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Walking with Dinosaurs Movie Poster

December 20, 2013

Walking with Dinosaurs is a 2013 family film about dinosaurs set in the Late Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago. The production features computer-animated dinosaurs in live-action settings with actors John Leguizamo, Justin Long, Tiya Sircar, and Skyler Stone providing voice-overs for the main characters. It was directed by Neil Nightingale and Barry Cook from a screenplay by John Collee. In the film, an underdog dinosaur named Patchi must find his courage to become the leader of his herd as well as become a hero for the ages.

The film was produced by BBC Earth and Evergreen Films and was titled after the BBC's 1999 television documentary miniseries of the same name. The film, with a budget of US$80 million, was one of the largest independent productions at the time. It was financed by Reliance Big Entertainment and IM Global instead of a major studio. The majority of distribution rights were eventually sold to 20th Century Fox. The crew filmed footage on location in the U.S. state of Alaska and in New Zealand, which were chosen for their similarities to the dinosaurs' surroundings millions of years ago. Animal Logic designed computer-animated dinosaurs and added them to the live-action backdrop. Though the film was originally going to lack narration or dialogue, 20th Century Fox executives decided to add voiceovers, believing it would connect audiences to the characters.

Walking with Dinosaurs premiered on 14 December 2013 at the Dubai International Film Festival. It was released in cinemas in 2D and 3D on 20 December 2013. Critics commended the film's visual effects, but derided its subpar storyline and the juvenile quality of the voiceover performances. The film grossed US$36 million in the United States and Canada and US$87.2 in other territories for a worldwide total of US$123.2 million. The Hollywood Reporterstated the film's global box office performance was disappointing in context of the production budget and marketing costs.

Storyline[]

A paleontologist named Zack takes his nephew Ricky and his niece Jade on a fossil hunt in Alaska while their parents are on vacation in Europe. While alone, Ricky encounters an anthropomorphic raven named Alex, who then transforms into a prehistoric ancestor, Alexornis. Alex tells Ricky of a story set in the Late Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago, about his best friend Patchi. Patchi is the youngest and smallest in a litter of Pachyrhinosaurus hatchlings and is often bullied by his older brother Scowler. Their father Bulldust is the leader of the herd. Alex, who is Patchi's mentor, protector, and teacher, tries to help Patchi impress a female Pachyrhinosaurus named Juniper, but her herd migrates south without him. Patchi is also attacked by a Troodon, which attempts to eat him, but he is saved by his dad, resulting in Patchi having a hole in his frill as an injury which Alex claims that Patchi is "destined for greatness".

Later, Bulldust moves his herd south as well, but when they try to pass through a forest, they are forced to flee when a storm strikes and a forest fire erupts. Taking advantage of the chaos, a pack of Gorgosaurusattacks the scattered herd. They kill the rest of Patchi and Scowler's family, while their leader and alpha, Gorgon, fights and kills Bulldust while he’s trying to defend Patchi and Scowler. Afterwards, Patchi's herd, now led by Bulldust's rival Major, combine with Juniper's herd as they continue their migration. Gorgon's pack attacks them again, and in the ensuing chaos, Patchi, Scowler, and Juniper fall into a river and are swept downstream to the ocean, with Alex following them from above. At a beach, Scowler follows a herd of Edmontosaurus to find food, callously leaving Patchi and Juniper behind. The two make their way through a forest and eventually are able to find their herd and Scowler.

After years of making the same migration from north to south and vice versa, a grown up Scowler becomes the herd's new leader after defeating Major and chooses Juniper to be his mate, much to Patchi's disappointment. Scowler recklessly leads the herd onto a frozen lake, but Patchi is able to lead the majority of the herd to safety. Enraged and mistakenly believing that Patchi is going to usurp him and try to take Juniper from him, Scowler confronts his brother and challenges him for a battle in exchange for leadership of the herd. Scowler, as he is much stronger and larger than Patchi, quickly gains the upper hand and defeats his brother by trapping him under a tree before disowning him and ordering Juniper, along with the rest of the herd, to leave Patchi behind. Despondent and heartbroken, Patchi, now trapped underneath the tree and unable to do anything, attempts to accept his fate by allowing scavengers to kill and eat him, but Alex convinces him to die for something worth dying for, just as his father Bulldust did.

Reinvigorated by the advice, Patchi escapes and fights off the scavengers, before catching up to the herd, only to find them confronted by Gorgon and his pack once more. As Gorgon easily overpowers and injures him in battle, a repentant Scowler orders Patchi to save himself and lead the herd to safety. However, Patchi leads them into fighting Gorgon and his pack to save Scowler instead. The herd successfully drive off the Gorgosaurus pack, while Patchi defeats Gorgon by dislocating his arm that had gotten caught in the hole of Patchi's frill, before knocking out some of Gorgon's teeth with a headbutt, saving Scowler's life and avenging Bulldust's death.

The brothers reconcile before Scowler concedes leadership of the herd to Patchi, who goes on to have Juniper as his mate and has a family with her, with Alex acting as an uncle. In the present day, moved by Alex's story, Ricky returns Gorgon's now fossilized tooth to Zack and Jade, who had discovered Gorgon's skeleton buried in the ground nearby.

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