Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film "astonishes and disheartens as only the most elaborate, most ambitious Hollywood products can. A technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures, it's also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue." Mark Caro of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote "The action is easy enough to follow, and the screen is never dull. But for a story that takes place some 65 million years ago, "Dinosaur" is awfully reliant on recent recycled parts." Desson Howe, reviewing for "The Washington Post", felt the movie "was somewhat derivative and lacked a narrative arc" and claimed it was too similar to "The Land Before Time".