If We Could Talk to the Dinosaurs, Just Imagine It

You needn’t know a theropod from a sauropod to get a big, roaring hoot from “Dinotopia.”

It arrives on ABC only days before the heralded theatrical release of “Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.” And even an $85-million budget--supersaurus-sized by TV standards--doesn’t elevate this lavishly mounted, three-night miniseries to Lucasfilm’s digital stratosphere. These are TV special effects, after all, screen size imposing limits on even the most abundant productions.

But spectacular much of it is, from its flying lizards to its imagination and symbolic message of peace and love that contrasts not only with our own news of the day, but also the savage network warfare of May’s ratings sweeps. So enter its fantasy, chill ... and enjoy.

Despite big-event impresario Robert Halmi Sr.’s recent expensive clunkers, his effort here is a scaly feast, one marred only by a dreadful, belabored ending whose hokeyness is unworthy of what precedes it. What was writer Simon Moore thinking?

Otherwise, the lizards here are mostly to love in this union of humans and digital dinosaurs directed by Marco Brambilla and based on the art and juvenile books of James Gurney. None of it is complex or even very original, but the simplicity works.

Look around today’s universe and you’ll find beauty, achievement, kindness and nature’s wonders to admire. But the same world also spews ugliness, death and pessimism, from today’s gory conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East to millenniums of butchery captured in “The Genocide Factor: The Human Tragedy,” a well-meant but tedious documentary series opening Sunday night on KCET.

In defining “genocide” broadly, the program’s sweep is wide. It’s all here, from ancient Greeks, Romans and Mongols to the Jewish holocaust, the Japanese army’s rape of Nanking and more recent slaughters in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia. If only so much of humankind’s legacy were not body counts.

ABC’s Dinotopians do have serious wardrobe issues (who dresses these people, EBay?). But if only our history were as sane and benevolent as their utopian paradise. It’s one, also, where Big Macs are off the menu and fruit-and-veggie-eating humans and animals not only coexist harmoniously but also become loving life partners.

Get out! Yes, it’s so. In Dinotopia, the lives of humans and dinosaurs are valued equally.

“You feel superior to them but you’re not,” a wise Dinotopian human admonishes a scoffing Karl Scott (Tyron Leitso), one of two young half-brothers from the outside who are stranded in this lost continent when their plane dives into the Caribbean. It takes some doing, including pairing Karl with a cuddly infant dinosaur who’s still incubating inside a shell marked “26” when he’s introduced to her. But he ultimately does come around, joining his more sensitive brother, David (Wentworth Miller), in accepting this society and vying for the attention of comely Marion (Katie Carr), Dinotopia’s leader in training. Living here seems to have no affect on testosterone.

Marion’s mother, Rosemary (Alice Krige), is this land’s earthy Matriarch, and her gluttonous father, Mayor Waldo (Jim Carter), runs Dinotopia’s especially idyllic capital, Waterfall City, where much of the story takes place.

The regimen for Karl and David includes learning the Saurian language and abiding by Dinotopian codes that ban weapons and dictate “survival of all or none.” Another of their new pals is a timid, erudite Stenonychosaurus named Zippo who looks after Dinotopia’s ancient library. Although he’s much too similar to Jar Jar Binks of “Star Wars” for comfort, you have to respect a bookish dinosaur that speaks 17 languages and spends his off time listening to cool jazz.

Even more memorable and picturesque is Canyon City. It’s where we meet the massive pterosaur--you know, a dino with a 30-foot wingspan--that David learns to fly when training to join the Skybax Corps. Don’t expect a cap and gown, but his graduation ceremony soars.

Much of “Dinotopia” is predictable, some of it formulaic, including a threat from outside that has a familiar “Star Wars” ambience. Except for the story’s cockamamie conclusion, though, all of it can be overlooked.

The metaphors here?

Dinotopia’s power-giving sunstones are on the fritz. But its survival is imperiled ultimately by carnivores--Tyrannosaurus rexes and thousands of screeching, flying, swooping flesh-eaters that emerge about five hours into the story from a dark, shadowy realm called the World Beneath. As they zoom toward Waterfall City, it’s apparent that subsisting on red meat has put them in foul moods. Where is tofu when you really need it?

It’s true also that “Dinotopia’s” only slippery character is Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis), a conniving human descendant of shipwrecked pirates. He doesn’t limp for nothing. Nor does continual fighting between Karl and David go unnoticed as somehow typical of the predatory, self-destructive society from which they came.

“Mammals!” sniffs Zippo, surely meaning the human species. Watch a newscast, read a newspaper. As if we need to be told about ourselves.

“Dinotopia” premieres Sunday night at 7 on ABC and continues Monday and Tuesday at 8. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).

“The Genocide Factor: The Human Tragedy” will be shown Sunday night at 11:30 on KCET.

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Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be contacted at howard.rosenberg @latimes.com.