Cal Brunker’s family animation has some dinosaur diversion and treats Rex with care, but the thin writing and blunt lessons make it hard to recommend beyond households already devoted to the pups.
Cal Brunker’s film offers occasional diversion for small children, but too little wit or invention to recommend for a family evening. Putting the pups alongside dinosaurs is an understandable proposition, and the film knows which age group it wants to please. The trouble is how little it finds to do beyond supplying action and lessons about trying hard. At 88 minutes, it asks for a modest amount of time and still struggles to earn it.
Brunker and co-writer Bob Barlen put perseverance and effort among the lessons, neither of which needs defending. Young children can enjoy knowing what sort of story they are getting, and familiar characters can make an adventure easier to follow. But a reassuring formula still needs jokes, particular problems and some pleasure in how those problems are solved. Here, the dinosaur action supplies intermittent distraction, while the writing does too little to make the familiar pattern worth repeating.
We were heartened by the treatment of Rex, whose disability is handled with respect. Voiced by Hayden Chemberlen, he receives a consideration that is welcome in a film otherwise prone to dividing its characters into simple moral categories. That care matters in entertainment aimed at children who are still learning how to regard one another. It is a virtue we would not dismiss just because so much else here feels designed to sell another toy.
There is some ambition in the visuals, and the dinosaur sequences provide a little of the uncomplicated pleasure the title promises. Ed Fuller edits and Pinar Toprak provides the music, but the weaknesses begin with what Brunker and Barlen have written for the pups to do. The action needs more comic invention to make it interesting beyond the immediate attraction of the creatures. Visual ambition can only do so much when the story offers so few surprises.
The writing is less careful about authority and wrongdoing. It treats criminality too readily as a complete explanation of a person’s character, which is an unhelpfully simple lesson to offer a small child. Its handling of nature and modern life is similarly muddled, without much curiosity about the questions it raises. Brunker and Barlen need not turn a children’s adventure into a lecture, but they could give its ideas the same care afforded to Rex.
Carter Young voices Marshall, Mckenna Grace voices Skye and Rain Janjua voices Chase, with Terry Crews and Jennifer Hudson also among the cast. Recognisable names do not, by themselves, give parents anything to enjoy, and a family film should not mistake accompanying adults for a captive audience. Nor does an adventure for preschoolers need knowing references pitched over their heads. A funny situation, clearly told, would be enough for everyone. The disappointing thing is how often recognition seems to be counted on to do that work.
We would leave this to households in which the pups already have an enthusiastic following. For a family evening chosen from scratch, there are more rewarding ways to spend 88 minutes. Parents accompanying a devoted fan might reasonably ask to choose the next film.
