacobs, and Walon Green, and a story by the trio alongside Zondag and Thom Enriquez. It features the voices of D. B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel E. Wright, Julianna Margulies, Peter Siragusa, Joan Plowright, and Della Reese. The story follows a young Iguanodon who was adopted and raised by a family of lemurs on a tropical island. They are forced to the mainland by a catastrophic meteor impact; setting out to find a new home, they join a herd of dinosaurs heading for the "Nesting Grounds", but must contend with the group's harsh leader, as well as external dangers such as predatory Carnotaurus.

The initial idea was conceived in 1986 by Phil Tippett and Paul Verhoeven, which they conceived as a darker, naturalistic film about dinosaurs. The project underwent numerous iterations with multiple directors attached. In 1994, Walt Disney Feature Animation began development on the project and spent several years developing the software to create the dinosaurs. The characters in Dinosaur are computer-generated. However, most of the backgrounds are live-action and were filmed on location. A number of backgrounds were found in various continents such as the Americas and Asia; various tepuis and Angel Falls also appear in the film. With a budget of $127.5 million, Dinosaur was reportedly the most expensive computer-animated film at the time.[2][3] Dinosaur is also the first film from Walt Disney Feature Animation to be 3D animated.

Dinosaur was released on May 19, 2000, to generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the film's opening sequence, soundtrack and animation, but criticized the story for its lack of originality.[4] The film grossed $349 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2000.[1] It became the fourth best-selling home video release of 2001, selling 10.6 million copies and garnering $198 million in sales.[5]


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  1. ^ a b c d "Dinosaur (2000)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
  2. ^ Ansen, David; Chang, Yahlin (May 15, 2000). "Building a Better Dinosaur". Newsweek. pp. 58–64. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  3. ^ Eller, Claudia (May 12, 2000). "Disney Chief Lets Out Roar Amid Anxiety Over Costly 'Dinosaur'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 6, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  4. ^ Stewart, James B. (2005). DisneyWar. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 356. ISBN 0-684-80993-1.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference year-end was invoked but never defined (see the help page).