... which is the impression I got when I saw the DVD cover art, the title, and the trailers.

It came on one of the pay channels the other day and I sat down to watch. What I found was a whacked out "what if" view of natural history plus a tale on facing your fears and finding friendship where you least expect it.

The movie starts with a bang - literally. Dinosaurs are eating in a field 65 million years ago as an asteroid comes tumbling towards earth. The dinosaurs look up. The asteroid passes harmlessly overhead. The dinosaurs continue eating. So the mass extinction never happens.

Millions of years pass and the dinosaurs evolve. The "vegi-sauruses" become farmers. The "meat-asauruses" become ranchers. One humorous turn introduces us to a timid Styracosaurus who has evolved into a terrified animal that puts small animals all over his horns to protect himself from all kinds of threats that grow out of his neurotic fears.

At the core of it is a family of Apatosaurus farmers with three children. The smallest is Arlo, who is afraid of his own shadow. His nemesis is "Spot" a human child that keeps getting into the family silo and eating the crops. But these two have to team up when a natural disaster sweeps Arlo far from home and he is forced to face his fears.

I thought the idea of evolving dinosaurs living alongside the dawn of man at the point where man is just at "dog level"-a mute primitive creature - was intriguing enough to keep the adults engaged while Arlo's story is enough to keep the children around along with the unique sight gags I've come to expect from Pixar. Highly recommended as an unexpected treat, at least from my perspective.

So this movie is probably a lot better than what you might have heard. But some parents may have some issues with the themes and things portrayed in here in general. It may be a bit too much for their children to watch. There are some adult situations here (as in life happens and the "brutality of it", without getting explicit), some dramatic moments that may stay in ones mind.

Having said that, you could say, that this is challenging and if you really think about it, animated movies in the past that are considered classics, had some horrible moments in them (without spoiling the moments, just two examples: Bambi and Lion King). Even the Last Unicorn had some dark themes in it. So maybe we try to overprotect children, where they don't need to be protected? It's a fair question though, but the movie handles it very discreetly and to the point.