Rex: Kyôryû monogatari

I sat down in 2021 with my eleven year old son, as he wanted to watch a movie. We hadn't seen the 1993 Japanese family movie "Rex: kyoryu monogatari" (aka "Rex: A Dinosaur's Story") before, so we settled on this one.

I must admit that I wasn't initially expecting much from a movie such as this, given the movie's synopsis. But I must say that writers Bill Bannerman, Haruki Kadokawa and Shoichi Maruyama actually managed to come up with a storyline that was as entertaining and enjoyable for me as it was for my eleven year old son. "Rex: A Dinosaur's Story" definitely took me by surprise.

The storyline is a very enjoyable and highly likeable, so it makes for a very wholesome family movie, especially since it is something that can be easily enjoyed by adult and youngsters alike.

There was something very likeable about Rex, though it was very obvious at times that it was just a rubber suit. But the personality of the dinosaur was something you just can't help but love.

Forget all about realism and such, because this is not a realistic dinosaur movie - if there even exists such a term. This is a movie meant for enjoyment and entertainment, one that is aimed at a wide audience. So there is nothing violent here, nor does Rex eat meat - animal or otherwise.

If you have the chance to watch "Rex: A Dinosaur's Story" with your family, I can highly recommend that you do so, because it is a very good family movie.

My rating of "Rex: A Dinosaur's Story" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I really want to compare Rex: A Dinosaur's Story to Jurassic Park, because they came out the same year, but it's got more similarities to another Steven Spielberg film: E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. A kid who has issues with a parent befriends an adorable but similarly lonely creature, and then the kid works to help the creature. Doing some reading into this, both also had creature/special effects done by Carlo Rambaldi.

It starts slow, but once the dinosaur is introduced, it manages to be a lot more fun. I think the simple second act was my favorite, but I did quite like how ridiculous it gets in its final act. There are action scenes, so much slapstick comedy, charmingly not-great special effects here and there, and it also becomes a Christmas movie.

It's all silly, but I found a lot of it very charming. And to say that about a kid's movie I didn't grow up with - and as someone who turns 29 in less than a fortnight - I think that's saying something. Maybe not much, but something, and something's enough. Rex: A Dinosaur's Story is enough.

Made to capitalize on the success of Jurassic Park and Japan's own Godzilla franchise, Baby is surpassingly quite unique and charming. The story is of a young girl who gets tasked with the extraordinary opportunity to raise an infant T-Rex. The driving theme is motherhood, as the main girl's mother was never there for her so the girl wants to be the mom (for this dinosaur) that she never had. The film accomplishes this with all the appropriate cheesiness. The practical effects are decent and charming enough, but don't expect to "believe" in this T-Rex. The film seems weirdly American to me though, as her family lives in rural Japan in what is essentially an American house. They sit at a dinner table, eating American food while using knives and forks. Maybe this was done for international appeal? The Christmas segments also seemed very western, but this isn't a complaint. It's silly, heartfelt, and fun. This is definitely a recommendation from me if you enjoy this kind of movie.