Looking at its list of accomplishments, landmarks, and milestones, you’d have thought that Disney’s blockbuster Dinosaur would have ended up sticking in the memory for far longer than it actually did.
After all, the groundbreaking technology used to create the prehistoric adventure was developed painstakingly over a number of years specifically for use in co-directors Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton’s ambitious epic, and at a cost of $127.5 million it was the most expensive computer-generated production in history at the time.
On top of that, the process of shooting live-action backgrounds on location and then populating them with CGI characters was basically unheard of at the time, with many predicting the Mouse House had set itself up for a huge fall. Instead, Dinosaur wound up as the fifth highest-grossing release of 2000 after bringing in $350 million from theaters, before generating a monstrous $198 million in home video sales to ensure the profit margins were hefty.
And yet, you’d have to jog a lot of memories to remind people that it even exists, although that’s changing as we speak on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, Dinosaur has survived complete extinction from the collective consciousness to roar back into life on the iTunes global charts, which is especially curious when the movie is readily available on Disney Plus, too.
The fairly formulaic story follows an orphaned dino raised by lemurs, but you can imagine how much everything changes when a certain rock from outer space decides to end all life as we know it.