Prehysteria! (Film Review)

1993 Moonbeam Entertainment/Paramount Home Video
Directed by: Charles Band; Written by: Greg Suddeth and Mark Goldstein
Starring: Austin O'Brien
MPAA Rating: PG; Running Time: 83 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Rico Sarno breaks into an ancient South American temple and steals five seemingly sacred eggs. Sarno brings the eggs back to his store in America with profit on his mind, but in a wacky, picnic cooler mix-up, store patrons, the Taylor family, accidentally take the eggs. The Taylors, father Frank, teenaged daughter, Monica, and pre-teen son, Jerry, are still grieving the recent loss of mama Taylor, but even more importantly, the family dog is grieving the loss of her puppies, which Frank had to sell. Sad mama dog pulls the eggs out of the cooler, sits on and hatches them, but there are no puppies inside, just very alive, but also very miniature dinosaurs. The Elvis-obsessed Jerry is the first to discover the dinosaurs, a cute little bunch of rascals who love getting into trouble. Soon, Monica is in on the secret, and just as in love with the strangely cuddly reptiles as Jerry is. Soon, Frank and Vicky, a sweet and beautiful employee at Sarno's store, are in on the secret, as well. Frank is finding new love and the kids seem to be gaining a new, very kind step-mother. The Taylors and Vicky build a special greenhouse for their new prehistoric friends and all is well...until the evil Sarno finds out where his cash cows...er, cash dinosaurs have disappeared to. Now, he'll do anything to get them back.
I hate to use a meme trope to kick off this review, but 90's kids films hit different. I was just a bit too old to enjoy Prehysteria! when it hit straight-to-video in 1993 (I was much too busy watching dinosaurs EAT people in Jurassic Park), but watching this kid movie for the first time as an adult, I appreciate its naïve, good-natured innocence of a strain that seems endemic to my favorite decade. The budget here is clearly low, the production values are minimal, and yet there's so much love and care put into the stop-motion animation of the dinosaurs, they're hard not to love. Likewise, the acting is by no means great or even good (Brett Cullen as Frank and Austin O'Brien as Jerry are both standouts), but there's a sweetness to each of the performances here, and a lack of meanness that I find charming. For instance, the Monica character is going through a bit of a rebellious teenage phase, but the film makes sure to let the viewer know that she loves her father and brother, even if she's taking out her grief over the loss of her mother on them a bit.
The plotting here is silly and nonsensical, but it almost doesn't matter. Prehysteria! breezes by good-naturedly with an easy-going, Trapper Keeper aesthetic. It is not necessarily a good film by any metric, but it is harmless fun that doesn't infantilize or patronize its young audience, and that's better than I can say for a lot of current fare.