Based on the 1987 Hudson Talbott children's book of the same name, it tells the story of three dinosaurs and one pterosaur who travel to the present day and become intelligent by eating a "Brain Grain" cereal invented by scientist Captain Neweyes.

The film was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation studio and features the voices of John Goodman, Felicity Kendal, Charles Fleischer, Walter Cronkite, Jay Leno, Julia Child, Kenneth Mars, Yeardley Smith, and Martin Short.

In the Cretaceous Period, Rex is chasing a small Thescelosaurus, only to be taken aboard a flying time-traveling ship owned by Captain Neweyes, who wants children of the present day to see real dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era.

Neweyes welcomes them aboard his ship, explains his plan to take them to Dr. Julia Bleeb, who will guide them to the Museum of Natural History, and warns them to avoid Professor Screweyes, his unhinged twin brother who causes mischief after having lost his left eye to a crow in his youth.

The dinosaurs consume the pills, which cause them to lose their intelligence and revert to their natural forms, in exchange for Screweyes restoring Louie and Cecilia to humans and releasing them.

That night, Stubbs helps Louie and Cecilia sneak into the circus, where the dinosaurs perform their terrifying act – Screweyes hypnotizing Rex – before the trick is ruined by a crow turning on flares.

The dinosaurs arrive at the museum and meet Dr. Bleeb, then are secretly revealed to a crowd of children the next day, fulfilling Neweyes' plan, while Louie and Cecilia reconcile with their respective parents and become a couple.

Back in the present day, Buster returns to his family, ignoring his siblings' taunts while hugging his mother, and Rex bids him good night and asks him to remember his story as he leaves to rejoin his friends at the museum.

A Dinosaur's Story, and the encounter occurred only months after its release; Universal Pictures then paid off Hanna-Barbera and purchased the rights for Steven Spielberg to produce the film through his London-based animation studio, Amblimation.

[3][4] John Musker and Ron Clements were also interested in adapting the book for Walt Disney Feature Animation, as a potential project after The Little Mermaid (1989), but were informed that Universal and Spielberg had already purchased the rights.

"[5] Although Talbott had little involvement, he encountered the creators of the film many times during production, including Spielberg who would make several calls to the author from Los Angeles and had a personal meeting with him when he first arrived in London.

[3] All of the directors frequently rotated in and out between projects in Amblimation, with We're Back!, Balto and development on a failed animated adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats happening at the same time.

After Malkovich exited the project, the directors considered Christopher Lloyd to be the voice of Professor Screweyes, but the day they flew out to Boston, where he was in a play at the time, he was unavailable due to a severe cold, and his recording session had to be rescheduled to the following weekend.

[4] In addition, Spielberg, wanting to truly capture the feeling of New York, decided to include a brief appearance of Larry King fielding radio calls about dinosaur sightings in the city.

[4] Near the end of production, Spielberg made $1 million worth of alterations at the demand of then-Universal CEO Sidney Sheinberg, following a poor test screening at Universal, including the addition of the Macy's parade scene; the scene features Rex singing a song originally written for the film by James Horner and Thomas Dolby, "Roll Back the Rock", which Little Richard also sings in the end credits.

[3][4] Other changes that resulted from the test screening included toning down darker aspects of the film; for instance, a significant fragment of Professor Screweyes' fear-based circus, which was fully animated and in color, was deemed too frightening for children, and had to be cut to maintain a G rating.

Each copy included pockets of reusable stickers and coupons for Universal Theme Parks and products from Nestle, The Hertz Corporation, and First Alert.

A Dinosaur's Story opened during the Thanksgiving holiday with other new entries including Mrs. Doubtfire, A Perfect World and a film adaptation of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker.

[35] As a critic for The Baltimore Sun summarized his problems with the film, there were "terrific ideas" which were blurred due to being "lacking in wit, emotion, memorable music and, most importantly, magic"; and the voice actors are "shackled with insipid dialogue and few opportunities to shine".

[35][36] Coverage included unfavorable comparisons to other Spielberg-produced animations, such as series like Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1992) and Animaniacs (1993–1998) and films such as The Land Before Time (1988), which also featured dinosaurs.

[43] Butler and Asbury Park Press writer Eleanor O'Sullivan found the flashback framing device pointless and obnoxious,[39][43] while the Ottawa Citizen's Laura Robin reported inconsistencies, such as with Rex's weight where a light raft holds him yet a bigger dock doesn't.

[44] Jane Horwitz and Janet Maslin noted other iffy moments, such as the police chase, drugging of dinosaurs, the scary circus scenes, and Screweyes' death.

[2][45] The film was considered cliched, preachy, and unoriginal,[11][39][41] such as by Pamella Bruce of the Austin Chronicle; she described it as a rip-off of The Jungle Book (1967) that stole elements of the works of Tim Burton and Alfred Hitchcock.

[11] Even a favorable review from the Hartford Courant's Roger Catlin found recycled aspects of the child characters, particularly Cecilia's "poor little rich girl" lifestyle, Louie's Bowery Boys-esque wise-guy attitude, and him running away to join the circus.

[46] Reviewers also felt the writing lacked humor and imagination,[35][37] Pensacola News Journal's Marshall Fine claiming the dialogue was more stuffed than witty.

[47] Robin wrote that Vorb, Stubbs, and Dr. Juliet Bleeb were nothing more than cameos for celebrity voice actors,[41] while Charles Soloman of the Los Angeles Times noted many motivations and feelings of the dinosaurs being unknown, specifically with their relationship with Louie and Cecilia and their sacrificing of intelligence, and argued these unclarities made it difficult to be emotionally invested into them.

[40] David Elliot argued the pace didn't allowed for relaxation or moments to be fully emotional,[10] and Soloman similarly opined that it made scenes like the flight through Manhattan far less enjoyable.

[10][43] Kimmel called Goodman and Short the top actors, said that Mars and Smith were "handling their chores", and found it amusing Cronkite and Child were voicing animated characters.