Synopsis

When a meteor shower destroys his home, young Iguanodon Aladar is separated from his family and raised by lemurs on a secluded island. Years later, he joins a dinosaur herd searching for the legendary nesting grounds. As drought, hunger, harsh terrain, and attacks from predators threaten the survivors, Aladar challenges the herd's rigid leadership and fights to protect the vulnerable.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released on May 19, 2000, Dinosaur was Disney's first computer-animated feature produced in-house, rather than in partnership with Pixar.

• The film combined computer-generated dinosaurs with live-action landscape footage. Crews spent about 18 months filming natural locations around the world to provide the backgrounds.

• The project originated in the late 1980s as a proposed stop-motion dinosaur film associated with special-effects artist Phil Tippett and filmmaker Paul Verhoeven. Disney later revived and transformed the idea into a computer-animated feature.

• Disney's visual-effects operation Dream Quest Images was combined with the studio's computer-graphics group to create The Secret Lab, the production facility behind the film.

• Production reportedly required approximately 3.2 million hours of computer processing and generated about 45 terabytes of digital material.

• The filmmakers originally considered using a Tyrannosaurus rex as the principal predator, but the antagonistic role was given to Carnotauruses instead.

• The film's realistic integration of digital characters with photographed environments was a major technical selling point, particularly the way the dinosaurs interacted with dust, water, shadows, and vegetation.