I was a bit anxious when i saw the poster for this sequel to The Dino King pushing the Lion King vibes even more obviously, let alone the very “Land Before Time”-feeling cover for the UK DVD release, implying a more kid-friendly sequel.
And my fears were kinda confirmed when i noticed the cast… as in, the first movie had a “fake cast” at the end listing the various types of dinosaurs appearing in the film, since the creatures didn’t speak and the dialogues were offered as a post-humous narration by the titular protagonist.
It was a fairly unique thing for these dinosaur movies also aimed at kids, the combo of mostly non-humanized animals that don’t actually talk like people, even with the narration acting as a compromise… which is dropped entirely by the sequel, Dino King: Journey To Fire Mountain.
This undeniably disappoints me, and the “Lion King knock-offery” is even more transparent than before, with the first important scene of Speckles saving his son from a dinosaur, angry at him for being cowardly, then delivering the “everything the light touches” speech equivalent. Ooof.
The rest of the plot sees Speckles launching in pursuit of a group of dinosaurs that abducted his son (dubbed Junior), with the two having their separate adventures where they fight, meet allies, and eventually discover the plan of the “kidnap-o-sauruses”, which involves the titular volcano…
Still kinda funny how this series manages to copy from everything BUT The Land Before Time in terms of actual plot and characters (at least i think, i never saw any of the dozens of its direct-to-video sequels), this time fairly obviously “tributing” Finding Nemo, with the father and son separate adventures with the common goal to reunite, heck, even down to the father’s overprotective and strict attitude (pretty much just smashing together Mufasa and Marlin, as Speckles’ behaviour is again caused/explained because he lost his wife) being pivotal to why he falls out with the son, etc.
So originality is even scarcer this time around, but it does continue directly from where the first movie ended, Han Sang-Ho is back as the director, you’d expect the CG for the dinosaurs to be better, given how it had been 7 years since the first Dino King movie….and it does, especially the lighting is much better on the improved CG models for the dinosaurs, though – as i pointed out already – the realism is almost out as now the characters look and feel more humanized and cartoony, despite the blend of CG and live action location footage being used the same way…
Though the CG is still not amazing, and the more cartoonish rendered models, despite being technically better looking than before, clash more with the live action locations.
I’d say the cast is totally different, but this doesn’t matter too much as it only affects Speckles, whom has a new voice actor, and since the first film had the character of Junior, but also didn’t have dialogues, just narration from the main character, Speckles… but then again, it barely matters as he almost doesn’t feel like the same character from the first movie, to be totally honest.
So even though it is a sequel and has characters that were in the first one, it might as well be its own thing, since its also completely a kids/family film in tone, feel and execution, especially the dialogues are a pretty obvious giveaway.. but despite my disappointment in how this sequel throws out all the distinctive, almost unique qualities of the first one in order to appeal more clearly to a young demographic… it’s far from being a bad or worthless film devoid of merit.
It’s a decent kids film, overall, nothing original but still decent, the characters are decent enough, technically is solid though clearly no Pixar joint (though i did enjoy the 2D animated flashbacks, always good to have some visual variety), the english dub it’s okay though kind of cheesy…
So yeah, my personal disappointment aside, this is a decent dinosaur flick, though entirely and very clearly meant for the younglings this time around.
Wise Cafe (International) 