History WesternAnimation / Dinosaur

* KillEmAll: The first act ends with the (almost) ''entire'' lemur population wiped out, and the main cast having to come to terms with the loss of their entire people.

Sadly, [[KillEmAll a meteor strike destroys the island]] and Aladar and his adoptive family are forced to escape to the mainland. Once there, the main plot kicks in and they join a herd of similarly displaced animals who are migrating through the vast, trackless desert with treacherous terrain and desperate, starving predators. They are seeking literally greener pastures, a valley known as the Nesting Grounds, which is apparently the only fertile land left untouched by the meteor. The herd is led by Kron, an old, hard-assed ''Iguanodon'' -- the first member of his own species Aladar has ever met -- who insists that everyone follow his orders even if it kills them all. He refuses to make concessions for the oldest and youngest members of the herd, an issue that he and Aladar especially lock [[strike:horns]] thumbspikes over. Eventually, Aladar's compassionate ways begin to transform the lives of those around him, and he may be what the herd needs to reach the Nesting Grounds and a better future.

* ArtisticLicenseGeology: A meteor ''that'' size would have not only vaporized everything within 20 miles, but caused waves 100 meters high, set the entire ''world'' on fire, ''and'' would have started a winter that would have lasted a decade - not to mention flash-fried everything from that distance with 200-700 mph winds at 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

* CarnivoreConfusion: None 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''. (Then again, would ''you'' talk to your dinner?)

* ChildrenAreInnocent / BreakTheCutie: Suri helplessly crying out across the water to the island. She's so young that she's almost definitely ''never'' lost someone she loved before. And now... well... they're all gone. Nobody has to explain to her what it means when they don't get an answer; she knows.

Not to be confused with ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' or with the similarly-titled documentary ''Film/Dinosaur1985''.

* DeathOfAChild: There are initially countless baby dinosaurs seen in the herd, but by the end of the film, there's only a handful left after the long journey. This also applies to every young lemur who didn't survive the meteor strike. Played straight with Neera's pair of orphans, however.

* SmallParentHugeChild: Justified; due to being an Iguanodon, Aladar is enormous compared to his lemur adopted parents Plio and Yar.

** The ''Oviraptor'' are portrayed as egg-thieves, much like what their name implies. However, this in fact is a misnomer: the first ''Oviraptor'' fossil described was thought to be raiding a ''Protoceratops'' nest, and its beak was even believed to be designed for cracking eggshells. However, after it was discovered that the eggs actually contained ''Oviraptor'' embryos, it became evident that the ''Oviraptor'' was ''actually brooding its own nest'', and that the beak was more suited for an omnivorous diet consisting of plants, hard-shelled invertebrates and small animals.

* EvilEggEater: In the prologue, Aladar's egg narrowly survives being crushed by a Carnotaurus' foot, but then is stolen by an Oviraptor. In keeping with its name, it's portrayed as shifty and sneaky, speaking only in croaks and gurgles. But before it can eat Aladar's egg, another Oviraptor tries to take it from them, turning into a fight that results in the egg being dropped into a river.

** Kron when he flees from the ''Carnotaur'' and realizes that the ravine is impossible to climb.

* InfantImmortality: Averted. There are initially countless baby dinosaurs seen in the herd, but by the end of the film, there's only a handful left after the long journey. This also applies to every young lemur who didn't survive the meteor strike. Played straight with Neera's pair of orphans, however.

* CharacterDeath: Almost the entire lemur clan, several generic herd members (including the entire species of ''Brachiosaurus'', except Baylene), [[spoiler: Bruton, Kron, and the ''Carnotaurs''.]]

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: With Lemur Island destroyed by the meteor strike, which leads to him and the surviving lemurs searching for a new place to live.

* WouldHurtAChild: Kron is completely willing to sacrifice Neera's (foster?) children in order to motivate the herd over the unclimbable cliff. He starts out merely not caring if a weak hatchling died in the desert; by the end he's so angry with Aladar that he [[MoralEventHorizon physically throws]] the 'little Aladars' off their feet so hard they almost fall off the wall, all while they're crying in distress and Neera is protesting his roughness.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Aladar's home island is destroyed by the meteor strike, which leads to him and the surviving lemurs searching for a new place to live.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Baylene gives Aladar one ''hell'' of a speech when he loses hope.
-->'''Baylene''': (''livid'') Oh yes we were! We're here, aren't we?! And how ''dare'' you waste that good fortune by simply giving up! For shame! ''Shame on you, shame on you!'' And the worst of it is...you allowed an old fool like me to believe I was needed. That I still had a purpose. And do you know what? ''You were right''. And ''I'm'' going to go on believing it! I, for one, am not willing to die ''here''!"

** In RealLife, ''Carnotaurus'' was about the same size as ''Iguanodon'', so the dramatically oversized ones in the movie - about the same size as ''TyrannosaurusRex'', which was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally considered to be the antagonist species]] - can be chalked up to a combination of RuleOfScary and RuleOfCool. They're also [[MisplacedWildlife present in North America]] even though the genus is from South America; while this is at least lampshaded with the characters noting that they haven't come as far north before as they do in the movie, it's still a VoodooShark of sorts because the two continents were still separated by ocean until the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Interchange Great American Interchange]] of the Pliocene, long after the non-avian dinosaurs became extinct.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Than a lot of Disney fare. The film features several [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath Family Unfriendly Deaths]], themes of starvation, dehydration, hopelessness, numerous off-screen deaths (like the entire ''Brachiosaur'' species, for one) and is pretty much a Disney post-apocalyptic story. The antagonists are very realistic villains too: the ''Carnotaurs'' and the raptors are just predators desperate for food who only attack the stragglers/fallen members of the herd; while Kron genuinely wants to save the herd and his little sister even if he's doing it the wrong way, making him multi-dimensional. There's also a scene where Eema goes into the lake bed and looks fully prepared to die, unable to carry on.

* AnimalsNotToScale: Crossed with RuleOfScary. In real life, ''Carnotaurus'' was about the same size as the average ''Iguanodon''. They're scaled up to the size of a ''T. rex'' in the film so as to appear more threatening. Averted nicely with the ''Velociraptor''s, though, which are appropriately small.

* ApocalypseWow: As scary as it is, the meteor impact looks ''spectacular''. It starts with a rain of colorful fragments from the much larger object and hauntingly, scarily beautiful music as the main meteor comes into view, crescendoing as it hits the ocean so far in the distance that you can't even hear the impact and all the clouds that filled the sky before are instantly blown away. Everything goes quiet for a few seconds, and then finally they feel the shockwaves from the impact and all hell breaks loose.

* BigBad: Kron, who is stubbornly (though unwittingly) leading the herd to their deaths.

''Dinosaur'' is the 39th entry in the [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animated Canon]], released in the year 2000. It is an extremely unique case for the canon, particularly for the time period it was released in, as it is a hybrid of live-action photography for its settings, and CGI animation for its characters, special effects, and whatnot.

* MassOhCrap: The herd when they reach the lake they've been migrating to and it's all dried up.

* OhCrap: Kron when he flees from the ''Carnotaur'' and realizes that the ravine is impossible to climb.

-->'''Zini''': Okay, okay, let's do it again. I spy with my little eye--
-->'''Yar''': (''flatly'') A ''rock''.
-->'''Zini''': You got it again! Ooh, you are good!