Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone is a 2005 American animated film directed by Davis Doi. Based on the Dinotopia series, this is the first related animated version. After the Hallmark Entertainment live-action television series adaptation ended, Hallmark made this animated adaptation mostly as a marketing tool. It is noted for hardly following elements from the original book series and even shows a great lack in character development.
Plot
TBA
Voice Cast
- Alec Medlock - Kex Bradley
- Tara Strong - Mara
- Diedrich Bader - John
- Gregg Berger - Skybax Captain
- Kimberly Brooks - Female Skybax Patrol
- Michael Clarke Duncan - Stinktooth the Tyrannosaurus
- Kathy Griffin - Rhoga the Parasaurolophus
- Wayne Knight - Thudd the Euoplocephalus
- Jamie Kennedy - Spazz the Dilophosaurus Hatchling
- Malcolm McDowell - Ogthar
- Alyssa Milano - 26 the Young Chasmosaurus
- Masasa Moyo - Shanise the Female Corythosaurus
- George Segal - Albagon the Elderly Dryosaurus
Difference Between the Miniseries and the movie
- Much like the Hallmark Entertainment live-action series adaptation, the setting of this animated adaptation is transferred from the 1860s (as was the setting in the original books) to modern day. The reason for this change in time was so it could connect with the young audience much more.
- 'Kex' is not an actual given name or even an actual surname in any language.
- Majorities of the dinosaurs in this movie have the abilities to speak like humans whereas in the books, only a few dinosaurs that can speak the human language (there are few exceptions of dinosaurs and non-dinosaurs that can speak in human words but with grunting or parrot-like voices, such as Protoceratops multilinguis). In addition, dinosaurs in animated movie are given anthropomorphic physical traits just to make it more appealing to the young audience.
- In this movie, 26, the young Chasmosaurus from the live-action series is featured as a main character instead supporting character. She was most likely added in just for marketing purposes. One theory as to this movie not being a continuation of the live-action series is because 26 is in the care of a human named John, whereas in the live-action series it was Carl Scott who adopted her as an egg.
- This movie still uses "sauro-partners" (a human and a dinosaur that have known each other for a long time) from the live-action series.
- In this movie, sunstones are portrayed as large as quartz stones. Aside able to powered up machinery and emit bright light like in the books and miniseries, sunstones in the movie are given additional ability to trap radio waves and create a shield that seals Dinotopia away from the rest of the world (even though in the books, the reason why Dinotopia is cut off from the rest of the world is because of storm systems and nearly impassable coral reefs).
- The movie also revealing a darker counterpart of regular sunstone called Ruby Sunstone, which unlike other sunstone, only possessed power to store knowledge of ancient sunstone-based technology and bestowed them to those whom possessed it at cost of insanity.
- In this movie, Ogthar is portrayed as a human who long ago arrived on Dinotopia in the same manner of the protagonists in the book, hated it because it was primitive, and was given immortality by the Ruby Sunstone (even though in the books, the ruby sunstone really makes one act mentally insane). In the books, Ogthar is a legendary being, who is said to look like a cross between a human and a ceratopsian, who was king of the now-sunken island city of Poseidos. This Oghtar's portrayal should be noted to be more like Cyrus Crabb from miniseries.
- The mechanical, animal-like strutters of Poseidos from the original books are featured, but they are given a different backstory: Here they were built to do destructive things due to recreated as warfare by Oghtar, even though they were originally meant to revolutionize labor much like in the original books. They were also given digital screens inside the cockpits, when in the books, they did not have digital screens since the devices are thousands of years old.
- The Dilophosaurus character named Spazz is given a neck frill like that of a frilled lizard, which is how the Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park was incorrectly portrayed.
- In this movie, Iguanodon was given the ability to shed its skin. The most likely reason for this is probably because the writers incorrectly believed that because the dinosaur is named after an iguana, it could shed its skin like one, which it did not do in reality.
- In this movie, Stinktooth (from the second book Dinotopia: The World Beneath) is featured, but he is portrayed as a Tyrannosaurus, while in the book he is a Giganotosaurus. The probable reason for this change in Stinktooth's species was because Tyrannosaurus is much more recognizable.