Dino Time (2012) Directed by Yoon-suk Choi & John Kafka

After I saw the cover and this movie its cast-lists, I just knew I had to see this movie. It had disaster written all over it! But was it really as bad as expected? Well, in all honesty, it's not a complete disaster.

Of course it's still a pretty bad and certainly simplistic little animated movie but it's still a watchable enough one, especially for little kids of course, who are into dinosaurs and adventure type of stuff.

There are still plenty of problems with it obviously. The story is not only not a very original one, it's also quite weak. It handles most of the characters poorly and its main plot is lacking a good clear main point. I have no idea what the villains in this movie wanted for instance and I also have no real idea how the kids were trying to get back to modern times, after being send back to the dinosaur age by a time-machine (yes, I know, the story is very creative..). It's also the sort of the movie that tries to crowbar in all sort of messages and lessons about life but it does it in such an ineffective way that it actually never starts to become anything distracting or annoying, so it's not a real complaint in this case.

Animation-wise, it's a decent enough looking movie. We have reached a point by now that the technology is advanced in such a way- and easy and cheap to use, that it's basically impossible for a modern computer animated movie to look terrible. It isn't a very detailed looking movie and it's all a bit too colorful for my taste (I mean, really, a pink T-Rex?) but after all, this foremost is still a kids movie, so they most likely won't complain about it.

It's simplicity is the most annoying aspects about this movie. It has too many conveniences in it and just a few minor additions to this movie its story and changes to some of its characters would have made this movie most likely a far better and more engaging one to watch. It doesn't offer any surprises, though its action makes up for some of this.

The humor feels a bit too forced and so do some of its characters. Some of the characters are only in this to serve as comical relief but it doesn't work out too well, since the comedy isn't anything too creative. It even has fart jokes in it, which should tell you something about the comedy its quality and creativity.

Not laughably bad but still a pretty bad movie nevertheless, that's only remotely good and fun to watch for very young children.

4/10

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