Special effects in `Dinosaur’ dazzling

In theaters

DINOSAUR. Directed by Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton. Written by John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on an original screenplay by Walton Green. Running time: 84 minutes. Rated PG.

With a steep $200 million budget, $80 million of which went into the construction of a new state-of-the-art digital effects studio, Disney’s “Dinosaur” swings its beefy tail into theaters with one mean, ugly monkey on its back: Its script, which is a huge, carnivorous rip-off of Don Bluth’s 1988 animated film “The Land Before Time.”

Just as in “Time,” “Dinosaur” follows a group of dinosaurs escaping predators and destruction for the promise of lush, green nesting grounds that will save their lives — if, of course, they don’t die before getting there. The situations might be different along the way, but the premise is brazenly the same.

Seemingly worse for Disney and its marketing department is the fact that “Dinosaur” comes a bit late in the dinosaur renaissance. Since 1993’s groundbreaking “Jurassic Park,” audiences have been deluged with digital dinos, most recently with 1997’s “The Lost World,” 1998’s “Godzilla,” and the current Discovery hit, “Walking with Dinosaurs.”

Is there room for another stomp around the cineplex?

If Uncle Walt has his way there is. Twelve years in the making, “Dinosaur” rises above its familiar plot and tardiness on the Cretaceous scene to mount a terrific spectacle of mind-blowing special effects that are simply awesome.

This is the best-looking dinosaur movie ever, a film that boasts a breakthrough in the merging of digitally-enhanced, live-action backdrops to computer-generated images.

It’s often so breathtaking to watch unfold, and feels so real, parents of young, sensitive children should take note: This film may feature cute, cuddly dinosaurs and adorable lemurs that talk, but those gentle creatures are frequently put under attack by rampaging carnotaurs, blood-thirsty beasts that are so loud and terrifying, a few frightened children at my screening were quickly ushered out by their parents.

Older children, on the other hand, were delighted.

To the screenwriters’ credit, the film does pack sufficient punch, bite and roar to keep the action moving at a stirring pace, and it’s blissfully free of song and dance numbers. But unlike Disney’s other animated pics, it’s surprisingly humorless, instead focusing on the very humanlike morals the film’s “good” dinosaurs share.

So, will Disney earn back the hundreds of millions spent on “Dinosaur”? Probably, but with DreamWorks’ clay-animated “Chicken Run” opening June 23, they’d better make their money fast. I’ve seen the hilarious “Chicken” and it tastes like box office gold.

Grade: B

On video

AMERICAN MOVIE. Directed by Chris Smith. Running time: 104 minutes. Rated R.

Chris Smith’s excellent, often hysterical documentary, “American Movie,” is as much about maverick, independent filmmaking as it is about the elusive American dream.

The film follows Mark Borchardt, a boozy, gangly, 30-something high school dropout who lives at home with his parents, has three children from a failed marriage, vacuums mausoleums for a living and has a deep love for film.

Although Borchardt comes off as a caricature throughout Smith’s film — he and his burned-out friend Mark Schank are “Wayne’s World” brought to life — he’s the real thing. So are the peculiar group of people of Menominee Falls, Wis., who gather to help him realize his dream of making horror movies influenced by George Romero.

Part of this film’s huge charm inheres in the rallying of everyday people to help one of their own. No one here really believes Borchardt has talent — his brother thinks he’d be better suited for a factory job, his actors tolerate him, and his own mother says on camera that she doesn’t think he’ll ever make it in the business — but none of that matters.

These working-class people understand what it is to dream and to hope for something better than their current situation. When Mark asks for help with his slasher movie “Coven,” which he pronounces “COVE-en” because he doesn’t want it to rhyme with oven, they help.

Probably no one helps more than Mark’s elderly Uncle Bill, who reluctantly gives Mark $3,000 to realize his vision and, we sense, to keep him off the streets. But when Mark asks Bill to appear in “Coven,” to say just one line and to say it like he believes it, Bill just shakes his head and answers for nearly everyone in Mark’s life: “I don’t believe it.”

But Mark does — and that’s part of this must-see film’s magic.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “NEWS CENTER 5:30 Today” and “NEWS CENTER Tonight,” and Saturday and Sunday on NEWS CENTER’s statewide “Morning Report.”