William Katt ('The Greatest American Hero') and Sean Young ("Blade Runner") play George and Susan, a journalist and palaeontologist working in Africa who discover an apatosaur family living deep in the jungle. They work overtime to protect the cute dinosaur baby and its mother from the machinations of Eric Kiviat (Patrick McGoohan, 'The Prisoner'), Susan's ruthless rival who's out to make a name for himself.It is true that the movie doesn't quite make ideal family entertainment. Little kids may not notice its elements of racism and sexism, or much care about female tribe members being topless, but it's undeniable that the movie is a little violent, and not completely light hearted. Not that it dwells too, too long on unpleasantness, this being a Touchstone (i.e. Disney) production.Some people may scoff now at the dinosaur effects, but hey, this *was* 1985, and animatronics weren't as advanced as they became when "Jurassic Park" came along almost a decade later. Personally, I thought the prehistoric lizards were pretty charming, and children are certain to love the baby dino.Some actual location shooting in the Ivory Coast definitely helps, along with the expected studio work. The story is not that well-written, but the pacing is fine, the action scenes decent, and Jerry Goldsmiths' music is appealing.The acting may not be of the Oscar-baiting variety, but it serves its purpose. Katt is okay, although his character is unlikable at the beginning. Young is gorgeous, as usual, but never has been much of an actress. Still, it's easy to be on their side when you have an unsubtle villain played to the hilt by McGoohan. Kyalo Mativo ("Roar") (as tribesman Cephu) and Hugh Quarshie ("Highlander") (as the pilot Kenge Obe) offer engaging support. One bright moment of humour has Cephu spitting out a bite of granola bar after it has been offered to him.This movie is manipulative, to be sure, but it has its moments for fans of dinosaur cinema.Six out of 10.

The film is one of the rare ones that deals with the subject of dinosaurs in modern Africa. A brontosaurus like creature about the size of a grown hippopotamus has been rumored since the 1920s to live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Cameroon. Many expeditions have gone to the difficult to explore wetlands and rivers where it allegedly lives, only to return with no compelling evidence to show for their expensive efforts. A pretty good action-adventure film could be made in which a real dinosaur family is found. Unfortunately, what we get from Disney is boredom and a frustrating, hopelessly lame plot.For example, our heroes, played by William Katt and Sean Young, with no help from anyone, find two 70-foot parent dinosaurs and their five foot long baby living in nice dry park-like land after less than one week of checking out the bush country, and all it takes to lure the big brutes is some food! These same heroes then drive the baby off when he pesters them as they are too busy kissing to worry about safeguarding this priceless discovery. He is promptly caught by the evil scientist Patrick McGoohan who wants to make a fortune from him. He had killed a man in an African city some months before to obtain his blurry photos of the dinosaurs. (No, I am not making this up.) Plot developments go from bad to worse as every major character makes bad decision after bad decision. Just labeling it a "kid movie" and excusing its flaws on that basis does not work in my book. Disney was releasing some poorly received fantasy movies in the mid 1980s and BABY: SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND was definitely in that group.

For those who are too young to know this or for those who have forgotten, the Disney company went almost down the tubes by the end of the 1980s. People were NOT seeing their movies anymore and the company was not producing the usual wholesome material....at least no what people expected. A major problem: profanity.Yes, the idiots running the Disney movies during that decade would produce films with swear words - including the Lord's name in vain, if you can believe that - interspersed in these "family films." In fact that happens twice here in the first 20 minutes! This movie, in addition to the language problems, has a nasty tone to it, too, which made it unlikeable almost right from the beginning. Thankfully, Disney woke up and has produced a lot of great material since these decadent '80s movies. ("Touchstone" is Disney, just under another name.)

This early Touchstone release from 1985 would probably serve as minor script source material for the later unbelievably bad film "Jurassic Park." This mostly obscure film is only mildly better. Still, it's not something that I would recommend and even though Touchstone is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Pictures, don't think that this is a perfectly appropriate family oriented film (despite its childish plot) as there are some scenes of violence and animal peril.