After being beamed up into an invading force’s spacecraft, a mischievous and resourceful Gigantopithecus called Rufus escapes his captors and hijacks an ongoing scientific procedure, resulting in a dinosaur receiving the brain of a long dead insurgent and becoming Trexx, a courageous T-Rex (well, obviously) who has to deal with a stream of alien thoughts and a drive to fulfil a newly-found destiny.
Trexx’s mission is not going to be easy and, if he’s to succeed, he’ll need help if he’s to defeat the hordes of evil Plutonian warriors led by the smart, conniving Ebo Kalif. Time to for Trexx and Rufus to travel space in search of the most exceptional examples of their kind in order to assemble the ultimate team of dinosaur astronauts. Dinonauts, if you will…
Made over a period of ten years in the garage of director Omar Distrakt Jones – here credited with the mononym of Distrakt – Dinonauts harks back to a period of animation which will trigger a pang of nostalgia for those of us who arrived home from school or hauled ourselves out of bed on Saturday mornings to see various weird and wonderful cartoons in which teams of creatures would battle against an all-powerful Big Bad for as many seasons as viewing figures and action figure marketing would sustain.
The sheer enthusiasm for this type of tale is evident and there’s very much a feel of a number of differing offerings from the 80s and 90s, be they Hanna-Barbera, the collaborations of Rankin/Bass with overseas production houses and even a smattering of Ralph Bakshi in the mix (don’t worry, this doesn’t veer into Fritz The Cat territory if you’re thinking about possible damage to any kids watching this). There’s less polish to the end product that any of those studio efforts, of course, but that’s all part of the charm.
Clearly a labour of love, Dinonauts does suffer slightly from the syndrome of putting everything possible on screen just in case there’s no sequel. The plot crams in origin story, team recruitment vignettes and first mission in just seventy-six minutes and there are several points along the way where there seems to be far too much going on, especially with a reasonably large cast of characters and a hefty chunk of backstory to be filled in.
In fact, it’s the moments where Dinonauts takes a breath to kick back and spoof other, popular forms of culture where it works best. The sequence in which Trexx and co show up to invite Toro, ace Triceratops navigator, to join them is a glorious mickey take of gladiatorial combat served up as a Las Vegas-style prize fight, complete with shouty announcer, sponsorship by a dreadful sounding alcoholic beverage called Crud 40 and the event being run under the auspices of the Gorfian Bludgeoning Commission. It’s also the scene in which one of the characters steals an Ivan Drago line from Rocky IV, so what’s not to like?
Elsewhere, there’s plenty of thumping in general, plus a lot of space combat and various wisecracks from Rufus which range from reasonably amusing to astonishingly irritating in time-honoured sidekick tradition. This is a film that also makes jokes at its own expense (or lack thereof), at one point bemoaning the lack of budget which apparently has rendered a planet without colour. For every instance where the action goes on a little too long and flirts with becoming wearisome, there’s a burst of welcome imagination such as the Cosmic 8-Ball or Ebo being given a metaphorical kick in the cods at a meeting of a Space Council which is exactly how those mind numbing trade talks of The Phantom Menace should have proceeded.
The voice talent on display may not have the seasoned nuance of a Kevin Conroy but hey, we were never going to be in the same ballpark here. Everyone in the cast understood their assignment and the enjoyment of delivering purposely stylised dialogue comes across often, particularly the work of Matt Steiner, bringing an educated, casually cruel air to Ebo Kalif, frustrated with the erratic success rate of his underlings and relishing the opportunity to foist a historic, Pathé-esque newsreel on a captured Trexx in a Clockwork Orange style.
The mix of animation styles in Dinonauts may prove a sticking point for those who are looking for a consistent aesthetic throughout and the screenplay occasionally skates over details in order to rush the action to the next punch-up or shootout but overall it’s an entertaining tribute to the television staples of past decades, complete with open-ended assignment and the promise of more galactic arse-kicking to come. If nothing else, stay for the cracking electronic soundtrack by 20SIX Hundred which immediately sent me to seek out their other work the moment the credits stopped rolling.
Dinonauts (2024) featured at the recent Spirit of Independence Film Festival in Sheffield, UK.