I was surprised to hear that this movie was apparently a small legend for how "bad" it is. Folks, don't believe everything you read on the internet.
Now, that's not to say this is some kind of classic movie. It's not. But compared to SOME made-for-TV movies that are out there, Dinosaur City is tolerable. You might groan at some of the dino-slang, and the plot is kind of thin, but the special effects are decent (considering the era and the format) and at the very least, the movie isn't boring.
The whole theme is that these kids have stepped in to a real-life version of their favorite cartoon, only to find out that real-life is a lot nastier than what you see on TV. Still, all of the action, dialog, and voices evoke the cartoon theme well, even if the movie dares to push things a little too adult sometimes.
In that sense, most of the more corny elements can be viewed as the movie playing up the cartoon angle. This is definitely what cartoons in the 90's felt like, for better or worse. In fact, Dinosaur City almost feels like a tie-in to a real cartoon series that never got made.
Is Adventures in Dinosaur City bad? Only a little bit. But, if you were seven years old in 1991, you'd think it was a lot of fun.
