Dinotasia

Dinotasia is, for all its challenges, a fun film, and if your kids like it then they'll want to watch it repeatedly. Its episodic style makes it easy to watch in sections, so it's a good choice to buy on DVD. Unfortunately, the DVD package doesn't offer much in the way of extras. Most of what we get here is just slightly extended versions of some of the most traumatic scenes in the film. There's a rather sweet hand-drawn early version of the last major drama, but it's filler stuff - it doesn't really stand up by itself or add anything to our understanding of how the film was put together.

The one extra scene that really does work is a sequence involving a mating display. The animation here is a dodgy as ever but the characters come across well. It also adds to the story of small mammals that develops quietly in the background throughout the film. There's nothing overtly sexual in the scene so prents shouldn't worry that it's been left out of the main film because it's unsuitable for younger kids. In fact, it's probably the least violent scene in the whole story.

Last and probably least, there's a bizarre piece in which we see a man crawling round on his living room floor to demonstrate the movements of the dinosaur in the film's magic mushroom scene. There's no explanation for this, though one assumes it's illustrating part of the creative process. Young kids may engage with it, however, as a prelude to games. Be prepared to be climbed on.