I saw a Saturday matinee of Dinosaur in a theatre filled with an equal number of adults and children. At the end of the film, something remarkable happened.<br /><br />The audience began to applaud.<br /><br />In years of moviegoing, I don't think I've ever seen that happen. And, coming out of it, I had to join in. It is perhaps one of the most remarkable films I have ever seen.<br /><br />The film centers around a dinosaur named Aladar, who must bring his adoptive family to safety after the extinction event 65 million years ago. He treks through the wasteland that was once a fertile continent and joins a herd looking for a mythical breeding ground that may still be untouched.<br /><br />While this is a film for almost all ages, I would recommend against letting the younger children watch it. It has to be the bleakest Disney film ever produced. Not only is there on-screen death, but there is a lot of it. Aladar and his mammalian family wander through a dangerous and truly shattered world, where survival of the fittest is a reality and compassion is the ideal.<br /><br />I should probably say at least one thing about the special FX; this is a dinosaur movie almost without visible FX. It is literally photo-realistic, making it the first live-action quality film to have completely computer-generated actors. Jurassic Park has not only been given a run for its money, but been beaten at its own game.<br /><br />Perhaps the big criticism I would have to give is that it should have been longer by at least half an hour. The story was certainly tight and well-done, but there was enough material to go on much longer and say far more.<br /><br />Still, I left the theatre feeling that I had seen something profound. Dinosaur is a truly special film, and I think it just might end up changing filmmaking in the manner as Star Wars did in 1977.<br /><br />Final mark: 4/5; probably should have been longer, but definitely worth seeing.