This release of Back to the Jurassic on Blu-Ray is just the latest of many times when a smaller movie has been released on home media to cash in on the popularity of a bigger blockbuster. This one was released shortly before the theatrical release of Jurassic World, the long-awaited sequel to the Jurassic Park series. The front cover even shamelessly uses the tagline of the original Jurassic Park posters: "An adventure 65 million years in the making!" Well, OK- the original used just a period after that and this one has an exclamation mark, so maybe they're inferring more excitement here. Some quick research showed me that the original title for this movie was Dino Time, which I vaguely remember seeing advertised in late 2012. It was produced in South Korea and barely had any release in the US until now, with this new title.

In CG animation, we're introduced to skateboarding kid Ernie (voiced by Pamela Adlon from "King of the Hill" and "Bob's Burgers" among others) and his home town of Terra Dino, a spot in America where more dinosaur history has been uncovered than anyplace else on the planet. Ernie is obsessed with dinosaurs so he's living in the right place- he spends a lot of time at the local dinosaur museum where he annoys the guides by correcting their info in front of groups, and gets in trouble for sneaking a look at a new exhibit in a backroom. Ernie's friend Max (Yuri Lowenthal) lives just down the street from him, and his house is another place Ernie likes to hang out a lot as Max's dad (Fred Tatasciore) is an inventor who has all sorts of contraptions around the house and is always working on something. One of his big projects is an egg-shaped time machine, which is pretty much finished but he just can't figure out how to get it to actually work. Ernie and Max take a look at it, and when Ernie's sister Julia (Tara Strong) unexpectedly shows up to bust him for leaving the house while grounded, they inadvertently get the machine fired up and next thing they know they're looking at a living, breathing dinosaur right in the face. The only scary thing about this dinosaur though is that she thinks the kids are her newly-hatched babies, and starts to mother them immediately.

Ernie's smart enough to figure out what's going on right away- they're still in the same physical place on Earth but are now several million years back in- the Cretaceous period, not quite the Jurassic that the movie's altered title promises! Regardless, he's stoked out of his mind and wants to have some fun, while the other two kids just want to go right back to their own time. He cleverly hides the "key" that runs the time machine so that they can't leave right away. From here the movie establishes that the dinosaurs can speak English dialogue that we can understand, but to the kids it just sounds like roaring so they can't converse with each other. We find out that the mother T-Rex is named Tyra (voiced by Melanie Griffith in a performance that's actually stronger than in many of the conventional movies I've seen her in- she speaks strongly without the usual high-pitched voice) and while she's been an aspiring mother she just hasn't been able to get her eggs to hatch until now. Fortunately she's been a foster mom to other young dinosaurs, including one voiced by Rob Schneider (in a slightly sped-up voice) whom the kids quickly name Dodger.

Ernie has the time of his life exploring and observing while the other two reluctantly join in, and the group helps Tyra take on the two evil Sarcosuchus brothers (voiced by Stephen and William Baldwin) who have been scheming to drive out the other dinosaurs from the area and take it over for themselves. Meanwhile back in the present day, Ernie's mom (Jane Lynch) and Max's dad (Fred Tatasciore) figure out what's happened and work together to try and bring their kids back.

Overall Back to the Jurassic is harmless entertainment, with the main joy just seeing Ernie (who seems like a character out of the "Rocket Power" cartoon series, and the filmmakers get his enthusiasm at just the right level where you get drawn into it rather than be annoyed) have his wildest dream come true. You won't find any deep character development here, although there's a bit of satisfaction seeing Ernie's mom realize she might be a little too uptight (she goes from condemning soda at the beginning to being addicted to it by the end!) Appropriately the CG animation goes for a more cartoony than realistic look, and while it's not quite feature-film quality it's still pleasing to the eyes.

The Blu-Ray disc gets a nice-looking 3D presentation (with a 2D option) in its theatrical 1.85 ratio. Details shine through with bright colors and little to no compression artifacts or banding. The 3D unfortunately isn't very strong throughout most of the movie, adding just a touch of depth to most of it. There are no 3D "gimmick" moments although there are a number of times when things are thrown around that would have been good opportunity for that. It's still nice to look at overall, and there are a few times when the 3D is given the chance to stand out such as in one nighttime scene with fireflies and another with water splashed at the audience.

A standard DVD is also included, with an adequate 2D presentation also in the proper ratio.

Despite the Dolby TrueHD logo on the back cover, both discs only offer standard Dolby Digital in both 5.1 and 2-channel. The 5.1 track exploits the split-surrounds better than the picture exploits its 3D, with many rear channel effects including the kids skateboarding around you in the opening sequence and approaching dinosaurs later. The LFE track provides a nice kick a few times as well, though you won't be mistaking this for the original Jurassic Park sound mix which was quite groundbreaking at the time. The matrixed 2-channel mix is quite impressive as well. Much of the dialogue recording however suffers from distorted "S" sounds, most noticeably at a point when Ernie's mom says "Exsssxusshe me!"

Both discs include English hearing-impaired and standard Spanish subtitles, with analog closed-captions also on the DVD.

The only extra included is a theatrical trailer (in 2D although the Blu-Ray disc is authored to keep your TV in 3D mode so you can leave your glasses on) with the Back to the Jurassic title. The discs open with a few trailers in the same format (also playable separately from the main menu) for Dinosaur Island, James Cameron's Deep Sea Challenge (available on Blu-Ray in 3D), When Calls the Heart and Khumba (also in 3D but not in this trailer.)

While I wasn't expecting much from Back to the Jurassic I found it quite enjoyable overall, even though the title change was both unnecessary and inaccurate to the story. While the 3D isn't much to write home about, I'm still glad that it was at least released on disc in 3D (something Disney can't seem to be bothered with lately for some of their much more popular films.) Kids should love this, and maybe even a few kids at heart might as well.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.