christa25 - 2013-11-27 00:09:20

Taking a break from watching anime series, I stumbled across this movie about a dinosaur. Childhood memories of The Land Before Time stirring within me, I decided to take a gander at this Japanese entry into the dinosaur children's story.

Story

The story of You Are Umasou deals in large part with the concept of family and the feeling of belonging. It introduces it to you to it very early in the beginning of the story and the theme perpetuates throughout the rest of the movie. While the theme itself has been done many times before, Omae Umasou da na's rendition has a certain charm that comes along with it. Most of it comes from the characters themselves rather than the story. In the end, it is written for children and feel a little lacking towards the climax of the story which feels forced and avoidable.

Animation/Sound

The animation is fluid and pleasing to the eye. Dinosaur karate never looked more awesome. If the words "dinosaur karate" piqued your interest in anyway, you can stop reading this review now and go watch it. The sound is also very good with dinosaur roars, chirps, foot stomps, and various other sounds of the jungle/plains to entertain your ears. There is also a mid story montage song for kids (and adults, I don't judge) to sing along.

Characters

The part of the movie that I feel had the most going for it. The main protagonist of the story, Heart comes off as very genuine and likable. While he does fall into the typical Japanese headstrong main character model, he never loses his relatability. Two other emotional tethers take the form of Heart's mother and a baby dinosaur named Umasou that Heart adopts. Heart's mother, while having little screen time, is able to properly convey the concept of unconditional love. Umasou is on the other end of the spectrum and is the adopted son of Heart. His character and story lacks originality and is very much an anchor to humanize Heart and as a means to further Heart's development from an adolescent to an adult. He makes up for it by being downright adorable. Other characters suffer due to a lack of screen time though. The main focus here is on Heart and his emotional and physical growth.

Overall

You Are Umasou does not do anything new in terms of story or even characters, but there's just something about seeing a T-Rex do a midair roundhouse kick to another T-Rex's face that makes me jump with glee. Base on a children's book, this movie is undoubtedly for the kids, and its themes and simplified story suits that purpose very well. Let your inner child out while viewing this and you might find that you too will jump with glee.