A few years ago, I recall being possibly the only person on the planet who actually kinda liked The Good Dinosaur, or, at least, some aspects of it. It was nothing great, especially considering Pixar’s usual standards of power and quality, but it still had some impact for me. I only bring that film up because there’s no other comparative touchstone for me to begin to discuss Dino King: Journey to Fire Mountain with. The two films have a surprising amount in common, considering their disparate origins, and my mind couldn’t help but wander back to 2015 whilst watching this movie.
The story centers on a pair of tarbosaurs in the apparent latter days of the cretaceous (according to the dialogue, multiple stars of significant size have fallen, not just the big ‘un we remember fucking over the planet, thereby allowing mammals like us to eventually take over), a father trying to teach his son to hunt and survive as the apex predators they are in the shifting and dangerous landscape they inhabit. The kid’s a saurian version of me, though, pretty inept and verging on unwilling to try. He keeps at it, though, ‘cause he desperately wants to maintain his father’s approval. During one of his live exercises, he is nabbed by a small pack of some variety of velociraptor-like dinos (not gonna lie, if they mentioned their species at any point, I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice), sending his father off on a hunt for his child through harsh terrains and deadly creatures.
I wanna say it’s The Good Dinosaur flipped, but there’s more to it than that, as the kid has his own subplot about standing up for himself and taking on the world or some such rot, but it’s awfully close. The melodrama is on full display, with constant shots of them yelling after one another in the heat of pursuit and bits of longing as hopes for rescue on both sides grow increasingly tenuous. The film sadly doesn’t reach the emotional high points of Pixar’s disappointment, though this may be because the film has been dodgily dubbed from its original Korean.
Yeah, as it turns out, this film is a sequel to a 2012 film called The Dino King (AKA Speckles the Tarbosaurus), with the title dinosaur being the father in this one. Yup, his name is Speckles, though I would swear the characters here call him Freckles. I dunno, I may have also checked out every time I heard the ludicrous name (regardless of which it was) for the big carnivore. I’ve never heard of this film before, and didn’t know its sequel here was originally made for a foreign language, so all I can speak to is The dub further harmed the narrative in the same way every lousy dub has done in the past (see as some of the early Godzilla and Gamera flicks that never got a fair shake by American fans because of the cartoonish and lazy dub work), and few of the characters’ voices seem to match their motivations and presences. Most grating are a pair of twin raptor-like things, who have the single trait of repeating one another in the most obnoxious way possible. The attempts at comedy in this English script are all more pathetic and sad than humorous, and I doubt the kids would necessarily go against me here (though I have been known to be extremely out of touch with the youth of today, so, yeah…). Character motivations are rushed, monotonous, and limp, and nearly all of the dialogue smacks of the minimum effort required to get a “family” film done.
Also a bit jarring is the animation style. Much like The Good Dinosaur’s backgrounds, the filmmakers opted for a mostly realistic and naturalistic design for most of the dinosaurs, though some – especially the evil “raptor” crew – lean decidedly cartoonish (one’s got almost Wolverine-like metal claws somehow). This wouldn’t be so much of an issue were it not for the occasionally jerky movements of the models, revealing every seam and joint in the worst way, and in the mouth movements, which remind me of Lady and the Tramp’s harshly artificial and out-of-whack-looking animation. Combine all of this with the awkward delivery of the dubbed lines and the weak globe-trotting story and you get a rather muddled and inconsistent visual narrative. There are also a bunch of just baffling choices, like the different animation style for papa tarbo’s ankylosaur partner’s tragic backstory (complete with his obvious love interest being referred to solely as his “best friend”) and the inclusion of a bed of giant scorpions (which I wanna say are physically impossible, but I could be wrong there), that further push things off the edge.
I know some of the film’s failures comes down to a lackluster dub, but the whole production just feels off enough to not work as a whole. I will admit the messaging is laudable, particularly with the nature of familial love and the importance of self-confidence, but the delivery is bungled just enough to render things nearly meaningless. There’s potential here, and it’s possible that the non-dubbed version reads stronger, but as is over here it’s nothing to concern yourselves with, kids.
Allusions of Grandeur 