If you don't want to read the whole review, skip to the tl;dr section near the bottom.
As a little kid when I was 5-10, I absolutely remember loving this movie and thinking it was one heck of a film, mainly because of those strutters, dinosaurs and animation. However, this is before I found out that it was part of a franchise containing a miniseries a tv series and four books (not to mention the countless tie in novels). I recently rewatched this along with watching the miniseries for the first time as well as read the books, and I have discovered a lot of problems with this adaptation. Before I talk about the problems, I will talk about some of the good stuff, don't worry it won't be long. First of all, the animation is actually pretty good for a home video release and is they actually integrate in to the backgrounds properly. The introduction in this adaptation at least some what resembles the original book introduction with a ship wreck with Kex ending up on the island after a storm sent his lifeboat on the island of dinotopia, kind of like Arthur Dennison and will in the original book. The Strutters actually look the way they are depicted in the book and I can overlook the digital screens on them that were added on them. The voice acting is okay for the most part (with the exception of Spazz, more on him later), Waterfall city looks how it does in the book as do the skybak riders, I think the sun stones trapping radio waves was a good way to fill in a plot hole in a modern setting, John, 26, Mara, and Kex are pretty decent characters (though Kex can be a bit whiny and annoying sometimes), the after credits music is very calm and relaxing, the backgrounds are pretty good, and the ruby sunstone sarcophagus scene was extremely cool. However, that's where the positive things about this adaptation end. Now I'm going to talk about the main problems of this adaptation. For starters, they made the mistake of taking characters like Ogthar and Stinktooth, but they do not look or have the same origins at all as they do in the original book series. And some hardcore fans might take issue with digital screens being added to the strutters amongst other things. Also, the majority of dinosaurs in this adaptation have been given the ability to talk WHEN it is convenient to the plot. I might have given this a past if it was just a select few dinosaurs, but nope, the majority of the main dinosaurs in the movie can talk. Not only that, but there is no consistency to when this occurs. Like Spazz can talk like everyone else despite just hatching halfway through the movie, while other baby dinosaurs can't talk at all. And the same goes for the adult dinosaurs as well. If you're going to make every dinosaur talk, at least go all the way with it. Third, the film seemingly can't decide whether Kex or 26 is the main character in this movie. At the start of the movie, you're lead to believe it is Kex. However, when John leaves 26 in charge, she is put with a lot of responsibility being in charge of finding the eggs and looking after the hatchery. Plus, 26 is right on the cover whereas Kex is way in the background on the DVD's cover. Now, I think what they should have done here is have 26 start out the film doing her duties and then finding Kex washed ashore in the distance. I don't think it would have solved all of the problems but it would have been something at least. I also think they didn't explore enough of the island and made this too short. If you added a couple more scenes having Kex exploring the island in the quest, then that would have been a much better way of showing the island instead of telling. Another problem with this adaptation is Rhoga and Thudd, they just feel too forcibly evil and I know they don't like their poop patrol job and it is understandable, but they feel so annoying and unlikable, and sometimes feel evil for the sake of being evil. And despite the title, this barely feels anything like a dinotopia movie because of all of these changes. Kex, while an okay protagonist, we don't know much about him besides that he's an orphan, likes to skateboard, and wants to see the world. I think they should have given him flashbacks to when he was still at the orphanage and have him be responsible for looking after the hatchery and find the eggs if they wanted to make Kex the protagonist. Also for some reason they thought iguanadons shed skin like iguanas do, which is not true at all. The strutters while I can overlook them adding digital technology, I can not overlook how they made the strutters stop working after spazz's trex head got chopped off, even though in the books they can still work even after losing a head. Also, the toilet humour is very lazy and unoriginal in this movie, they just do the joke and don't twist it into anything clever. And BY FAR THE WORST PART OF THIS ADAPTATION IS SPAZZ. Annoying, no fruit flies are annoying, this creature is a glimpse into h3//. Every time he is on screen and says something you just want him to shut up and choke him to death, nothing he does is whitty or charming or funny, it is just him pretending to be funny and annoying all of the main characters, he is easily the worst character by far not only in this film but out of any dinotopia adaptation or books, he's worst then so called stinktooth and so called ogthar and that is saying a lot. Finally, the ending felt intense but it felt like they were trying to copy the return of the king ending, I wished "stinktooth" just ate "ogthar" as it would have ended it a lot sooner. And the ending of Kex choosing an egg for himself feels wrong as he barely did anything helpful compared to 26. Then the movie ends and we see what happens in the credits. I think if I was to make this, I would have made Kex the hero where he is the one who throws the stone into the volcano. Also, I would have made ogthar a grandson of Lee crab or have lee crab be the one stuck in a sarcophagus, as that would have made a little more sense, as well as add more scenes introducing the world of dinotopia like Waterfall city and revealing more information about Kex. Additionally, I would have just taken out of spazz, and all of these unfunny scenes. Moreover, I would have added flashbacks of Kex in the orphanage to add some more depth to his character. If this was something on its own and not connected to dinotopia, some of the problems could have had a chance of being solved like the consistency of the lord of Dinotopia, but the characters are still pretty badly written and underdeveloped, spazz is an unlikeable and annoying character, the hero is jumbled around and the pacing is uneven.
TL;DR. Ultimately, Dinotopia quest for the ruby sunstone lacks consistency with dinotopia as a whole, contains too many unfunny jokes, has very underdeveloped, and it feels like the makers of this film had merely looked at the pictures of the books, slapped some modernness on it, watched the miniseries in the background while working on something else, and made up facts about the world of dinotopia. Even if this was on its own, I probably would still have issues with it because of the jumbled up writing amongst other things. Even the miniseries is better because it at least tried to be a continuation of the books (granted they failed but at least they made an attempt as they felt like they actually read the books). True, it does feature some elements from the original book series, the animation is good for a home video release, and it does have okay characters, and it is not the worst thing ever (I've seen way worse movies) but it is advisable to skip this movie unless you have a child under 8. Hallmark, you messed up with this film.
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