am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.

Cast * Story* Interesting Facts






Directed by: Phil Nibbelink & Simon Wells
Written by: Hudson Talbott (book), John Patrick Shanley (adaptation)
Music by: James Horner & Thomas Dolby

Released on: November 24, 1993
Running Time: 72 minutes

Budget: $
Box-Office: $9.3 million in the U.S.
 
 

CAST
 
John Goodman (1952) as Rex
Jay leno (1950) as Vorb
Rhea Perlman (1948) as Mother Bird
Martin Short (1950) as Stubbs the Clown

Rex... John Goodman
Vorb... Jay Leno
Stubbs the Clown... Martin Short
Mother Bird... Rhea Perlman
Buster... Blaze Berdahl
Dr. Bleeb... Julia Child
Captain Neweyes... Walter Cronkite
Charles Fleischer ....  Dweeb
Elsa... Felicity Kendal
Woog... René Le Vant
Professor Screweyes... Kenneth Mars
Louie... Joe Shea
Cecilia... Yeardley Smith
 
 

STORY

The film begins with an anachronism as a baby bird attempts to take flight too early and drops on the snout of a huge, goofy-looking Tyrannosaurus rex. Rex (John Goodman) is sporting a sweater as he plays golf outside of modern-day New York City.  To encourage the bird not to grow up too soon, Rex tells his story, which we see in flashback.

Millions of years ago, Rex was just another rampaging monster. But he got a second chance when kindly Dr. NewEyes (Walter Cronkite) arrived in his time-traveling space ship and fed Rex Brain Grain cereal, which gave him intelligence and a gentle personality.  Aboard the ship, Rex met Elsa, a pterodactyl (Felicity Kendal); Dweeb, a duck-billed hadrosaurus (Charles Fleischer); and Woog, a triceratops (Rene LeVant), who would become his traveling companions.

NewEyes sends them to 1993 New York, to fulfill children's wishes of seeing real, live dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. But, of course, the foursome is sidetracked.  They take up with a couple of neglected children and land in the clutches of evil Dr. ScrewEyes (Kenneth Mars), who operates the Eccentric Circus in Central Park and who plots to use the dinosaurs as sideshow exhibits.
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

The screenplay was written by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for his Moonstruck (1987) script.

Director Phil Nibbelink was the voice of the henchman in The Black Cauldron (1985), an animator on The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and became his directing career with the sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991).

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) is considered by some to be the father of modern science fiction. Co-director Simon Wells has an even more interesting background: on top of being Spielberg's protege, and helming quality movies such as Balto (1995) and The Prince of Egypt (1998), Simon also happens to be the great-grandson of writer H.G. Wells, author of classics such as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) and The Invisible Man (1897)!

The winter of 1993 was the first in several years without a new Disney animated release -the studio was instead readying The Lion King for the following summer, in a risky move that would prove extremely successful.  Several other studios seized this opportunity to release their own animated feature and enjoy the lack of competition--such was the case with We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story, which nevertheless received a very cold receipt, both critical and commercial.

Max, the kid that picks up the T-Rex by the tale at the end of the film, was actually modelled on Steven Spielberg's son. The animators were sent photos of him over when the sequence was being animated and asked to put him in.

As the dinosaurs dance around Times Square, it is possible to see a theatre marquee advertising the then newly released Jurassic Park (1993), which was directed by executive producer Steven Spielberg!

"At the time of We're Back the atmosphere was okay but confidence in the story was lower than usual," animator Jason McDonald recalls. "The brothers, Dick and Ralph Zondag were making their debut as directors at that point I think. Ralph went on to do a fantastic job at Secret Lab directing Dinosaur."
 



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