Diplo: The Mighty Dinosaur (U)

Gifted illustrator Ted draws comic strips about a plucky Diplodocus, who lives with his parents and pterodactyl grandfather in a "simple, ordinary, safe" prehistoric world. Alas, Diplo's antics won't pay Ted's bills and his officious publisher demands a fresh character by 9am the following morning for a new children's magazine. She implores Ted to erase Diplo. Ted obliges and Diplo's world slowly vanishes. The youngster escapes The Blankness by wishing he was somewhere else.

LondonNet Film Review

Diplo: The Mighty Dinosaur (U) Film Review from LondonNet

The act of creation, as beautiful and thrilling as it can be, frequently necessitates acts of destruction. These extremes coexist in in Polish filmmaker Wojtek Wawszczyk’s whimsical family-friendly fantasy, which alternates between live-action and animated sequences to chart the daring adventures of a hand-drawn, anthropomorphic green dinosaur, who risks being erased from comic panels by his human creator and thus rendered extinct like his hulking predecessors…

This metafictional dramatic conceit draws parallels to The Neverending Story, which also champions the art of storytelling and the enduring power of the imagination to unshackle us from the harsh realities of day-to-day life. In the case of Diplo: The Mighty Dinosaur, the titular creature is persistently stalked by an unstoppable force called The Blankness – the manifestation of his creator’s eraser moving across illustrated comic panels, wiping out the primeval sprawl that Diplo ruefully calls home. The diminutive hero is orphaned with the casual swish of a hand across a page, a shocking loss that sets in motion one heavy-handed lesson about appreciating the love and support of family and friends in the here and now.

Gifted illustrator Ted (Piotr Polak) has adored dinosaurs since he was a boy and he draws comic strips about a plucky Diplodocus (voiced by Julian Wanderer), who lives with his parents (Marc Thompson, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) and pterodactyl grandfather (Thompson again) in a “simple, ordinary, safe” prehistoric world. Alas, Diplo’s antics won’t pay Ted’s bills and his officious publisher (Helena Englert) arrives unannounced at his rundown artist’s studio, demanding a fresh character by 9am the following morning for a new children’s magazine.

She isn’t impressed with Diplo (“Ugly lizards… yuck!”) and implores Ted to scrub away emotional attachments to his previous creations. “Erase them and make room for something new and sweet,” she trills. Ted obliges and Diplo’s world slowly vanishes. The youngster escapes The Blankness by covering his eyes and ears and wishing he was somewhere else. He tumbles through The Bermuda Rectangle and other strange worlds before he settles in Planet Fear and befriends a wacky wizard named Lord Hocus Pocus (Thompson again). Another magical teleportation deposits Diplo and Hocus Pocus in the company of mad Professor Nervekowsky (Mike Pollock) and his trusty partner Entomology (Rachel Butera). They convince Diplo that their scientific experiments will locate the Great Power behind The Blankness.

Diplo: The Mighty Dinosaur is a sweet and charming celebration of creativity, clearly targeted at younger audiences. Writer-director Wawszczyk ricochets between heightened live action and rollicking animation, putting these two worlds on a collision course with an inevitably wholesome resolution that tugs heartstrings and neatly brings the storyline full circle. The script applies a light touch to heavier themes of loss and regret – more of a dino-squeak than a roar.

– Sarah Lee