"Be careful near the shadows. Mean things like to hide there."
—Yar (in the video game)
Dinosaur is markedly darker than many other films in the Disney Animated Canon, and it shows.
WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
Film:
- The opening scene featuring a Carnotaurus, which chases down and mauls a Pachyrhinosaurus to death, thrashing the hapless herbivore to the ground as it cries out in terror before the camera cuts away.
- The meteor strike is pretty nightmarish.
- The strike is preceded by a mysterious meteor shower that is beautiful and enchanting. Everyone looks up in awe, unfamiliar with them. Plio looks around and sees a flock of Icthyornis flying away from the meteors. She goes to Yar, who is suspiciously sniffing the air, and comments warily that "something's wrong". Plio nervously asks Aladar where Suri is, and Aladar only just tells her that Suri is in the tree before a huge light suddenly begins bathing everything even though the sun has set already...
- A giant meteor falls out of the sky, with everybody only able to watch in awe and confusion as it slowly but surely arrives from space. Finally, it strikes just as night falls, creating a massive explosion that sends shockwaves hurtling into the island. The lemurs desperately try to flee from the approaching peril somehow, completely unaware that they can't escape something like this. It's also terrifying in how the impact delinerately resembles a nuclear strike, complete with a delayed blast wave.
- When the meteor hits, it is deadly silent, so the fear doesn't kick in until the shockwaves reach the island and the meteorites start to hit. And keep in mind that there is fearful music right before the meteor strikes...then there is silence as the blast fills the sky.Pilo: Run, Aladar! RUN! RUN!
- Poor Yar is desperately trying to leap to safety, but is too old and weak to cover much ground before Aladar scoops him up. He certainly would've died if Aladar hadn't been running in the same area.
- Zini narrowly escapes a meteorite when he finally leaps to Aladar and the others.
- The monster cloud itself is terrifying, a giant, ever-mushrooming, hellish wave of fire and brimstone that hits the island like a nuclear blast, leveling the courtship tree like it's a piece of broccoli.
- Aladar reaches the end of the island, a dead end, and looks back only to see the monster cloud moments away. With no other choice, he dives into the raging sea from the top of a 500-foot-tall cliff, moments before the cloud of ash arrives, with the tiny lemurs losing their hold on him and flying into the sea. Thankfully, somehow, they all manage to survive.
- Three words: "They're all gone."
- The Velociraptors are the first predators to menace Aladar and his family, likely the first to menace them in their lives.
- The group is initially curious to finally find another sign of life. But they start to realize they're in trouble when more of them begin to appear and circle them from everywhere. The final proof that Aladar's family needs that they're in mortal peril is when the alpha of the pack bares its teeth menacingly, almost in a Jump Scare.
- The chase that ensues has the raptors biting into Aladar, trying to eat him alive, and only just missing the lemurs.
- One of the raptors climbs onto Aladar's side to snap at the lemurs. While Aladar shrugs off the claws dug into his skin and flesh, blood visibly falls from the points of entry.
- The close-up of the raptor's eye after Eema saying, "You consider yourself lucky that's all that's following us."
- Despite Aladar's group being safe from the raptors as they're with the herd, Aladar comes across a dead Struthiomimus, and notices the raptors trailing the herd from far behind, ready to feed on the dead dinosaur. It's a grim sign of what will happen to any on the journey who can't make it.Aladar: On your feet, Eema! We can't let those things eat you! They're out there waiting!
- Kron can be pretty scary, given his effortless mood swings, especially for children who have never seen an abusive person before. He goes from a calm but condescending tone when meeting Aladar to a chuckle, then a ferocious and low growl that he'd better watch himself.
- His callous treatment of the herd is also pretty scary, as he declares that, while half of the herd may not survive a water-less push to the Nesting Grounds, he'll save the half that deserves to live.
- The final two times he encounters Aladar, he goes ballistic and begins viciously thrashing him just for questioning his authority.
- Everything involving the ruthless Carnotaurs.
- A pair of them is revealed to be trailing the herd, following the tracks of the hundred-strong group, and aren't far behind. The fact that even the vicious Velociraptors immediately scatter in fear at their approach quickly establishes the Carnotaurs as ruthless dinosaurs that are meant to be feared.
- The scene in which Bruton and the scout accompanying him are ambushed by the Carnotaurs in the canyon. Bruton suspects something is amiss as they're stalked, and just as he and the scout are about to leave, the scout is suddenly grabbed by a Carnotaur and dragged away bellowing in terror. As Bruton tries to escape the second Carnotaur, the first predator can be seen chomping down on a hunk of flesh it's already torn off, implying that it has already devoured the scout, much to Bruton's dismay.
- Bruton returns to the herd and warns Kron, who listens just as one of the Carnotaurs lets out a roar. It's an omen that the Carnotaurs are literally on top of the sleeping herd. Kron understandably panics and moves the herd out.
- During our next check-up with the Carnotaurs, we see they've reached the lake and are within walking distance of Aladar's slow, weak misfits. A few hours later, they've found them in the cave.
- The shot of the Carnotaurs from below as they approach the cave, lit by the lightning storm. Have a look here.
- They slowly approach the cave, noticing a rock that moved seemingly on its own. One of them looks around, not knowing that Aladar is right in front of him, covered in shadows. The others pause and stare helplessly as Aladar is faced down. A flash of lightning, and Aladar is revealed. The Carnotaurs then pursue him and drag him to his apparent death as he tries to help Eema flee while his family screams in horror at the sight. Aladar would've been devoured had the Carnotaurs not bickered over who gets to eat him and given Bruton the opportunity to intervene.
- Heck, the earsplitting cry one of the Carnotaurs makes upon finally spotting Aladar.
- Wanna know what makes the scene scarier? Through the entire film, the carnotaurs don't show emotion aside from complete viciousness. But in this one scene, as soon as it sees Aladar, you can see it react for a brief moment of surprise, one of the few instances of it showing emotion, before going right back into vicious predator mode. It's literally a split second, but it's there.
- Bruton collapses the cave to kill the Carnotaurs. He's seen desperately trying to hobble to safety, but is overwhelmed by the cave-in and is buried and crushed to death with one of the Carnotaurs. Aladar uncovers his face only to see him twitch a little before finally dying.
- The shot of the Carnotaurs from below as they approach the cave, lit by the lightning storm. Have a look here.
- Aladar encounters the surviving Carnotaur on his way to the herd and only barely hides in time while the beast eats a dead Stygimiloch.
- Just as Aladar and Neera begin to lead the herd away to the Nesting Ground, we hear the ominous roar of the Carnotaur as it closes in on the herd, appearing moments later, cutting off their only exit.
- The Carnotaur menacingly charges the herd before being driven off. It then goes after the lone Kron, chases him to a dead end on a cliff, grabs him in its jaws, and throws him against a jagged boulder. Kron dies of his injuries soon afterward.
- The fact when the Carnotaur spies Kron by himself, its face contorts into the reptilian equivalent of a Slasher Smile as it spots easy prey.
- When Kron attempts to flee up the cliff he ends up finding himself standing over a cliff, with the sheer drop Aladar warned him about blocking his escape. Realizing he has no escape, he watches in panic as the Carnotaur arrives. Though he attempts a Last Stand, the Carnotaur easily overwhelms and mortally wounds him.
- The predator mortally wounds Kron by grabbing him in its jaws and tossing against a protruding rock face. There was thankfully no Sickening "Crunch!" to be heard, but considering the force at which Kron was thrown and how relatively excrescent that rock formation was, he was likely experiencing serious internally bleeding as well as a possible broken spine.
- During the fight, Neera tries to protect a mortally-injured Kron from the Carnotaur. Berserk with rage and hunger, the monster (which is at least twice her size) easily bats Neera aside, pins her to the floor with a clawed foot, and is about seconds away from dealing a killing blow when Aladar steps in with a tail swipe to the predator's face.
- The Carnotaur plummets to its death, nearly dragging Aladar down with it, and its body appears to be torn in half by the impact.
- In one of the DVD games, Aladar's Adventure, there are plenty of horrible deaths you can suffer if you take a wrong turn. It's dark, it's raining heavily, and you're wandering alone in a series of caves with a creepy ambiance. One wrong step, and it's over.
- Perhaps the most notable is during the first mission to find Eema, Baylene and Url. After you find Eema, if you take a right... a Carnotaur charges out of nowhere and kills you.
- During the second mission to find water, you can come to a ledge overlooking a deep chasm with steam rising from it. However, the ground quickly crumbles under you as you fall to your death in the dark chasm.
- During the final mission, you have to choose what order to remove the rocks in two landslides. If you mess up, you immediately get crushed to death by a cave-in. It's particularly awful if you mess up at the final landslide, since you can already see the light from the Nesting Grounds on the other side, only for that light to be crushed along with you.
Video Games:
- Flia suffers the drawback of being perhaps the frailest of your party members in response to her being the fastest due to being able to fly. In "A Strange New World" she's wounded by the chaos of the meteor strike, which surely claimed the lives of countless pterosaurs who thought they could fly away from the devastation only to be slaughtered by the debris raining from the skies. She also has a critically long amount of time she needs to properly land and take off from a sitting position, meaning every second you're on the ground with her she could be savaged by a predator. Wanted to land and grab some crystals that Aladar and Zini can't reach? There's probably a raptor there to tear you to ribbons. Around the middle of the name, Quetzalcoatlus begin popping up as enemies with deadly amounts of strength meaning Flia can easily be overwhelmed by her nemesis from the skies.
- The death animations for the party are already chilling, but the death animations for the elders are even worse, mixed with Tearjerker. Baylene crumples like a giant napkin, and Eema and Url just plop to the ground dead. The little baby Iguanodon also fold to the ground if they're attacked by predators.
- "Babysitting" has your party have to find and escort four baby Iguanodon back to the herd through a map absolutely swarming with predators, including the ferocious Albertosaurus, this game's stand-in for it's big relative Tyrannosaurus rex. It has a ferocious roar like a bear and only Aladar really has a good shot at efficiently dealing with it, and even he can easily be overwhelmed especially if you haven't leveled him up right. Also, the level introduces lava as a natural hazard, and stepping in it burns your health away in seconds - and this includes if somehow you let the babies fall in.
- Finding Neera is the first level of the PS game played for horror. Neera is out there in the darkness being attacked by a Spinosaurus, and it's up to the party to race to her rescue through a long, winding level filled with dangerous predators. And the entire time, Neera's health dwindles and she keeps calling for help. All while spooky and ominous music plays.
- Yar offers the page's quote as one of his advice quotes, setting the mood very well.
- "Confronting Kron" is a level that starts off rather silly, but eventually becomes more dramatic. Your first mission is to play as Zini accompanying Url for a walk, and only Zini is playable. Meaning you have to play as the physically weakest character protecting Url from predators, including psychotic Styracosaurs who run around like rogue elephants. Flia gets a breather since she just has to fly to find the herd, but when Aladar goes out on his own to find them, he triggers Kron's temper. What follows is a brutal, savage boss fight against someone who is supposed to be on your side since he's not a predator. Even then, The Battle Didn't Count as Kron stops attacking when his health reaches a certain threshold, and coldly declares the herd is moving on anyway.
- "Unwelcome Guest" is the first boss level of the game, and it's against the hungry Carnotaur who has invaded the cave. Truly dramatic and intimidating music plays as the game warns you that any saves on the level will only load at the start regardless of what progress you make... and the Carnotaur spawns practically on top of you. The moment you exit the mission brief, the hunt is on. And the Carnotaur will not stop until you're dead and out of lives. He relentlessly pursues you and can kill you in just a few savage bites. All you can do is run for your life with the Carnotaur in hot pursuit, and try to kill him with cave-ins before he kills you on this dark night.
- "Unpleasant Company" is the second boss level, with you now being hunted by the second surviving Carnotaur. As the mission brief and Aladar's quote plays, you get to see the Carnotaur racing towards you. No wonder the game gives you a bunch of crystals to start off with. While at least you're out of the terrifying night, you're still being relentlessly hunted across the much larger map, and also have to deal with the distractions of other predators this time (besides the bats).
- "The Final Showdown" starts with Kron already dead, and it's chilling to see his corpse laid out like, well, a corpse as the Carnotaur hovers over it. This time, you have to kill the Carnotaur by driving it off the cliff using your combined super-attacks, and seeing it crumple and die is still unpleasant.
