Dinotasia Reviews
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Anthony L
Super Reviewer
September 3, 2012
Dinotasia claims to be cutting edge 'palaeontology' and have 'cutting edge SFX' based on the latest 'fossil records'. The truth is that you've never seen anything like it before because you've never seen anything as bad before. It makes the Ice Age films look like documentaries. I hope Werner Herzog got paid good money for his brief narration. Avoid at all costs.
Marcus W
Super Reviewer
December 28, 2012
A low budget is no excuse for such low quality. Not even Herzog can save it.
May 10, 2013
I want to like it, I mean Dinosaur on a mushroom trip is kinda cool, but I cant quite bring myself to appreciate this film in any way.
May 6, 2013
It's barely educational, Werner Herzog's vocal talents are criminally underutilized, the tone is inconsistent, the effects are hit-and-miss, and the whole thing is just a meandering, pointless waste of time.
April 18, 2013
I didn't find this too bad at all! As a dinosaur fan I was a bit disappointed with some of the inaccuracies ("cutting edge' is a bit of an exaggeration imo, except for the little feathered theropods which were portrayed brilliantly) but for short little clips it was quite entertaining - this is not meant to be some heart-rending drama with intricate plots and frills for the kids' amusement. I found much of it better than the BBC representation most people know of simply because it's not trying to appeal to the masses; you're not spoondfed as to what is happening and who the characters are. Another reviewer put it aptly when they said, "This decision to avoid treating the dinosaurs as surrogate people for easy identification is... the film's boldest move". Maybe you need to be a dinosaur nut to do so, but enjoy it for what it is - one group's representation and interpretation of non-avian dinosaur life.
gillianren
April 17, 2013
There is an episode of the TV show [i]Leverage[/i] wherein they are working in an office that is simultaneously the subject of a documentary. Peter Stomare plays "Gunter Hanzig," whom I spotted to be a fake Werner Herzog right away. I mean, it was incredibly obvious. However, it took Graham until the beginning narration of this to see it. Part of that, I admit, is that I've seen a heck of a lot more of Werner's documentaries than he has. He only sometimes pays attention when I'm watching them, and I've been known to watch them when he isn't home. I believe it's how I saw [i]Grizzly Man[/i], and I know it's how I saw [i]Encounters at the End of the World[/i]. Heck, I saw [i]Cave of Forgotten Dreams[/i] in the theatre without him. However, the fake-Werner's dialogue was more like the narration in this than it's like the narration of any real Werner Herzog documentary that I've seen, and I've seen a few.
Through the miracle of bad animation, filmmakers David Krentz and Erik Nelson take us back to the time of the dinosaurs. We see various species, each segment of which is accompanied by a brief declaration by Werner about how all life is fleeting or some such. Unlike in really Herzog documentaries, he never actually tells us anything helpful, such as the names of any of these species. There are brief title cards telling us where and when the segments take place, but I think we are either expected to already know the various species or else not care. Anyway, we watch them live and die--mostly die. As is generally the case with this sort of thing, we see few enough of the prey animals that we might suspect that there are a lot more predators than the ecosystem will support. These are never encounters between vast herds of prey facing a lone predator or a small pack; these are lone predators or small packs going up against at most a half-dozen prey, probably picking out the young, healthy ones at that.
As it happens, I was That Kid when I was little. I still have a couple of the books about dinosaurs that Mom gave me for Christmas when I was perhaps nine. (One is actually more a history of life on Earth, and though it's twenty-five years out of date, it's not bad.) This means that, while I may not know as much about dinosaurs as all the variants on That Kid who are nine right now, I'm still able to catch an error or two, and I'm bothered by the lack of explanation about practically everything. I would imagine the kids to whom this is most likely to appeal will feel the same way, and they won't even have the advantage of knowing who Werner Herzog is. They will, for example, spot the obvious fact that they basically just filmed current locations and stuck animated dinosaurs over them, a thing that bothered me about the Disney [i]Dinosaur[/i] as well. I mean, there's grass all the way through, and not nearly enough ferns, either.
On the other hand, nine-year-olds who are just interested in watching dinosaurs eat each other should do just fine. There's an awful lot of gore to this for no good purpose. It quickly becomes apparent that this should not be seen as an educational program. In part because of the paucity of the narration, we don't learn very much about how these dinosaurs lived. I mean, there are implications, and we do see dinosaurs nesting, but there is a lot more in the way of battling. Even the scene that's in theory about the asteroid that took the dinosaurs out (and at least it does show us that they evolved into birds!) includes dinosaurs going after one another. At great length and for no good reason. The moments shortly thereafter that are doubtless supposed to be heartwarming are merely laughable, and I found the rest of it boring enough that I probably missed bits that weren't actually various fluids spraying across the screen. I just paid enough attention to listen to Werner, really.
And, yeah, the animation is pretty lousy. There's a bit early on where there's a giant red blotch on the Moon that I assume is supposed to be foreshadowing for the giant red blotch that will take over the Earth and destroy most of the dinosaurs, but I'm pretty sure that's a serious anachronism. I'm pretty sure all those giant craters were formed long before there was multicellular life on Earth. So, yeah. It's not terribly good, and it's not terribly accurate, and it's not terribly informative. This is a bad combination all the way around, which makes it a crying shame that they went through the expense of getting Werner. I assume it wasn't much effort, given that Erik Nelson is a regular producer for Werner's films. However, they might as well have gotten him to write some narration while he was at it. Even if he just quoted from the [i]Popul Vuh[/i] some more, it couldn't have been worse than what they wrote for him. Or, come to think about it, much more out of left field.
Barely Even a Film
There is an episode of the TV show [i]Leverage[/i] wherein they are working in an office that is simultaneously the subject of a documentary. Peter Stomare plays "Gunter Hanzig," whom I spotted to be a fake Werner Herzog right away. I mean, it was incredibly obvious. However, it took Graham until the beginning narration of this to see it. Part of that, I admit, is that I've seen a heck of a lot more of Werner's documentaries than he has. He only sometimes pays attention when I'm watching them, and I've been known to watch them when he isn't home. I believe it's how I saw [i]Grizzly Man[/i], and I know it's how I saw [i]Encounters at the End of the World[/i]. Heck, I saw [i]Cave of Forgotten Dreams[/i] in the theatre without him. However, the fake-Werner's dialogue was more like the narration in this than it's like the narration of any real Werner Herzog documentary that I've seen, and I've seen a few.
Through the miracle of bad animation, filmmakers David Krentz and Erik Nelson take us back to the time of the dinosaurs. We see various species, each segment of which is accompanied by a brief declaration by Werner about how all life is fleeting or some such. Unlike in really Herzog documentaries, he never actually tells us anything helpful, such as the names of any of these species. There are brief title cards telling us where and when the segments take place, but I think we are either expected to already know the various species or else not care. Anyway, we watch them live and die--mostly die. As is generally the case with this sort of thing, we see few enough of the prey animals that we might suspect that there are a lot more predators than the ecosystem will support. These are never encounters between vast herds of prey facing a lone predator or a small pack; these are lone predators or small packs going up against at most a half-dozen prey, probably picking out the young, healthy ones at that.
As it happens, I was That Kid when I was little. I still have a couple of the books about dinosaurs that Mom gave me for Christmas when I was perhaps nine. (One is actually more a history of life on Earth, and though it's twenty-five years out of date, it's not bad.) This means that, while I may not know as much about dinosaurs as all the variants on That Kid who are nine right now, I'm still able to catch an error or two, and I'm bothered by the lack of explanation about practically everything. I would imagine the kids to whom this is most likely to appeal will feel the same way, and they won't even have the advantage of knowing who Werner Herzog is. They will, for example, spot the obvious fact that they basically just filmed current locations and stuck animated dinosaurs over them, a thing that bothered me about the Disney [i]Dinosaur[/i] as well. I mean, there's grass all the way through, and not nearly enough ferns, either.
On the other hand, nine-year-olds who are just interested in watching dinosaurs eat each other should do just fine. There's an awful lot of gore to this for no good purpose. It quickly becomes apparent that this should not be seen as an educational program. In part because of the paucity of the narration, we don't learn very much about how these dinosaurs lived. I mean, there are implications, and we do see dinosaurs nesting, but there is a lot more in the way of battling. Even the scene that's in theory about the asteroid that took the dinosaurs out (and at least it does show us that they evolved into birds!) includes dinosaurs going after one another. At great length and for no good reason. The moments shortly thereafter that are doubtless supposed to be heartwarming are merely laughable, and I found the rest of it boring enough that I probably missed bits that weren't actually various fluids spraying across the screen. I just paid enough attention to listen to Werner, really.
And, yeah, the animation is pretty lousy. There's a bit early on where there's a giant red blotch on the Moon that I assume is supposed to be foreshadowing for the giant red blotch that will take over the Earth and destroy most of the dinosaurs, but I'm pretty sure that's a serious anachronism. I'm pretty sure all those giant craters were formed long before there was multicellular life on Earth. So, yeah. It's not terribly good, and it's not terribly accurate, and it's not terribly informative. This is a bad combination all the way around, which makes it a crying shame that they went through the expense of getting Werner. I assume it wasn't much effort, given that Erik Nelson is a regular producer for Werner's films. However, they might as well have gotten him to write some narration while he was at it. Even if he just quoted from the [i]Popul Vuh[/i] some more, it couldn't have been worse than what they wrote for him. Or, come to think about it, much more out of left field.
April 11, 2013
Beautiful. And I love the stories. There are a few inaccuracies in behavior here and there but not too many. However, this should, most definitely, not be marketed as a documentary. There is no information beyond time periods. It has practically no narration, and what it does have, isn't informative at all. It never so much as states a single dinosaur name, let alone information about it's muscle structure, brain size, or other helpful information. Good piece of art, not a documentary.
February 9, 2013
Amazing amount of phlegm, fluids, excrement, blood and guts. Thrilling and disgusting with Werner Herzog as a gentle, yet confusing guide through the chaos.
Jeff T.
February 8, 2013
One of the most amazing films I've seen in the last few years. Had to watch it twice in a row. The first bit involving the Permian extinction seems like it was tacked on as an afterthought - like they went over budget. But beyond that, it's perfect, although, as one reviewer points out - the animation runs slightly hot & cold, but when it's on (which is 90% of the film), it's awe inspiring! This is oscar material - visual effects, editing, sound, possibly animated feature. I would never in a million years guessed that this was made for the Discovery channel.
January 28, 2013
Watching Dinotasia and the only way I can think of it is as a visual comic book like Dinosaur: Age of Reptiles. I can understand the bad reviews if you thought it was going to be some kind of documentary, but it's actually pretty damn funny with good CG all things considered.
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