The Cinematheque

“A film of great charm [and] genuine wonder … Rex retains a beating heart, never condescending to its intended audience of children while likely to please adults.”

Steve Erickson, Screen Slate

Japanese blockbusters rarely come as big as Rex: A Dinosaur’s Story, which at the time of its release represented a new kind of commercial movie where toys, marketing, and soundtracks were meant to be as big as the film itself. With a little distance, Rex looks pretty harmless, and is perhaps even an overlooked film that’s charming (and occasionally jaw-dropping) enough to count as a holiday classic. Chie is a lonely girl who talks to animals more than other kids her age. She lives with her single father, a distracted scientist, in rural Tokachi until a dinosaur egg is discovered in Fukui Cave. The event draws back her mother from New York, starts a media frenzy, and—after a long, long wait—results in a strange new friend for Chie! The creature animatronic, realized by Carlo Rambaldi (the inventor of E.T.), points to the film’s precursor and ambitions for success. But even Spielberg couldn’t dream of the location-shoot beauty and comic-chaos mixture of Rex!

In Japanese with English subtitles