Disney's own Dinosaur project has been gestating (as it were) for many years, at one point Paul Verhoven was interested in doing it, although I don't suppose he'd have produced the kind of kiddie fayre that Disney might desire. In the end, we have a kind of live action Land Before Time with computer generated dinosaurs on real backdrops, much like Jurassic Park or the BBC's recent and superb Walking with Dinosaurs. It is intersting to note that, despite the obvious budget restrictions that must have made Walking with Dinosaurs an especially challenging programme, many people have cited the effects on that as being superior to Disney's new film, although I wonder whether this might be because the creature designs are somewhat softened and given slightly more cuddly (for want of a better word) features; kiddies will not be happy if the dinosaurs look too frightening.

Whatever the merits of the film, I can't say that I was exactly over the moon when I discovered that James Newton Howard had been tapped to write the music. Another bland JNH score was not a prospect I relished greatly, but in all fairness Dinosaur is an extremely good effort. Yes, it does come across as a fairly typical Howard action effort for much of the time, but has enough enjoyable moments effort that falls into the catergory of entertaining, if not indelible (almost damning it by indifference I suppose). To promote the film, Disney took the nifty step of putting a lengthy teaser featurette (as they like to call it) before screenings of Toy Story 2 - something that occasionally overshadowed John Lasseter's brilliant film in discussions. However, much was made of the music in the featurette and fans will be pleased to know that it is contained on this album as the first couple of tracks. After a plinking percussion opening and a little comedic orchestral interplay comes the moment everyone is waiting for, the big African choral effort which has the fairly imposing footprint of Lebo M stamped all over it. The result, while perhaps becoming a bit old hat (it could easily come from The Lion King or Power of One or even Cry Freedom) is still very stirring and Howard's orchestral backdrop provides a very tuneful counterpoint to the choir.

Howard's tunefulness seems to have almost reached a peak with Dinosaur; while it is not necessary to have themes that repeat over and over to make a score, when there is nothing else to latch onto, music can just ramble terribly and that is something I've felt happens in far too many of Howard's scores. However, here he has written a couple of pretty memorable themes, the first being the inspiring main theme, as well as a more tender theme for the friendship that develops between the various beasts deployed as characters. Throw them together with a couple of fractionally uninspiring action cues, which rely on a little too much banging and crashing - surprising given Howard's extremely good use of the orchestral pallette elsewhere - and you have a very entertaining score. The album doesn't really have any overtly slow moments and is just about the right length, so pretty much liable to at least be entertaining, even if the showy choral passages are likely to stick in the mind afterward.

Rating ~

1. Inner Sanctum - The Nesting Grounds (2:57)
2. The Egg Travels (2:43)
3. Aladar & Neera (3:28)
4. The Courtship (4:12)
5. The End of Our Island (4:00)
6. They're All Gone (2:08)
7. Raptors - Stand Together (5:37)
8. Across the Desert (2:24)
9. Finding Water (4:13)
10. The Cave (3:40)
11. The Carnotaur Attack (3:52)
12. Neera Rescues The Orphans (1:12)
13. Breakout (2:43)
14. It Comes with a Pool (3:01)
15. Kron & Aladar Fight (2:57)
16. Epilogue (2:32)

Total Time ~ 51:47