WALKING WITH DINOSAURS 3D

Stars: Charlie Rowe, Karl Urban and Angourie Rice.
Featuring the voices of: Justin Long, John Leguizamo, Skyler Stone and Tiya Sircar.
Writer: John Collee.
Directors: Barry Cook and John Nightingale.

Rating: 3/5

Fifteen years after the groundbreaking BBC documentary series became a television phenomenon and in the wake of the arena spectacular that brought the creatures of prehistory to a live audience, the inevitable big-screen brand expansion of the Walking with Dinosaurs property proves to be as slickly-packaged an endeavour as you’d expect from any franchise entrant. That said, extinction for this mighty marketing behemoth feels a little bit closer.

The co-directing mash-up of animation savvy Barry Cook (Mulan; Arthur Christmas) and wildlife doco maestro John Nightingale (producer of the recent theatrical release, One Life) is understandable; each brings the prerequisite skills needed to nail both the emotional and natural realism asked of by the story. They stick very close to the visual aesthetics that proved so successful on the smallscreen; state-of-the-art effects propel the audience into the late Cretaceous period, specifically to within a Pachyrinosaurus herd and their hatchlings as they enjoy an Alaskan spring.

Also held over from the 1999 series is an educational element; as each dinosaur appears, the frame will freeze and a child-like voiceover will give the scientific name, its English translation and its dietary requirements.

Where the film will most wilfully divide impatient parents and their pre-teen company is in the decision to anthropomorphize the lead characters with tart, mall-teen attitudes in the service of a rickety first love/boy-to-man plot. Our protagonist, ‘Patchy’, is voiced by Justin Long with that wide-eyed, ‘golly gee!’ cadence personified by stock Mouse House characters. It is not the only similarity to the Disney oeuvre: many elements recall the studio’s own Dinosaur (not to mention the Land Before Time animated series) and the films narrator, Alex (voiced by John Leguizamo), a wise and witty overseer and feathered friend to Patchy, is clearly modelled upon Rowan Atkinson’s Zazu from The Lion King.

The ultra-realism of the beasts and their surrounds are done a disservice by the ‘Saturday-morning cartoon’ dialogue from the usually reliable John Collee (Happy Feet; Master and Commander). One can envision a version from which the dialogue is removed entirely and fresh narration recorded to accompany the journey of the main characters, with far greater emotional impact. The prehistoric-set narrative is bookended by scenes between a paleontologist (Karl Urban) and his surly teen nephew (Charlie Rowe) that are designed to enhance the ‘personal growth’ subtext but seem throwaway.

Reservations aside, the beautiful widescreen cinematography (landscape footage was shot in Alaska and New Zealand) by first-timer John Brooks melds seamlessly with the pixel-perfect creations of Australian effects house Animal Logic and proves sufficiently captivating in spite of the blah storytelling. Our fascination with the thunder lizards of yore has never waned, which should ensure this spectacle, however undercooked narratively, is a big hit with family audiences.