The Mighty Dinosaur Diplo Critique – Children’s Dinosaur Animated Film Goes Meta Pushing Back Versus ‘Adorable’
The film opens in typical ground for children’s entertainment: a tiny earnest dinosaur, a somewhat irritating protagonist, a witty companion, and an assortment of background characters. Yet this co-produced film executes an unexpected shift.
Suddenly, the story moves into a physical scene. We see an illustrator drawing in a secluded workspace, designing the very same film we’ve just been watching.
The draftsman is confronted by a highly irritating character – evocative of a hyper-girly film trope. She orders that he remove his current creations and produce something more marketable and “cute”.
The result is a devastating destruction of non-compliant elements. The dinosaur is separated from family and, despite being somewhat irritating, it’s moving that he believes the disappearance happened because of him.
The layered fiction persists as less conventional figures are erased to make way for more commercial content. It adds the movie deeper meaning – given that animated film is the genre most affected by the lure of adorableness.
Still, while the ideas are more interesting than typical kids’ fodder, the characters don’t captivate. This isn’t about animated critters needing to be adorable, instead audiences need to want to spend time with them. Here, that’s not entirely the case.
Diplo: The Mighty Dinosaur releases in UK & Ireland cinemas on 19 September.