Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 85

MOVIES BEWARE: A IANB OF OINO-BORES By PETER SMITH Times Correspondent THE LAND BEFORE TIME Director Don Bluth, produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg Rating: Running Time: 70 minutes The word is that Steven Spielberg, producer of The Land Beyond Time, asked director Don Bluth to trim some footage from the animated feature, fearing it might be too scary for the very young. Well, as it stands now, the only thing the tots will have to fear from this tale of cute dinosaurs is any nightmares they might have while sleeping through the thing. Bluth's previous animated features, The Secret of NIMH and An American Tale, built nicely on his work for Disney, using full animation (as opposed to the Smurfy stuff on Saturday mornings, that animation great Chuck Jones rightly called "illustrated and solid voice characterizations. Unfortunately, the Disney lesson he learned for The Land Before Time was that of stately, almost funereal timing, even in the "funny" scenes. Too much time, in a film this short, is dedicated to strangely muddy-looking special effects, with a grainy, muted palette.

This is one of the few cartoons I've ever seen that looks better on TV than it does on the big screen. The Land Beyond Time tells the story of five young dinosaurs (all drawn goofy-cute) and their Universal City Studio The goofy-cute kid dinosaurs encounter menacing monster lizards in their journey. journey to a possibly mythical green valley after they are separated from their parents. The kid saurians are supposed to be endearingly clumsy and sweet, like the young animals in Bambi. The problem is that the adult thunder lizards are drawn relatively correctly, creating a severe state of cognitive dissonance.

This is necessary to create the menacing Ty-rannosaurus that stalks the kids on their journey. Funny-looking dinosaurs all around put you firmly in Flintstones territory. But the differing styles just don't hang together. Another major failing is the use of voices, which was a hallmark of Bluth's earlier films. All the dinosaur voices in the movie sound as if they live in the mall, rather than the Mezozoic.

With all the possibilities in the world to choose from, if you close your eyes this movie sounds like Leave It To Beaver (or Dino, as the case may be). Hearing your Mom's voice come out of a 40-foot triceratops destroys all possibility of belief. The movie also contains plenty of patented LucasSpielberg mystical goop; as our hero's mother lies dying, she tells the tad, "Listen to your heart; it will tell you what to do." Actually, this is probably not a bad idea, considering the size of the average dinosaur's brain. Too much of the film is given over to scenes that do little but demonstrate the virtuosity of Bluth's animators. These are certainly pleasant, if obvious, but the kid noise level in the theater escalated immeasurably whenever Bluth showed off another grace note.

I took the resident 5-year-old to the screening; she loves cartoons almost as much as I do. When there was actually anything happening, she was enthralled. (There is a lovely, well-timed scene of baby birds fighting over a cherry, and two minor characters, a pterodactyl and a nondescript baby lizard, were pretty funny.) But more than once, she'd lean over against me and almost doze off. This tale of prehistoric cute-ness (sort of a Clan Of The Care Bears) is mostly dreadfully slow when it is not being overbearingly cloying. Bluth has done much better work in the past and certainly will again.

This isn't it. SOMEBODY GIVE DISNEY THE DICKENS FOR THIS FILM By RUSSELL STAMETS Times Staff Writer fen j-ly "Ike TJP OLIVER COMPANY Cast The voices of Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Dom DeLulse and Bette Midler. Director: George Scribner Screenplay: Jim Cox, Timothy J. Disney and James Mangold Rating: Running time: 72 minutes Perhaps it was the electrocution of the two Doberman pinschers, or the villain exploded and sent in fiery bits into the East River or, more subtly, that the choice in this film between bad and good was between a nasty thief and charming thieves. Whatever character or plot development sealed the verdict, there were plenty of reasons why Disney's new animated feature Oliver and Company isn't an appealing film, for children or adults.

Ho-hum animation, ordinary characters and a plot that included the kidnapping and the terrorizing of a little girl leave one wondering if Disney can create even the slightest bit of its old magic. The story is a retelling of Dickens' Oliver Twist, with animals replacing most of the humans. Oliver, a cute kitten, is the only one of his litter left unchosen and has to fend for himself on the wild streets of New York. He meets up with Dodger, the "coolest quad-raped in Manhattan," (played by the voice of Billy Joel), who gives the young tabby a lesson in street living in a tune sung by Joel. Oliver falls in with the Dodger and his gang of dogs who live on a decrepit ship.

The dog gang is run by Fagin, a small-time crook who uses the dogs as pickpockets and who owes money to a nasty, cigar chomping hulk r. i-v r- k-w of a man named Sykes. While trying to steal a radio with the gang, Oliver ends up in the arms and home of Jenny, a deserted little rich girl who lives in a large place on Fifth Avenue. While thoughts of starting a lemon-ball fight with the little kids up front danced in this critic's mind, the film's only bright moment happened when we met Georgette (played by Bette Midler), the pampered poodle in Jennifer's house. Georgette has her own room, a chaise lounge and photos of admiring bow-wow beaus.

That's it, however, for real fun. The gang rescues Oliver from his posh home, and Fagin tries to settle his debt by ransoming Oliver. Jenny shows up and is kidnapped by Sykes, only to be saved in a rescue that ends in surprisingly graphic violence. 7 yj i Walt Disney Productions Oliver the kitten has to fend for himself on the streets of New York. But he falls in with a gang of dogs who help him learn the ways of the streets.

7 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1988 ST. PETERSBURG TIMES.