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Walking with Dinosaurs | 2013 | PG | - 1.4.2

Eons ago, according to a prehistoric bird (voiced by John Leguizamo), he lived with a trio of frilled and horned dinosaurs (voiced by Justin Long, Tyra Sircar and Skylar Stone). The bird enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the dinosaurs, keeping them groomed and free of parasites and in the bird's story one of the dinosaurs rises to lead the herd, but must confront bullies and battle a meat-eating Gorgon to do so. Also with the voice of Karl Urban. Directed by Neil Nightingale & Berry Cook. [1:27]

SEX/NUDITY 1 - A dinosaur teases his younger brother about having a crush on a girl dinosaur and later the older brother takes the female away from the younger one; the younger male wins her back and in another scene, and we see a nest of eggs that we hear belong to the younger male and the girl dinosaur.
 A bird says that young love is beautiful and precious and that a young male dinosaur was bitten by the love bug. A girl dinosaur tells a boy dinosaur that her mother will not let her talk to boys outside her own herd.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A lightning storm with large crashes of thunder at night ignites a tree that causes a forest-wide fire; large flames fill the screen in several scenes as reptiles and birds attempt to escape and flaming trees fall across paths and dinosaurs make new paths as they push over other trees; a Gorgon attacks two young dinosaurs and fights and kills their father (and we don't see gore and the young dinosaurs cower and go to sleep); Gorgons cut off the two males' mother and three siblings on another path and we hear that they are "not coming back."
 Several species of prehistoric reptiles and birds fight one another: Raptors herd meat eaters and attempt to bite them in the neck, but lose their grip; large feathery chicken-like creatures chase and peck smaller birds and then large pterosaurs chase and eat the "chickens"; a Gorgon raptor snatches a pterosaur from the sky and swallows it (we see bloody teeth); and leaf-eaters bite large birds on the legs to stop them from pecking their hides for food. When three large birds peck at a rodent lying on the ground, a small dinosaur chases them away; the rodent revives and runs away.
 A dozen Gorgon raptors harass a new herd of leaf-eaters and bring down their leader with bites to the neck; as raptors are about to eat the leader, the herd leader's brother calls upon the whole herd to attack the Gorgons; the leaf-eaters chase the raptors away and the brother takes over the herd after roaring at the former leader for poor decisions and being a bully.
 Several fight scenes depict horned and frilled dinosaurs head-butting and attempting to gouge each other in fights designed to determine herd leadership and mates; in one scene, two brothers fight, but the winner leads the herd over thin ice across a large pond, several herd members slide and a few fall through the ice, presumably drowned (we do not see that); the loser of the fight leads the herd back to safety along a path made of downed trees. In a subsequent fight, the first leader wins again, but knocks the second leader (his brother) into a ditch and locks him in with a fallen tree; the fallen dinosaur, sleeping, awakens after birds of several species peck at him and he shouts, "I am not a piece of meat!"
 Three young dinosaurs fall into a river with rapids and stop at a rock, but fall off and continue down the river to a natural stop on a small beach; one of the dinosaurs suffers a sprained foot and while lying on a beach to rest, is covered by large red crabs that pinch her and another of the dinosaurs; pterosaurs descend, stab and swallow the crabs whole, while the injured dino says, "Ewwww."
 Large birds steal a baby dinosaur from its nest with one of the birds biting a hole in the dino's neck frill, but not causing pain; as an adult, the dino uses the hole to capture and break the forearm of a large Gorgon raptor dinosaur. A Gorgon raptor appears to break through a camera lens and roar loudly in close-up toward the audience. A Gorgon raptor snarls into the audience several times, showing large, sharp, yellowed teeth.
 A male in a litter of dinosaurs bullies a smaller male littermate, stealing food from its mouth, knocking it down, belittling it with name-calling, and repeating often that fighting is the only way to win at life.
 A rodent screams when he comes out of a hole in the ground at night and scares young dinosaurs that shout at him. Two rodents pretend to fight like head-butting dinosaurs. A grumpy middle school boy snarls at an archeologist that he is not interested in digging up dead things and only wants his cell phone to work. We hear that a child in school ran into a flagpole, lost two teeth and bled. Two children look at an old dinosaur tooth and later fit it into a skeleton in a shallow grave.
 A crow turns into a black-and-red toothed prehistoric bird, and pecks the tartar off the yellowed teeth of a dinosaur that snaps at him. A bird swallows several moths and dragonflies, as do other birds and rodents. A large dinosaur chews up greens and regurgitates the chewed material into a nest of baby dinos that eat it; a bird eats part of it and eats moss from rocks nearby. A bird eats a mound of chewed greens as large as himself. A dinosaur says that he will eat slime from a rock (it looks like moss).
 Three pterosaurs fly toward the audience a few times and often sit on rocks, where they peck at one another if any of them moves; one falls off a rock, unharmed. Several times, in order to gain a young dinosaur's attention, a bird pecks him in the eye or nostril.
 A dinosaur sneezes and a bird eats the mucus (which is not clearly shown). A large dinosaur defecates a huge mound of brown material on a baby dino and its littermates ask if it took a smelly poop shower; another dinosaur says that she "stepped in it" (implying feces that we do not see). One young dinosaur accuses another young dino of farting by asking him what he had for breakfast and making a face.

LANGUAGE 2 - 3 mild scatological terms, 1 mild anatomical term, name-calling (lard-butt, ridiculous, losers, dumb, stupid, crazy, squatter, Tiny-arms, Lizard Boy, Turkey-Bird, sky hogs), stereotypical references to bored children with iPhones, bullies, parents, inept leaders, runts), exclamations (bite me), 2 religious exclamations (Oh My God, Holy Crab).

SUBSTANCE USE - A dinosaur looks at the aurora borealis and asks a friend whether she sees it also or whether he ate a rancid pinecone (hallucination implied).

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Age of the Earth, dinosaurs, dino-birds, the food chain, leadership, families, relationships, sacrifice, death, change, survival.

MESSAGE - Rules must change with time and progress to remain effective.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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