Released in 2018

My Pet Dinosaur 

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A tale of friendship, mystery and adventure when a young boy named Jake makes a new friend. But this lovable, mischievous little dinosaur begins to rapidly grow each day and now Jake can no longer keep his pet a secret, especially from the government.

 

Making friends is easy, keeping them is impossible....

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I am a Spielberg-kid. I’ve spent a life trying to make movies in his image, like God, haha. For this, I love My Pet Dinosaur because I love anything that wreaks of Spielberg stink. Hazy light, splashing across a foggy night, a swell of John Williams-esque score and we are off in a Spielbergian reality. The tone is all there; a precocious pack of kids, riding bikes and working on a school project. Even the subtextual, emotional, backstory of the missing father in E.T. is retold in My Pet Dinosaur as our protagonists are always at odds with their mom’s new, cop, boyfriend.

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The writing and directing by Matt Drummond is mini-Spielberg creme de la creme and the CGI dinosaur looks pretty good. It’s a sure testament to how far we have come since the 1993 film that changed everything. I found the early stage, baby dinosaur to be very cute and the action scenes with the grown dinosaur were fun and compelling. 

I can’t help but notice the cheap, rough edges of My Pet Dinosaur.

 

The dialog is to be expected, teen-speak that isn’t quite convincing and scientific jargon that must make real scientists laugh. It’s a level of budget that puts you right in that pocket; not enough money for a realistic, lived-in looking production design, and just enough money to afford the rental price for nice houses to shoot in. Too many lifeless, blank walls and not enough living clutter. In that same vein, the sound design is clean and clear like a real movie, but hollow, empty and missing life… like a movie with a mini budget that all went to its CGI dinosaur. 

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My Pet Dinosaur is, perhaps, a little more serious than the, silly, 1980’s style title implies. But, with some gags and light-heartedness throughout it should be fun for your whole family — if you like this kind of thing!

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While it might annoy Mr. Drummond to constantly be compared to Spielberg, I can’t imagine he’s surprised. I honestly think it would be an interesting exercise to, not say anything, and show a young kid E.T. and then this and see what they think?  

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