The quirkily varied dinosaurs, who are at the heart of Mr. When Frank says that someone must have escaped from Dinotopia, David tells him that if people had left the place, they'd have sold their story, and ''there'd be a 'Dinotopia' the book, 'Dinotopia' the movie,'' not to mention ''little windup toys at McDonald's.''įrom your mouth to Nielsen's ears, say the producers, who seem to have big hopes despite a diminished special-effects budget. Le Sage and her fellow travelers could have wandered out of an episode of ''Xena'' or ''Hercules.'' They are part of an obvious effort to give ''Dinotopia'' a self-referential smirk. These include the strong-willed, quick-witted Le Sage (Lisa Zane), who is far more interesting than the newly watered-down heroines. The writer, Raymond Khoury, and the director, Thomas Wright, have given the plot a welcome pungency with the introduction of a randy band of baddies, the Outsiders. Tonight's story, which includes some stampeding tyrannosaurs and a magic pendant, is clever and moves fast. These personality transplants seem to have been undertaken with a series's longevity in mind. And he has morphed from a fatuous buffoon into a suave, self-assured leader. Hallmark Entertainment brings to life DINOTOPIA, the. (HANDOUT PHOTO) HANDOUT Show More Show Less 2 of 3 15. No longer an assertive matriarch, Rosemary is now the sweet helpmeet for her husband, Mayor Waldo (Jonathan Hyde). DINOTOPIA premieres on SUNDAY, MAY 12 (7:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Televison Network. David (Shiloh Strong) and his tough-guy blond brother, Karl (Erik von Detten), are still competing for Dad's approval and for the attention of Marion, the lovely Dinotopian princess.īut Marion (Georgina Rylance) is far less feisty and independent, as is her mother, Rosemary (Sophie Ward). Frank (Michael Brandon), peripheral in the spring, is now central to the action. For starters, all those characters are now portrayed by different actors. Gurney's whimsical Eden with standard made-for-television narrative and characters, the maxi-series has made additional jolting changes.
His brainy, dark-haired son, David, says, ''Not everything makes sense.'' The father, a Type-A businessman named Frank Scott, is still unhappy about being marooned: ''I just don't understand how come we never heard of this place.'' Promise kept: here comes ''Dinotopia'' the ABC series, beginning tonight with a two-hour adventure. That was May, when ABC presented a mini-series inspired by James Gurney's fanciful Dinotopia books. These contemporary Americans had arrived on the quaint island after a plane crash, and they had learned that while ''outlanders'' like them had been washing ashore here for centuries, Dinotopia's peculiar geography made it impossible for them to leave. When we last left Dinotopia, the island where humans and dinosaurs dwell in harmony, a father and his two sons were contemplating their fate. Mass sunstones power out seem to be happening across Dinotopia that forcing Dinotopian people to flee for their lives.