Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone

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 adaption of the book. After the Hallmark Entertainment live-action television series adaptation ended, Hallmark made this movie, though a lot of elements were changed from the original book.

Plot

An orphan boy named Kex Bradley attempts to escape his orphanage by boarding a cargo ship only for it to be caught in a thunderstorm and leaving Kex stranded in the ocean on a stray lifeboat. Kex wakes up to find that he has washed ashore on Dinotopia, where he meets 26, Mara, and the other residents of the island. They soon learn that the evil Ogthar has escaped his prison on the island with the use of a powerful artifact and must stop his plans of taking over their home.

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

Species

• Ankylosaurus
• Brachiosaurus
• Chasmosaurus
• Corythosaurus
• Compsognathus
• Dimetrodon
• Dilophosaurus
• Dryosaurus
• Ichthyosaurus
• Iguanodon
• Lambeosaurus
• Euoplocephalus
• Edmontosaurus
• Ouranosaurus
• Pachycephalosaurus
• Parasaurolophus
• Pteranodon
• Stegosaurus
• Styracosaurus
• Quetzalcoatlus
• Trilobite
• Triceratops
• Tyrannosaurus

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.
• 'Kex' is not an actual given name or even an actual surname in any language, but it fits the style of the already pre-established characters who majority of which also have names not found in any language.
• The majority of the dinosaurs in this movie have the ability to speak like humans whereas in the books, only a few dinosaurs 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 the animated movie are given anthropomorphic physical traits.
• In this movie, 26, the young Chasmosaurus from the live-action series is featured as one of the main characters instead of a supporting character. 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 from being able to power up machinery and emit bright light like in the books and miniseries, sunstones in the movie are given the 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).
  • Similarly, its darker counterpart, Ruby Sunstone, is given additional properties in addition of driving those who possess it insanity; here, it bestowed necessary knowledge to build ancient sunstone-based technology (ex. strutters) and immortality, as well as giving rise to subservient mutants born from dinosaur eggs incubated with its dark energies.
• Ogthar in the film appears as the main antagonist and instead of being the legendary king of the now-sunken island city of Poseidos who is said to look like a cross between a human and a ceratopsian, he is an immortal warlord who once a human sailor marooned on Dinotopia not unlike Arthur Denison and his son albeit taking a darker path from both unable to get used with Dinotopians' ways which he deemed primitive and discovering aforementioned Ruby Sunstone. While his portrayal can be considered as an adaptational villainy, it must be noted that book Ogthar was no means a saint either.
• 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 bring destruction to Dinotopia in aid of Ogthar's plan to conquer the island as opposed of to revolutionize labor. They were also given digital screens inside the cockpits when in the books, the digital screens were absent.
• 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, an Iguanodon was given the ability to shed its skin, though this dinosaur could not shed its skin in real life.
• 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.

Gallery