We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (film)

'We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story' is a 1993 American animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was released in theaters in the United States on November 24, 1993. It features the voices of John Goodman, Jay Leno, Walter Cronkite, Julia Child, and Martin Short.

It is based on the 1987 Hudson Talbott children's book of the same name, which was narrated from the perspective of the main character, a Tyrannosaurus named Rex.

Plot
In present-day New York City, an Eastern bluebird named Buster runs away from his siblings and he meets an intelligent orange Tyrannosaurus named Rex, who is playing golf. He explains to Buster that he was once a ravaging dinosaur, and proceeds to tell his personal story.

In a prehistoric jungle, Rex is terrorizing other dinosaurs when a spaceship lands on Earth, piloted by an alien named Vorb. Vorb captures Rex and gives him "Brain Grain", a breakfast cereal that anthropomorphizes Rex and vastly increases his intelligence. Rex is introduced to other dinosaurs, altered by the Brain Grain: a blue Triceratops named Woog, a purple Pteranodon named Elsa, and a green Parasaurolophus named Dweeb. They soon meet Vorb's employer Captain Neweyes, the inventor of Brain Grain, who reveals his goal of allowing the children of the present time to see real dinosaurs. He plans to take them to Doctor Julia Bleeb who will guide them to the Museum of Natural History, and warns them of Professor Screweyes, his cruel and insane brother who travels around down at the time causing mischief, after being driven mad by the loss of his eye long ago.

Neweyes drops the dinosaurs off in the Hudson River in the present day, but they are unable to meet with Bleeb. Instead, they meet a young boy named Louie, who plans on running away to join the circus. Louie agrees to help the dinosaurs get to the museum. Riding on Elsa, Louie soon encounters a girl named Cecilia, who is miserable with her life because of her neglectful parents. She agrees to run away with Louie and help the dinosaurs, and when she threw away her Thanksgiving hat, it lands on a little girl who wished for a similar hat and ends up granting her wish. To prevent mass panic, Louie decides that the dinosaurs need to stay hidden during their journey to the museum. He disguises them as floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But when Rex sees the Apatosaurus balloon coming out in the parade, Rex naively greets it, thinking it is real and already intelligent like he is. Then in the process of hand-shaking, Rex unwittingly punctures the balloon, causing it to run out of air and fall on the dinosaurs, but left them unharmed. When the audience realize that live dinosaurs are among them, they fly into a panic, and the dinosaurs flee to Central Park while being pursued by the police and the army.

Meanwhile, Louie and Cecilia meet Professor Screweyes, who is running his "Eccentric Circus". Unaware of Screweyes' sinister nature, the children sign a contract to perform in his circus troupe. When the dinosaurs arrive at the circus, Screweyes explains that he delights in scaring people and believes that the dinosaurs would make a great addition to his circus. Using his "Brain Drain", pills that are the polar opposite of his brother's Brain Grain, Screweyes devolves Louie and Cecilia into chimpanzees. When he offers the dinosaurs to consume the pills and join his circus as a ransom in exchange for the two children's freedom, they reluctantly accept and Screweyes releases Louie and Cecilia, agreeing to tear up their contract in the process. Knowing their friendship will be lost forever, Rex transforms Louie and Cecilia back to their human forms with his gentle pats. And before leaving, he sadly tells the two children to remember him.

As the kids awake the next morning, they are greeted by a circus clown named Stubbs, who works for Professor Screweyes, serves them breakfast and explains everything. Upon seeing the dinosaurs returned to their natural savage states, Louie and Cecilia plan to sneak into the night's show and save the dinosaurs with Stubbs' help. That night, Professor Screweyes opens his circus with a parade of demons and evil spirits, and then unveils the dinosaurs to the terrified audience. Screweyes says he can control Rex, and proceeds to hypnotize him, while bragging that he is never afraid. However, a crow unintentionally activates the flare lights, breaking Rex out of the trance. Realizing he has been tricked, Rex becomes enraged and attempts to eat Screweyes, making him afraid after his talk. However, Louie steps in and desperately talks Rex out of killing Screweyes. His impassioned pleas and loving touches, along with Cecilia's, return Rex and the other dinosaurs to their kind and friendly natures. Just then, Captain Neweyes arrives in his ship and congratulates Louie and Cecilia, who proceed to kiss, while Stubbs puts on an act announcing his resignation from Professor Screweyes' employ which wins the audience over with laughter. Neweyes, Louie, Cecilia and the dinosaurs board the aircraft, leaving Screweyes to be swarmed upon and devoured by the crows and one crow flies off with his now powerless screw.

The dinosaurs spend the rest of their days in the museum, allowing children to see live dinosaurs, and thus fulfilling their wishes. Back in the present, Rex tells Buster that he and his fellow dinosaurs are still in the museum. He also reveals that Louie and Cecilia have reconciled with their respective parents and become a couple. Rex returns Buster to his family, ignoring his brothers' taunts while hugging his mom, and Rex tells him to remember his story before leaving for the museum.

Voice cast

 * John Goodman as Rex, a kind Tyrannosaurus rex
 * Rene LeVant as Woog, a Triceratops who likes to eat a lot
 * Felicity Kendal as Elsa, an elegant Pteranodon
 * Charles Fleischer as Dweeb, a dim-witted Parasaurolophus
 * Jay Leno as Vorb
 * Walter Cronkite as Captain Neweyes
 * Joey Shea as Louie, a brave young boy from a lower-class background
 * Julia Child as Dr. Juliet Bleeb
 * Kenneth Mars as Professor Screweyes
 * Yeardley Smith as Cecilia Nuthatch, a young girl from a wealthy family
 * Martin Short as Stubbs the Clown
 * Blaze Berdahl as Buster the Bird
 * Rhea Perlman as Buster's Mother
 * Larry King as Himself

Production
Production and development on We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story began at Universal Studios in Universal City near Los Angeles, California and Amblimation in London, United Kingdom in May 1989, which is at the time An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) was also in production. As in a five-year production schedule, it takes four years for the film to be made. In January 1990, after the film's voice actors recorded their voices for the characters, animating and filming began through storyboards, pencil tests (rough and clean-up) and ink and paint (the final version of the film) to bring the characters to life, using cameras and recorded audio. James Horner composed music for the film, including the only song "Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time)" performed by John Goodman. After four years in the making, the film was completely wrapped in the fall of 1993 (the time before the film's theatrical release on November 24, that year).

The film was originally promoted with John Malkovich listed alongside Cronkite, Goodman, Child, Leno and Short, but he did not appear in the final version.

Promotion
To promote the film's theatrical release during the holiday season, a giant helium balloon of Rex the T. Rex was included in the real-life 1993 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Unfortunately, as the parade moved through Columbus Circle, high winds caught the Rex balloon and caused it to lift over the nearby sidewalk. The head of the Rex balloon struck a protruding street light and popped, but the rest of the dinosaur's body remained inflated until the end of the parade.

There were also video game adaptations of the film released in 1993 by Hi-Tech Expressions for the SNES, Sega Genesis and Game Boy. The SNES version was developed by Visual Concepts. The Genesis version was developed by Funcom. The Game Boy version was developed by Beam Software and was altered in other regions to feature a different IP instead. In Sweden, the game featured instead the cartoon character Bamse. In Australia, the game was called Agro Saur and featured the puppet Agro. In Europe, the game featured an original character called Baby T-Rex. A fifth version featuring Edd the Duck was to be released in the UK but was later cancelled (the film was never released to UK cinemas, going directly to video in 1994).

Pizza Hut carried a series of toys. Dakin and Just Toys made stuffed animals and bendies.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 38% approval rating, based on 16 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1 star out of 4 stars and wrote, "It's shallow and kind of dumb, and the animation is routine, and the story isn't much, and the stakes are a lot higher these days in the featurelength animation game". Variety Daniel M. Kimmel gave the film a positive review and wrote, "In spite of narrative problems... the film's chief appeal is its central conceit -- that giant monsters... can be transformed into creatures who like to play with children".

Box office
The film grossed a total of $3,707,770 on its opening weekend and a total domestic gross of $9,315,576 in the United States, resulting in a box office bomb.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on March 15, 1994 by MCA/Universal Home Video (currently known as Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). It was re-released on VHS on September 26, 1995. On April 4, 1998, the film was re-released on VHS as part of the "Universal Family Features" collection. On May 26, 2009, the film was released onto DVD for the first time. On November 17, 2015, the film was released on Blu-ray. During its availability at Walmart stores, it includes a sneak peek at The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave.

Aspect ratio
The laserdisc release was presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio. When the film was released on DVD in some other countries, it was presented in the pan and scan format. When the film was finally released on DVD in the United States and Canada on May 26, 2009, it was presented in its original theatrical ratio in anamorphic widescreen.

Soundtrack
This soundtrack included the songs "Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time)" and "Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time) (Finale Version) by James Horner, Little Richard and Thomas Dolby.

Soundtrack album track listing

 * 1) Main Title / Primeval Times – 4:14
 * 2) Flying Forward in Time – 5:48
 * 3) Welcome to New York – 2:26
 * 4) First Wish, First Flight – 3:48
 * 5) A Hint of Trouble / The 'Contract' – 1:49
 * 6) Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time): performed by John Goodman – 2:55
 * 7) Grand Slam Demons – 2:05
 * 8) Hot Pursuit – 3:18
 * 9) Central Park – 1:21
 * 10) Screweyes' Circus / Opening Act – 1:12
 * 11) Circus – 2:29
 * 12) Fright Radio / Rex's Sacrifice – 6:19
 * 13) Grand Demon Parade – 7:39
 * 14) The Kids Wake Up / A New Day – 2:57
 * 15) The Transformation – 5:30
 * 16) Special Visitors to the Museum of Natural History – 2:12
 * 17) Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time): performed by Little Richard – 2:56