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.
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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
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.
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).
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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