Adventures in Dinosaur City

Jamie reads her story about dinosaurs to Timmy and Mick.

Starting out with an animated set of titles and dramatic theme music, Adventures in Dinosaur City opens up in the suburban home of Timmy Shepherd (Omri Katz), a teenager whose parents are eccentric research scientists. We see him with his friends Jamie (Tiffanie Poston) and Mick (Shawn Hoffman) listening to Jamie read them a story about dinosaurs she has written. They don’t like her writing, but they do like watching the new animated dinosaur cartoon Timmy has just acquired. Meanwhile, Timmy’s parents have just completed work on an interdimensional travel device, and have it activated in their lab in an adjacent building. When they must suddenly leave to attend a physics conference, Timmy is left alone, and he takes his friends back into his parent’s lab to watch the dinosaur cartoon. Timmy turns on the video not knowing that the transporter is also activated by the same remote control. Suddenly the three are sent through interdimensional travel to another world which appears to be a real life version of the dinosaur cartoon. This world has talking dinosaurs and Neanderthal cavemen, ála the Flintstones. The three first meet up with Forry, a talking miniature dinosaur, and then hide when they see several Neanderthals approaching. The cavemen, on the orders of Mr. Big (R.A. Mihailoff), the leader of the allosaurus bad guys, take an energy tube which will cause the good dinosaur’s home, Saur City, to blow up if it isn’t returned. The tube is also needed for the three teenagers to return back to their homes. Jamie and Mick are scared, but Timmy tells them to enjoy the experience. After all, he explains, they know what is going to happen because they are such fans of the dinosaur cartoon series that they are now acting out in real life.

Timmy, Jamie, Mick, and Morrie set out for Saur City, but first have to travel through a dangerous wilderness. After making it through this, they then meet up with some more dinosaurs, Rex (Tony Doyle) and Tops (Mac Martorana), in a roadside bar who agree to help them save things for the dinosaurs. When they finally reach Saur City, most of the residents have evacuated. Led by Rex, the good dinosaurs and the three teens try to fight off the forces of Mr. Big. At first Timmy uses the remote from his father’s invention (which came through the transport with them) to great effect, as it “rewinds” anyone he points it at. But Mr. Big wants the device, and eventually his men are able to capture Timmy. The rest of the film deals with the struggle to rescue Timmy, reclaim the remote, defeat the bad guys, and allow the teens quest to get back home.

While Adventures in Dinosaur City will never make anyone’s best film list, it does haves some interesting premises and a few good moments. The film seems to suffer from trying to do too many unbelievable things at once. First we have an incredible transport machine sitting in a suburban garage that moves you from one world to another. Then the other world is a total fantasy full of talking dinosaurs and Neanderthals who all seem to speak with bad New Jersey accents and deliver mostly schtick lines that remind you of a vaudeville routine about gangsters. Then it turns into a power struggle between the good dinosaurs and the bad dinosaurs. Omri Katz, who is the only recognizable star in the cast, must have thought that this was a longer episode of Eerie, Indiana. At least in his role he gets to wear chucks and make some fun of the others during the film. You have to wonder what the producers of this film were thinking. Sure kids like dinosaurs and science fiction, but even a fantasy needs to have some sort of rationale to succeed as a story. Nevertheless, there are people who will enjoy this film, probably because at times it is so bad, it is funny.

Omri Katz, in his lead role as Timmy, wears maroon high top chucks throughout the film. You see them in most of his scenes, but the best closeups occur during his trek through the wilderness when he must show his friends the way through some difficult terrain.

Adventures in Dinosaur City. (1992) Marc Martorana, Tony Doyle, R. A. Mihailoff, Don Barnes, Omri Katz, Shawn Hoffman. Directed by Brett Thompson.
Categories: Fantasy, Adventure.
ChucksConnection Rating: MPAA Rating: PG

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