[HanCinema's Film Review] "Dino Time"

Ernie is a young boy who's a bit of a pest. He insists on narrating everything. Oh, and I guess he kind of sort causes unnecessary dangerous catatrophes for no real reason, but personally, it's the narration that really got to me. Stop acting like we're friends Ernie. You're an obnoxious brat who makes me long for the good old days when we used to beat disobedient children with rods. Unfortunately the good old days in "Dino Time" are rather a more romantic lot, featuring obviously carnivorous and obviously herbivorous dinosaurs living in apparent mutual harmony.

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I don't normally like to attack children's cartoons for using poor science, but "Dino Time" has the audacity to advertise an endorsement from the Korean Science Teachers' Association. I guess maybe the movie is somewhat accurate to the extent that dinosaurs probably looked like this. I'm not a paleontologist, so I can't say that for sure. But as a film critic, I can assure you mainly that the story of this movie mainly concerns Ernie making terrible decisions which the script tries to whitewash. Don't get me started on the ending. By all rights that should have led to all of them experiencing horrible deaths.

Let's look at the technical end. Analysis of the credits indicates that the Koreans, led by Choi Yoon-seok-I, were responsible for the animation. Decent quality, for whatever that's worth. The Americans, led by John Kafka, managed the sound, and so far as I can tell the bulk of the production materials. I don't know whose specific idea this movie was, but it was clearly designed with an American setting in mind.

The story rather obviously takes place in Colorado, judging by the urban planning, mountain scapes, and community love of dinosaurs. More than that whoever decided to name the main character Ernie obviously lacks any knowledge of spoken Korean. Ernie is homophonically equivalent to 언니, such that every time someone said his name I thought they were talking about an older sister.

That much is trivia, but I'm not sure anything about this movie is worth discussing except as a trivia point. "Dino Time" is a low-rent, low-quality film and it's easy to see why it's been shelved for so long. Presumably the movie has made the rounds on the DVD circuit, since there do appear to be other people who have watched it. As to why it's being released theatrically in South Korea right now, I can only assume it's because this is technically a South Korean film and every so often theaters need new animated material for the kid's audience.

If you're the kind of parent who just wants to distract the kids for awhile and don't want to risk inspiring any kind of...anything, maybe you'll get some use out of "Dino Time". If you want your children to grow up with some sense of refinement just watch "Speckles: The Tarbosaurus" instead. It's less family-friendly, in that the dinosaurs actually seriously fight each other instead of singing kumbaya. But the animation is vivid, the science accurate, the narration relevant, the action epic, and the 3D isn't completely pointless. Why did anyone think it was important to release "Dino Time" in 3D? The world may never know.

Review by William Schwartz

"Dino Time" is directed by Choi Yoon-seok-I and John Kafka