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DVD: 'Dinotopia' mostly a waste of space
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 1, 2002
Dinotopia
The dinosaur craze became extinct around the time Jurassic Park III slunk out of theaters, but that didn't prevent ABC from sinking $80-million into Dinotopia, a six-hour miniseries that probably killed that television format for a while.
Viewers weren't impressed -- the Nielsen ratings dropped on the second and third nights -- yet Hallmark Home Entertainment has a splashy two-disc DVD set, preserving Dinotopia for future generations to understand what went wrong.
For starters, Dinotopia is a silly idea to stretch out that long. Two brothers, played by Tyron Leitso and Wentworth Miller (so you know where the budget wasn't spent), get marooned on a mysterious island where dinosaurs and a fairy-tale race called Saurians co-exist mostly in peace. The T-Rex still has a bad attitude. A quest develops to find the mystical sunstones needed to save the Saurians, with stilted dialogue and hammy acting that would make a Hobbit smirk.
To make you hit the fast-forward button, there's also Zippo (voice of Lee Evans), a talking critter who must have been conceived before anyone dreamed what a bad idea Jar Jar Binks would turn out to be.
Skip the movie and head directly to disc two and the special features. An animated dinosaur encyclopedia is interesting, with nine creatures profiled, sound effects and information about where to find the dinosaurs in the movie. A guided tour of the Dinotopia island provides everything a viewer needs to appreciate the movie, the fantastic set designs and computer backgrounds, and the lifelike dinosaurs.
From there, the bonus quality drops off considerably. An animated photo gallery twirls through publicity stills, and the Saurian alphabet is displayed so everyone can "write a secret coded message!" A maze game featuring a dinosaur hatchling named 26 is tedious and almost Ponglike in its simplicity. Game Boy enthusiasts may appreciate the cheat tips provided in an advertisement for Dinotopia: The Timestone Pirates. Two deleted scenes are included, but after six hours, what of any importance could be left?
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