History WesternAnimation / Dinosaur

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Overlaps with ObviouslyEvil. Kron and Bruton have huge nasal horns, cruddy thumb-spikes, and basically look like they have been through a lot, but Aladar and Neera completely lack these features. It may be partially justified since the former are much older than the latter, as well as the idea that they've obviously been in ''many'' more fights.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Bruton. Not a great twist however, since he reveals he only has a harsh exterior pretty early on. Maybe Kron is a better example.

* RocksFallEveryoneDies: The meteors destroy the lemurs' island and kill most of them.

* OhCrap: Kron, upon-realizing that the lake has evaporated since he was there last. And also when he flees from the Carnotaur and realizes that the ravine is too hard to climb.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler: Kron.]]

* InverseLawOfSharpnessAndAccuracy: Pretty much none of the Iguanadons opt to use their actual thumb spikes. Kron slightly uses his in his fight with Alador, and even then only [[PaperCutting nicks him]] (with a slash no less). Trying to fight a Carnotaur is done via tail whipping and tackling rather then stabbing it in the neck.

* TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed: Since it's a dinosaur movie, we ''do'' get the obligatory meteor strike to kick off the plot, but the meteor damage appears to be confined to a relatively small area, and the dinosaurs manage to survive by migrating to the nearest fertile area. It's like they just assumed that giant meteors were a regular occurrence in the Cretaceous Era.

It is usually considered one of the weakest films in the canon, but still managed to be better than some later films that will go unmentioned. The main point of criticism is how [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks similar]] it was to [[DonBluth Don Bluth's]] ''TheLandBeforeTime''. Disney had been accused of copying [[KimbaTheWhiteLion other works]] [[TheLionKing before]], but unlike the well-loved ''TheLionKing'', the work was unable to stand on its own merits. In addition, while the portrayal of [[RaptorAttack Velociraptors]] as wiry, small pack hunters instead of [[Film/JurassicPark misnamed Deinonychus]] is [[ShownTheirWork surprisingly accurate]], much of the rest of the films' depiction of late Cretaceous-era life is [[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying woefully inaccurate]], particularly in the portrayal of Carnotaurus as a TyrannosaurusRex knock-off, and the [[UncannyValley eerily human lips]] of the Iguanodons. That said, the film is gorgeous to look at, and did well financially, but ultimately fell far short of Disney's work in the Renaissance. It outperformed [[TheEmperorsNewGroove another Disney film]] released in the same year.

* TailSlap: How the Iguanodons fight, they never seem to remember that they have claws. One of the Carnotauruses responds in kind, though they are fully aware of their whole arsenal.
** The not using of their claws is actually quite logical: to hit something they would have to get the claws close and attached to those claws comes their neck... All a predator would have to do is bite downwards and dead is the Dino.

It is usually considered one of the weakest films in the canon, but still managed to be better than some later films that will go unmentioned. The main point of criticism is how [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks similar]] it was to [[DonBluth Don Bluth's]] ''TheLandBeforeTime''. Disney had been accused of copying [[KimbaTheWhiteLion other works]] [[TheLionKing before]], but unlike the well-loved ''TheLionKing'', the work was unable to stand on its own merits. In addition, while the portrayal of [[RaptorAttack Velociraptors]] as wiry, small pack hunters instead of [[Film/JurassicPark misnamed Deinonychus]] is [[ShownTheirWork surprisingly accurate]], much of the rest of the films' depiction of late Cretaceous-era life is [[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying woefully inaccurate]], particularly in the portrayal of Carnotaurus as a TyrannosaurusRex knock-off, and the [[UncannyValley eerily human lips]] of the Iguanodons. That said, the film is gorgeous to look at, and did well financially, but ultimately fell far short of Disney's work in the Renaissance. To add insult to injury, it outperformed a [[TheEmperorsNewGroove vastly superior Disney film]] released in the same year.

* BabiesEverAfter: The end of the film ends with the births of Aladar and Neera's offspring, as well as every other parent dinosaur who made it to the Nesting Grounds.

It is usually considered one of the weakest films in the canon, but still managed to be better than some later films that will go unmentioned. The main point of criticism is how [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks similar]] it was to [[DonBluth Don Bluth's]] ''TheLandBeforeTime''. Disney had been accused of copying [[KimbaTheWhiteLion other works]] [[TheLionKing before]], but unlike the well-loved ''TheLionKing'', the work was unable to stand on its own merits. In addition, while the portrayal of [[RaptorAttack Velociraptors]] as wiry, small pack hunters instead of [[JurassicPark misnamed Deinonychus]] is [[ShownTheirWork surprisingly accurate]], much of the rest of the films' depiction of late Cretaceous-era life is [[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying woefully inaccurate]], particularly in the portrayal of Carnotaurus as a TyrannosaurusRex knock-off, and the [[UncannyValley eerily human lips]] of the Iguanodons. That said, the film is gorgeous to look at, and did well financially, but ultimately fell far short of Disney's work in the Renaissance. To add insult to injury, it outperformed a [[TheEmperorsNewGroove vastly superior Disney film]] released in the same year.

* WhatTheHellHero: Baylene scolds Aladar for giving up on their quest when the cave-in happens. This is also heartwarming due to Aladar being comforted to hear that his friends believe in him.

* WhatTheHellHero: Baylene scolds Aladar for giving up on their quest when the cave-in happens. This is also heartwarming due to Aladar being comforted to hear that his friends believe in him.

* TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed: Since it's a dinosaur movie, we ''do'' get the obligatory meteor strike to kick off the plot, but the meteor damage appears to be confined to a relatively small area, and the dinosaurs manage to survive my migrating to the nearest fertile area. It's like they just assumed that giant meteors were a regular occurrence in the Cretaceous Era.

It is usually considered one of the weakest films in the canon, but still managed to be better than some later films that will go unmentioned. The main point of criticism is how [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks similar]] it was to [[DonBluth Don Bluth's]] ''TheLandBeforeTime''. Disney had been accused of copying [[KimbaTheWhiteLion other works]] [[TheLionKing before]], but unlike ''TheLionKing'', the work was unable to stand on its own merits. In addition, while the portrayal of [{RaptorAttack Velociraptors]] as wiry, small pack hunters instead of [[JurassicPark misnamed Deinonychus]] is [[ShownTheirWork surprisingly accurate]], much of the rest of the films' depiction of late Cretaceous-era life is [[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying woefully inaccurate]], particularly in the portrayal of Carnotaurus as a TyrannosaurusRex knock-off, and the [[UncannyValley eerily human lips]] of the Iguanodons. That said, the film is gorgeous to look at, and did well financially, but ultimately fell far short of Disney's work in the Renaissance. To add insult to injury, it outperformed a [[TheEmperorsNewGroove vastly superior Disney film]] released in the same year.

The hero is Aladar, an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguanodon_bernissartensis Iguanodon]]. His egg was separated from his family through a very convoluted turn of events, and made its way to an island. There, he was found by a family of lemurs, who adopt him when he is born (although the patriarch lemur opposes initially). Time passes offscreen and afterwards we see the adult Aladar living carefreely with the primates in the island.

* BabiesEverAfter
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Overlaps with ObviouslyEvil. Kron and Bruton have huge nasal horns, cruddy thumb-spikes, and basically look like they have been through a lot, but Aladar and Neera completely lack these features. It may be partially justified since the former are much older than the latter.

* AlternateAnimalAffection: Aladar and Neera crossing their neck.
* AnachronismStew: Just one example: a making-of article went on and on about how hard it was for the animators to render grass and the lemur's fur -- in a movie set [[WordOfGod during the late Cretaceous.]]

* BabiesEverAfter
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Overlaps with ObviouslyEvil. Kron and Bruton have huge nasal horns, cruddy thumb-spikes, and basically look like they have been through a lot, but Aladar and Neera completely lack these features. It may be partially justified since the former are much older than the latter.
* BigNo: Aladar shouts it two times.
* BookEnds: The beginning and end of the movie mirror each other in the arrangement of the nest, the view from inside the broken eggshell, and [[spoiler: Yar's UrineTrouble problems with baby iguanodons.]]
* CarnivoreConfusion: It might as well be retitled "Predators Are Mean Subtrope: The Movie!" Not one of the meat-eating animals seen onscreen talks. Furthermore, they are each designed to look ''as scary as possible''. Carnotaurs in particular have exagerrately big heads with leering eyes and T. rex -like jaws, emit terrifying sounds without pause and are ''blood red''.
* CoolOldLady: Both Eema and Baylene.
* DeadpanSnarker: Eema and Zini.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Played straight with one of the Carnotaurs (the one that's the BigBad, that is).
* EmpathicEnvironment: The storm during the whole cave scene.

* FiveManBand:

* GentleGiant: Baylene is careful not to trample the tiniest dinosaurs in the herd.
* GreyAndWhiteMorality: Aladar and the lemurs are clearly good, but the dinosaurs forming Kron's herd are rather grey, since they follow the merciless rules of Social Darwinism but are also capable to altruistic acts and (except perhaps Kron) nobody of them seems to be irredeemable (see Bruton, Neera...). The non-talking predators are not black since they do what they do only for mere hunger.

* LastFertileRegion: The Nesting Grounds

* MosesInTheBullrushes: Aladar, though his separation from his birth family was accidental.
* [[MostWritersAreHuman Most Writers Are Primates]]: The reason given as to why there are modern-day lemurs in the movie is because Disney thought people needed something cute and human-like to relate to in a movie about dinosaurs. Really.
* OhCrap: Kron, upon-realizing that the lake has evaporated since he was there last. And also when he flees from the carnotaur and realizes that the ravine is too hard to climb.
* PluckyComicRelief: Zini
* {{Prehistoria}}: Critters from Triassic to Recent Period show up, but at least we don't have the stock volcano-filled, hellish landscape.
* PrehistoricMonster: Only Carnotaurs and Raptors qualify as this. All the other animals either have human-like intelligence or are portrayed in a realistic, docu-like way. Though Kron's and Bruton's look was [[ExecutiveMeddling modified]] to make them more menacing.
* ThePromisedLand: The Nesting Grounds goes with this as well.
* PteroSoarer: Maybe this has been the ''only'' real aversion in Fictionland.
* RealIsBrown: Played straight with most dinosaurs, which are generally grey-coloured; averted only with the heroes Aladar and Neera, both have pastel-coloured skins.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Bruton. Not a great twist however, since he reveals he only has a harsh exterior pretty early on. Maybe Kron is a better example.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Suri
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: The meteors destroy the lemurs' island and kill most of them.

* SceneryPorn: They start with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNTha7uxUDA the jaw-dropping prologue]] (famously used as a teaser trailer) and they never look back.
* ScienceMarchesOn: Oviraptors were assumed to be nest raiders when they were first discovered, and named appropriately. Then it turned out, thanks to new technology, that the eggs they are usually found with contain baby Oviraptors. This is more a case of TheyJustDidntCare, since this discovery was made several years ''before'' the movie.

* SmallAnnoyingCreature: Many viewers qualify the lemurs as this.
* SomethingThatBeginsWithBoring: "Lemme guess--a rock."
* SquareCubeLaw: Baylene is able to jump into water, which no animal of that size should be able to do. Averted though generally, as Baylene remains much slower moving than the other, smaller animals until reaching the Nesting Grounds.
* StockDinosaurs: Partially averted. The classic [[Trivia/StockDinosaurs Four Dino Band]] T. rex, 'Brontosaurus', Stegosaurus and Triceratops is totally absent. We have instead four relatives: T.rex-looking Carnotaurus, brachiosaur Baylene, a small-sized Ankylosaurus and Styracosaurus Eema, and nameless Pachyrhinosaurus, which are smaller Triceratops with a wierd swollen nose instead of horns. We also have several dinos and other prehistoric critters that are uncommon in movies; and finally, Iguanodons as main characters is a novelty. And most of the dinosaurs are accurate-looking confronted with many other popular dino-films. Even Pteranodon is another case of aversion, since it was the poorly-known ''Pteranodon steinbergi'' instead of the iconic ''Pteranodon longiceps''.
* TeamSpirit: "Stand together!"

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original goal was a film without dialogue but with a narrator; then the writers decided it would have been too docu-like without talking animals.

* WhatWereTheySellingAgain: The animation and soundtrack ''are'' very nice.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: One of the main criticisms leveled at the film was that, for some reason, [[TheLandBeforeTime people thought its plot sounded familiar...]]
** Aside from the aforementioned ''LandBeforeTime'' similarities, the migration across the wasteland looks an awful lot like the end of {{Fantasia}}'s Rite of Spring sequence (though it lacks the DownerEnding).

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys / EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: This movie is often sited as an exception to these tropes. It seems as though when you combine the better-making powers of the two different kinds of animals, they cancel each other out.

* FurryConfusion: In a movie where none of the characters are (strictly speaking) anthropomorphic. Aside from the meat-eaters, there's the strange case of Url, a little ankylosaur who doesn't talk, sticks his tongue out and pants and drools, and who carries a stick in his mouth everywhere. His mannerisms were probably meant to bring to mind a [[AllAnimalsAreDogs playful puppy]], but since ''no other animals'' in Kron's herd act like this, someone may start to wonder if Url [[UnfortunateImplications is mentally challenged]].

* MisplacedWildlife: We see many animals from different eras and locations all together, with the most cited inaccuracy (although [[OlderThanTheyThink not the worst of these]]) being the presence of the modern-day Sifaka lemurs.
** And the thing is, paleo-fans would have let this go (we're kind of used to it). However, the [[ShownTheirWork exhaustively researched]] {{BBC}} documentary series ''WalkingWithDinosaurs'' had [[DuelingMovies just premiered in America and was fresh in everyone's memory]] by the time ''Dinosaur'' arrived in theaters. ''Walking'' ''also'' had animated dinosaurs interacting with a live-action environment -- and is distinctly lacking in [[AnachronismStew modern-day lemurs, grasslands, other organisms from different time periods mixing it up, ect]].

* SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying: The animals in this film are pretty good as a whole, but many relevant characters fit in this trope. Iguanodons with [[ToothyBird fleshy horse lips]] and who are, in general, based largely on horses more than actual iguanodons. Gigantic Carnotaurs that fit perfectly the pseudo-rex subtrope of TyrannosaurusRex and that weigh as much as a building. Meanwhile Baylene magically seems to not weigh a ''thing'' after becoming badass, remaining in a fully erect position for 30 seconds during the wall-breaking scene, and then running happily and diving in the lake in a wildebeest-like fashion (for the record, she is a brachiosaur and thus one of the heaviest land animals on record). The "flying lizard" Longisquama was only a glider (if at all, see ScienceMarchesOn), and looked ''nothing'' like the winged chameleon in the film.
** Though it turns out that most of the dinosaur characters were the victims of ExecutiveMeddling. For instance, the animators did the research to make accurate Iguanadons -- and then the suits had them changed to look more like horses. The Velociraptors were originally going to bear feathers. And then somebody decided they'd look scarier without them. Ironically, the Velociraptors in this movie are actually very anatomically accurate -- aside from being buck naked. The palms of their hands are facing each other, they are [[KillerRabbit somewhat small and weedy]], and they have the right skull shape. Would that they could have kept their feathers, but at least Disney didn't trot out the "[[http://babbletrish.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2pk018 Let's just copy 'Jurassic Park' again" Velociraptor character designs we usually see]]. It's also worth noting that the first concrete proof of feathers on Velociraptor came seven years later than the film, so it may be partially [[ScienceMarchesOn justified]].
** Not all paleontologists are crying though; this is perhaps the only movie ever made that features a reasonably accurate pterosaur. Sadly, he/she/it disappears after it lets Aladar's egg fall.

** Considering Disney has done nature documentaries before (starting with the True Life Adventures around the 50s), I don't know why they didn't take the documentary route like they are now with things like "Oceans". A dinosaur film like that would have been a hit.

* AHandfulForAnEye: During the climax battle between Kron and Aladar.

* AHandfulForAnEye: During the climax battle between Kron and Aladar.

* SaveTheVillain: The true villains might be the carnotaurs, but Kron still qualifies.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Kron with Neera. He shows genuine sadness when she protects Aladar from him.

* ThePromisedLand: The Nesting Grounds goes with this as well.

* FridgeLogic: The lemurs adopt Aladar and later we see that the bouncy, tree-climbing primates managed to raise the heavy, very large quadruped to adulthood.

* TeamSpirit: "Stand together!" (an example of {{Narm}} for some).

* SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying: The animals in this film are pretty good as a whole, but many relevant characters fit in this trope. Iguanodons with [[ToothyBird fleshy horse lips]] and who are, in general, based largely on horses more than actual iguanodons. Gigantic Carnotaurs that fit perfectly the pseudo-rex subtrope of TyrannosaurusRex and that weigh as much as a building. Meanwhile Baylene magically seems to not weigh a ''thing'' after becoming badass, remaining in a fully erect position for 30 seconds during the wall-breaking scene, and then running happily and diving in the lake in a wildebeest-like fashion (for the record, she is a brachiosaur and thus one of the heaviest land animals on record). The "flying lizard" Longisquama was only a glider (if at all, see ScienceMarchesOn), and looked ''nothing'' like the winged chameleon in the film.utf-8
** Though it turns out that most of the dinosaur characters were the victims of ExecutiveMeddling. For instance, the animators did the research to make accurate Iguanadons -- and then the suits had them changed to look more like horses. The Velociraptors were originally going to bear feathers. And then somebody decided they'd look scarier without them. Ironically, the Velociraptors in this movie are actually very anatomically accurate -- aside from being buck naked. The palms of their hands are facing each other, they are [[KillerRabbit somewhat small and weedy]], and they have the right skull shape. Would that they could have kept their feathers, but at least Disney didn't trot out the "[[http://babbletrish.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2pk018 Let's just copy 'Jurassic Park' again" Velociraptor character designs we usually see]]. It's also worth noting that the first concrete proof of feathers on Velociraptor came seven years later than the film, so it may be partially [[ScienceMarchesOn justified]].utf-8

* SquareCubeLaw: Baylene is able to jump into water, which no animal of that size should be able to do. Averted though generally, as Baylene remains much slower moving than the other, smaller animals until reaching the Nesting Grounds.utf-8

* TeamSpirit: "Stand together!" (an example of {{Narm}} for some).utf-8

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original goal was a film without dialogue but with a narrator; then the writers decided it would have been too docu-like without talking animals.utf-8