Barnes & Noble

Somewhere between Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost and Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park lies Dinotopia -- a remote island paradise where humans live in harmony with dinosaurs (well, the herbivores, at any rate). Author James Gurney's books are liberally interpreted in this spectacular four-hour miniseries (nominated for seven Emmy Awards, including Best Miniseries), which features awesome special effects from the Walking with Dinosaurs people. Tyron Leitso and Wentworth Miller star as Carl and David, estranged brothers who wash up on Dinotopia's shores after the plane in which they are island-hopping with their father crashes into the ocean. From a ride on the back of a Brachiosaur to a too-close encounter with a herd of rampaging T-rexes, it doesn't take long to convince the brothers that they aren't in Kansas anymore. Taking them under her wing is the beautiful Marion (Katie Carr), a 20th-generation Dinotopian who squires them to Waterfall City, where the newcomers become "the talk of the place" and enroll in the local academy. While David comes to feel at home in Dinotopia, Carl just wants to go home. And both fall in love with Marion. Their destiny is to save Dinotopia by venturing into the forbidden World Beneath to procure sunstones, which are used to fend off the island's deadliest residents. The digital dinos steal scenes with abandon, especially Dinotopia's answer to C3PO, the talking, Ping Pong-playing Zippo, and the adorable dino baby, 26. Among the humans, David Thewlis stands out as the scheming outlaw Cyrus Crabb, with Alice Krige as the island's matriarch (far nicer here than in her Borg Queen guise from Star Trek). Dinotopia, as David remarks at one point, is "mind-blowing." Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Based on the children's books by author/illustrator James Gurney, the three-part, six-hour ABC miniseries Dinotopia got under way when a pair of teenaged half brothers, Karl and David Scott, took over the controls of their father Frank's (Stuart Wilson) private plane. Not surprisingly, the boys crashed the plane into the ocean, whereupon they were washed on the shore of an unchartered continent. While searching for their missing dad, Karl and David wandered into Waterfall City, the capitol of Dinotopia, a hidden civilization where human beings and dinosaurs peacefully coexisted. In fact, some of the dinosaurs, notably a neurotic Stenonychosaurus named Zippo, possessed human intelligence and spoke perfect English. Among the many rules in Dinotopia was the edict that, once an outsider arrived, he or she was never allowed to leave. As Karl and David prepared to take their rightful places in their new surroundings, both boys developed a strong bond with young Marion (Katie Carr), who was on the verge of becoming a "matriarch" of the Dinotopian society. Unfortunately, the incursion of vicious carnivores, not to mention an unanticipated human villain, threatened to destroy Dinotopia and everyone living on the island. Decked out with special effects courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop and the British FrameStore CFC, Dinotopia was designed as the pilot for a proposed weekly ABC adventure series. Co-produced by Disney Television and Hallmark Entertainment, the miniseries premiered as an episode of the Wonderful World of Disney anthology on May 12, 2002. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 707729128397
• Source: LIONS GATE
• Region Code: 1
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Time: 4:00:00
• Sales Rank: 7,016

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