"A Pleasure to Meet You, Woog. Have You Been a Dinosaur Long?"

We're Back! is a movie with a neat premise, but it is executed in a less than brilliant manner. The story begins when a young bird falls from his nest while trying to run away and is caught by Rex, a t-rex who happens to be playing golf under his tree. Rex informs the fiesty bird that he once met a youngster in just the same situation, and he proceeds to tell him his tale.

Rex was born during the age of the dinosaurs but was captured, along with representatives of other dino species, to help fulfill the wishes of little children in present-day America. In order to ensure that the children's encounter with the dinos is entirely safe, the professor who brought them aboard feeds them Brain Grain, which allows their barbaric tendencies to slip away, leaving room for their personalities to emerge.

The kindly Professor NewEyes explains to the dinosoars, Rex, Elsa, Woog, and Dweeb, that they are the loudest station on his wish radio; more than anything in the world, children want to see dinosaurs. So he sets them loose on the world, leaving them alone in New York to find the near-sighted curator of the Museum of Natural History who will put them on display for the children. In the mean time, they are sidetracked when they meet a young boy named Louie who is running away to the circus. It's not such a great first impression -- they make Louie fall off the pier into the bay -- but Louie takes a liking to them and promises to help them find the museum of natural history.

It's not easy to hide four dinosaurs in the big city, and they are in constant danger of being discovered. While Louie is hatching a plan to get them to the museum safely, he meets a girl named Cecilia who is tired of spending all her time alone, with her busy parents spending all of their time with their careers and none of it on her. She joins Louie in his quest to join the circus and to help the dinos get to their destination. The plan they hatch is far-fetched and pretty unrealistic, but we're talking about a movie in which dinosaurs are snatched up from eons ago, domesticated, and plopped in downtown New York. Nothing is too outrageous for this film.

When the great plan goes awry, the dinos find themselves locked in a high-speed car chase. With most of the NYPD on their tails, they somehow escape. But where are their friends? The two unsuspecting children have wandered off to the circus, but they've chosen the wrong circus to wander off to. Professor ScrewEyes is NewEyes' brother and is diametrically opposed to him. This guy is evil and demented, and his circus thrives off the hints from his fear radio, which picks up people's fears. And where NewEyes have Brain Grain, ScrewEyes has Brain Drain, which reverses the process. When Louie and Cecilia foolishly sign on with him, they are bound to him by blood and the only way they can get out of their contract is if the dinosaurs agree to sacrifice their intelligence.

We're Back! is kind of a cute movie. It features the voice talents of John Goodman, Walter Cronkite, Julia Child, Martin Short, Rhea Pearlman and Jay Leno. It's a Steven Speilberg production. But I can't say it's one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. The dialogue is very corny at times, to the point where I cringed watching it at times. Who writes this stuff? Not all of the dialogue is bad, but there are a lot of pretty lousy moments.

Then there's this whole romance between Cecilia and Louie. It's not like a little bit of romance between kids is unheard of in the movies. I'm not even saying it's necessarily a bad thing. But Cecilia is way too obsessed with Louie. Her constant flirtation is a little much, I think. Then there's the pteradactyl, Elsa, who's always laying eggs...

And SrewEyes is definitely scary. He's not a pleasant person, nor are the people he surround himself with. Except for Stubbs the Clown, who also ran away to the wrong circus. The final scene with him in it is not very pretty, and I can certainly see how it might scare children. And I'm not too big on Cecilia praying and having her prayer answered by NewEyes, acting like she had been trying to reach him.

All in all, I would say We're Back! is a mediocre movie. I don't give it the high recommendation I give most Disney and Bluth films, or certain other animated features. I've seen a lot better.