After Jurassic Park you would think dinosaurs would look better in TV and movies, unfortunately Dinotopia couldn't raise the bar. Dinotopia is about two brothers who crash on an island that is has humans and dinosaurs living peacefully. The brothers, David and Karl, want to find their missing farther and escape the island. They find an explorer and he brings them into a complicated world of complexity. This is a miniseries and I remember watching it as a young kid and I was amazed. Watching it a second time almost ten years later, I was highly disappointed. This story had so much potential to be great, but the terrible acting and awful special effects made this series pure garbage. Each episode is about an hour and a half, but they all feel like three hours of pain and torture. The main story made sense at first. One brother would do anything to go home while the other would rather stay, causing conflict. Then they both meet a woman that they are attracted to which causes more conflict. Of course the girl is of royalty and importance, and obviously she doesn't want to be important, she just wants to be normal. There is a greedy researcher who appears to be good but is clearly evil and has bad intentions. I would have been OK with that if the acting wasn't so hard to watch. I finished watching this series because I remember loving it as a kid and I always wanted to see it again. I hoped it would get better but it never did. All this series brought was disappointment and made me want to rant about it. Not only is the acting bad but the story eventually made no sense at all. The brothers arrive in Waterfall City and find out they can't leave, predictable but I went with it. Then we discover dinosaurs have their own language and some even speak English. This was just silly. There is a dinosaur language that humans learned and can write down in the form of footprints. Really, that's the best the director could come up with? There are also these things called sunstones and they are of some importance, I still don't even know. There is an archaeologist who searches for them and the truth as well. There is also a dinosaur who wants to explore "the world beneath." I'm not even sure how to describe it any further. The story gets way out of line and to crazy to even follow. This was originally a novel and i can only hope that the novel is better. I don't know what audience the director was going for either. Kids could like dinosaurs but we hardly see any action sequences. The bulk of the story is confusing dialog and some of the worst acting I have ever seen. Adults would be bored and lose interest with this series half way through the first episode. Overall this series is just a fail and should never be seen by anyone. Don't watch it alone, with friends, or even in school. If for some odd reason a school decides to show this series, skip that class, it's worth the F. This series should never see the light of day and gets the WillyT seal of disapproval for cheesy acting, awful special effects, and a miserable storyline.

Having just just viewed this unique mini-series on DVD from the local library I've found myself wrapped up in the fantasy world that is created in Dinotopia. The acting starts out just a bit lackluster but it picks up quickly and the characters gain personality. The female lead in my opinion is the poorer of the actors but not terrible. The special effects are excellent and I actually was surprised at the formidable quality of this whole production. I rented it just thinking oh I like sci-fi, fantasy, and dinosaurs OK so this will be easy escapism for a bit, but actually it enthralls you with the story of the lives of the people and dinosaurs of Dinotopia. The allure of wanting to experience more of the Dinotopia world drew me to internet investigation where I came to offer these comments and learned of the origin of the story in the Gurney book series and other authors. Thus, my perspective and comments come from first introduction being the movie bringing me to interest in the books. In that regard the movie is really effective....it makes you want to know more about and experience more of the adventures of Dinotopia. It's also a great family theme movie and has great themes and morals too.

maybe it's the original book, but this is so stupid. They live in freaking Waterfall City, and they spend all their time looking for sun stones as a source of power. use the damn waterfalls! create electricity!!! The leading actors are also horrible, especially Wentworth Miller as David, he's acting like he's the director's con who got his first chance in front of a camera. Katie Carr is also laconic and amateur, and only Tyron Leitso does a fair job.The special effects are nice and the CGI character of Zipeau (or Zippo?) is quite lovable. The story is a predictable Disney-esquire adventure for kids, very kitsch, very American and very simplistic.But Dinotopia still keeps some level of interest. It's watchable, if you have 4 extra hours and you can sleep. It will get you to slumber-land, that's for sure.

This miniseries had an interesting premise... But it didn't live up to the hype for one reason alone: The acting was terrible. ABC ran commercials nonstop proclaiming this to be a great success, then when it ran it was painful to watch. The script was full of cheesy lines that you would expect in a bad comic book, and there was almost no believable dialogue at all. The best example of bad acting in this series was the actor who played David. He was the worst in the series. it seemed as if all of the series' budget went into animation and then they hired soap opera actors. The animation was great and the landscapes were beautiful, but the series was just too painful to watch. I saw it twice so I know what I am talking about. I was left feeling very unfulfilled after this.