TL;DR – A fascinating time capsule to the early 1990s, which might feel as far in the past as the dinosaurs featured. 

Post-Credit Scene – There is no Post-Credit Scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story Review –

I always like plugging in gaps in my knowledge when it comes to cinema, especially when it hits one of those topics that I am deeply passionate about. Well, if you have dived into our site before, you will know that I love dinosaurs, and as someone who grew up in the 1990s, I thought I had watched all the tentpole dinosaur films from that era. Well, this week, I was reminded that this was not the case, and that was something that I had to fix pronto.

So to set the scene, Captain Neweyes (Walter Cronkite) and his assistant Vorb (Jay Leno) have a plan to bring dinosaurs from the past to the present and make them sentient. Thus Rex (John Goodman), Woog (René Le Vant), Dweeb (Charles Fleischer), and Elsa (Felicity Kendal) are ripped from their time and brought to the future. So many children wish to meet a dinosaur, and Neweyes has chosen to grant that wish, which is when he kicks the dinos out of his spaceship to parachute to New York City below.     

It was the era of slow jazz, and you hear it in those first few moments, which immediately takes you back in time to when this movie was first released. However, with that in mind, it does take a moment to process the Twin Towers being always used as the placeholder landmark to orientate everything. But that is not really the film’s fault. However, you can feel how deeply 1990s this film is from the general optimism throughout, including some wild choices like casting Julia Child. However, there are parts of this film that have aged like blue cheese left out in the sun. But then a dinosaur uses a car to grind up the side of the Brooklyn Bridge, so you can’t get too mad with the film.

What I was most impressed about was how efficient the storytelling was. This is a 70-minute film with credits, and you get everything you need out of the narrative. The good brother has a wish radio, and the bad brother has a fright radio. One has brain grain, one has brain drain, one has hope, and the other has horror. You don’t need to explore the backstory, but he lost his eye. You just plough forward with the story. Also, because it is a kid’s film of this era, it is not afraid to get dark when it wants. It is a simple story that does lean into some heavy stereotypes, but it is mostly effective in the limited scope it sets itself.  

In the end, do we recommend We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story? Look, it is a film that shows its age and is targeted at a specific audience. I am not sure it reaches the heights of Amblimation’s other work in this era like An American Tail. But for all its issues, it is also quite compelling, even if you don’t count the many Jurassic Park Easter Eggs. If you liked We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story, we would recommend to you How to Train Your Dragon.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of We’re Back! – A Dinosaur’s Story

Directed by – Dick Zondag, Ralph Zondag, Phil Nibbelink & Simon Wells
Screenplay by – John Patrick Shanley
Based on – We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story by Hudson Talbott
Music by – James Horner
Edited by – Nick Fletcher & Sim Evan-Jones
Production/Distribution Companies – Amblin Entertainment, Amblimation & Universal Pictures.
Starring – John Goodman, René Le Vant, Felicity Kendal, Charles Fleischer, Walter Cronkite, Jay Leno, Joey Shea, Julia Child, Kenneth Mars, Yeardley Smith, Martin Short, Blaze Berdahl & Rhea Perlman
Rating – Australia: G; Canada: G; Germany: 6; New Zealand: G; United Kingdom: U; United States: G