The Dinosaur Hunter

This is the sort of movie kids would loved to have seen at the saturday morning picture show thirty years ago. A nice adventure featuring a couple of young kids - enjoyable family fare. Add in a dinosaur for some "post-Jurrasic Park" credibility. I'm not sure what an actor of Plummer's calibre is doing in there, but the story is the thing here. Good drama, happy ending, nicely executed. Not a cinematic classic, and I doubt I'd go out of my way to rent it, but it'll babysit a ten year old for an hour and a bit.

An older Julia recounts her encounter in depression era Canadian prairies. Julia Creath (Alison Pill) and older brother Daniel live with their parents on their farm. Their father is building irrigation despite the drought. Paleontologist Jack McCabe (Simon MacCorkindale) arrives from the government offering $500 for a whole skeleton. He is opposed by creationist Reverend Smythe (R.H. Thomson) but the townfolks are eager for the money. Then Hump Hinton (Christopher Plummer) arrives with the mysterious Amba offering double the reward.

This is a very small Canadian feature about the discovery of dinosaur bones in the prairie badlands. It moves rather slowly. It's an old fashion family film. The villain is broad. The story is piled high with a dead baby and epic rains. There are interesting actors. It could have worked better.

I'm not sure how the titles got confused, but I see there is a review of this title, but it's not for this film.

The Dinosaur Hunter is NOT an educational video in a museum--it is an award-winning feature length movie that was nominated (amongst other brilliant work from around the world), for Best Movie at the prestigious Banff Television Festival. For those Canadians who have a national insecurity complex, the Banff Festival is regarded as one of the important in the industry world-wide. Other winners in various categories have included FRASIER, NYPD BLUE as well as many other prominent international productions.

I know all of this because I was the network executive in charge of the project. In the end, it is a family movie and is not designed to appeal outside of that demographic. But as a movie for kids, I have to say it was one of the projects I was most proud of during my tenure. Testing demonstrated that, to most of its audience, the film is exciting--filled with the sorts of activities that kids dream of doing.

Rick Stevenson is a talented director and Edwina Follows did a wonderful job of adapting the book by Pam Conrad. The production team that worked with them also did fine work.

Of course, my opinion is merely that, and since I chose to invest in the film through my office, it's obvious that I saw value in it. But since Banff did too, I feel very genuinely that the film is worth a look for families looking for quality viewing.

I picked this movie from a bargain bin, which makes it that much more of a "find" for my family movie collection. I was not aware of this movie when it was released (I'm not sure how it was released -- theaters, TV, or direct to DVD), I guess some good stuff falls through the cracks! The acting is very good as is the plot -- the issues related to a difficult pregnancy may be a bit heavy for younger children, but they are portrayed in a very real and honest manner. The issue of ownership of dinosaur fossils portrayed in the movie is as relevant today as illustrated by the legal action surrounding the ownership of "Sue" -- the most complete T-Rex skeleton found to date that is now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. The movie also hearkens back to the story of Mary Anning, who found the first complete Icthyosaur skeleton when she was a young girl living in Lyme Regis, England. I have an eight-year old aspiring paleontologist and a five-year old, and both loved the film. Great family viewing -- thanks for supporting it Scott!

Our girls (7 and 8) really enjoyed this film. What made it even more special was that my wife and I were extras on this film back in 1999!