Product Description

A fantastic marriage of state-of-the-art computer technology, thrilling live action, and breathtaking ingenuity, " Dinotopia" emerges as one of the most ambitious and technically advanced projects in the history of television. While flying on holiday with their estranged father, Karl (Tyron Leitso) and David (Wentworth Miller) find themselves in unexpected bad weather, which sends their plane crashing to the shores of Dinotopia. In this fantastic lost world, built upon long-established principles of mutual respect, humans and dinosaurs peacefully coexist. The two brothers are as astounded by the benevolent creatures as they are enraptured by Marion (Katie Carr), the mayor's beautiful precocious daughter who welcomes them both to the wonders of Dinotopia. However, harmony does not prevail everywhere. Just beyond Dinotopia's capital, Waterfall City, are deadly carnivores that pose a constant threat to the delicate balance of nature. Equally dangerous are human outlaws such as Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis), a pirate descendant who shuns the Dinotopian codes. But there is no greater concern than the mysterious failing of the sunstones, which power all of Dinotopian life. With the help of a brilliant (and multilingual) Stenonychosaurus named Zippo, Karl and David embark on a daring mission as the last hope for the prehistoric Eden they now call home. Constructed as one of the largest sets in the history of London's Pinewood Studios, with ground breaking special effects by the award-winning team at FrameStore, there has never been anything quite like "Dinotopia." Based on James Gurney's hugely popular books, adapted by Simon Moore and directed by action specialist Marco Brambilla, this is truly a mega-series that could only come from Hallmark Entertainment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9965 in DVD
• Brand: DINOTOPIA (DVD MOVIE)
• Released on: 2002-07-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Miniseries, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 250 minutes

Amazon.com
Kids will love this sweeping story of two brothers whose plane crashes on a mysterious island called Dinotopia, where human beings live in harmony with dinosaurs--the herbivores, anyway. The carnivores present a problem, as the humans' defenses against them--a mystical power source called sunstones--are losing strength. As they try to save the island, Carl and David (Tyron Leitso and Wentworth Miller) struggle not only with tyrannosaurs and prehistoric crocodiles, but also with repressive Dinotopian traditions and a scheming malcontent (David Thewlis) who stirs up all kinds of trouble. Meanwhile, they also wrestle with each other over the lovely daughter of the mayor of Waterfall City (Katie Carr). The pacifist ideals of Dinotopia are refreshing, but it's the special effects that will hook viewers: riding on the backs of brachiosaurs, flying atop pteranadons, arguing in court with triceratops and ankylosaurs--anyone fascinated with dinosaurs (and who isn't?) will enjoy this whimsical fantasy. A host of British character actors also helps keep the human side of this four-hour miniseries lively; Alice Krige (also known as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: The Next Generation) gets a much more benevolent role here. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

A wonderful 'fantasy world' miniseries
This is a GREAT 4 hour fantasy miniseries, with beautiful sets and production artwork, terrific special effects, and a pretty decent story line. Having said this, I have to admit that the plot was targeted at adolescents and young teens, and for an adult to fully enjoy the story requires that you slip your mind out of `critical gear' for a few hours.

Every time I watch Dinotopia, I am blown away by the unexpectedly high production values in this relatively unknown miniseries. Some of the reviews posted here lean in the direction that Dinotopia's effects are `almost as good' as movies like "Jurassic Park", and "Walking with Dinosaurs" but I actually think, in fairness, I would have to say that the effects in Dinotopia are better, or at least, at a minimum, more ambitious. The reason I say this is that Dinotopia takes on the MUCH more difficult challenge of turning some of the dinosaurs into full time, walking, talking, supporting characters, (and pulls this off remarkably well). Also, in this miniseries, a much higher percentage of the scenes are special effects shots involving a dinosaur character, and under these circumstances, you would think that there are bound to be a few shots that just don't quite hold up, but I'll be darned if I can pick out a single scene to cite as an example.

Given the fact that we are talking about maybe ten times the number of effects shots involving dinosaurs as there were in the first "Jurassic Park" movie, and given that the dinosaurs are interacting with the human characters in much more complex ways (in one scene, a man sized dinosaur named `Zippo' plays ping-pong with one of the human characters), I think they did an absolutely remarkable job on the effects in this miniseries.

Even minor characters like the `postal bird' are executed beautifully, and aside from the dinosaur effects, the quality of the sets and production artwork in many of the scenes is absolutely stunning, making this miniseries a real visual treat.

As far as the story line goes, I have to admit that I had to chuckle at times over the `psycho-babble', `granola-flake' perfection of the Dinotopian society, but this is, after all, a fantasy. Given the quantity and quality of the material, and the low cost of this DVD set, I think this miniseries was quite a bargain, and I can't think of another recent DVD purchase that has pleased me more.

2nd best movie after Harry Potter
I am 10 years old. I loved this movie SO MUCH! It was so exciting and I imagined myself riding a Skybax. Even though the movie is long, I watched over and over. Wouldn't it be so cool to live with the dinosaurs!

Entertainment and symbolic movie, with many levels waiting to be explored
This is a very entertaining movie, full of wonderful special effects and a consistent narrative, with many sub-plots (explored in the series version, with 13 episodes, although with different artists)going on. This "forgotten land theme", with humans and dinossaurs co-existing, can be explored and interpreted as archaic psychic archetypes: this exercise is more entertaining when done with several people watching the movie. If you only want to watch this movie "just for the fun", and you appreciate "dinossaurs on the flick", you won't be dissapointed. This unique movie has many layers of meaning expected to be explored, just like our multi-dimensional Self.