My Pet Dinosaur is a 2018 fantasy film about a troubled town plunged into chaos when a boy accidentally makes a new friend.
The children’s film market certainly isn’t lacking for choice if not quality, the digital shelves stuffed with animation and family dramas that run the spectrum of genuinely inspiring to downright awful. As a parent, it often takes constant effort to wade through the muck to find something worthwhile, hoping to find something, anything to encourage some creativity. Writer/director Matt Drummond‘s latest entry in the lot is My Pet Dinosaur, a film that aggressively rides on the coattails of a filmmaker whose name I don’t even need to say, it already in your head, and while many have done the same, some to various degrees of success, unfortunately, this one just falls short of where it aims, lacking greater innovation for inspiration, despite a host of potential.
Taking no chances, the film opens in a familiar forest with a group of scientist in hazmat suits exploring goo-soaked foliage, the implication clear. Meanwhile, in the nearby town, a group of young children live in the wake of a recent wave of cancer attacks that left Jake Emory (Jordan Dulieu) without a dad. One evening, Jake and his friends, including lab partner Abbie (Annabel Wolfe), head into the woods where rumors of a UFO landing have the town in a skirmish and the military taking over, skirting the issue by claiming another possible disease incident is mounting. The gang bring home a sample of the goo and after a series of circumstances in Jake’s bedroom, the goo spawns a tiny adorable shiny creature, akin to a dinosaur about the size of a house cat. But not for long. Soon ‘Magnus,’ as Jake calls him, begins to grow and now he’s got a handful of trouble to deal with as the town steadily finds itself under siege from a variety of other exotic goo-based monsters.
It’s perhaps unfair to outright accuse the filmmakers of dipping so deeply into the well, after all, it’s almost common practice in the genre. The film is undoubtedly packed with plenty that young minds might connect with, yet I’m fairly confident that most will probably find little to keep their attention beyond Magnus himself, a well made little beast that at least has some personality. Kids with a dino kick are surely going to find some appeal about him, and with the latest Jurassic World movies maybe going too scary for some viewers, it’s good to see an alternative, though it’s too bad the movie decides bigger is better, the little Magnus much more interesting than the grown one.
However, My Pet Dinosaur is mostly empty everywhere else with the cast of kids not exactly delivering with any weight, the flat reading and stiff dialogue leaving this a little tame. There’s simply nothing authentic about what they say or how they act, the action so scripted and forced, it comes off too artificial, even as the young actors seem like they’re giving it their best.
Naturally, the film is limited by its budget, with some otherwise rough CGI and recycled characters that try all too hard to earn laughs. Few land like they should though. More so, the target audience most likely won’t have any idea what movies the film is giving nods too, but their parents might get a kick out of the flurry of ‘homages’ to the likes of E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to name a few.
My Pet Dinosaur isn’t nearly as bad as many kid’s movies congesting streaming services and VOD stores, the market a mess of poorly-made, cash grabs that rarely do anything in service of the children watching. Drummond is an able filmmaker and tries hard to entertain, even as his ideas are tethered to ones we’ve seen well enough before. Family movie night ought to inspire questions and curiosity, and perhaps My Pet Dinosaur may do that for some, though I wish it were less clingy to conventions and rose to the expectations it feels ready to offer.