THERE are those who will pick at the layers of Disney's dino-extravaganza like some bitter archaeologist brushing at the strata of movie semantics.

Then there is the great majority who have been patiently awaiting the arrival of some serious screen magic from the Land of the Mouse ever since they saw the tantalising trailer on the front of Toy Story 2.

And, for the most part, they will be delighted. The opening 20 minutes make the price of admission look like good value and, if the subsequent story is floppier than a film bore's greasy fringe, the spectacle is ample compensation.

Ah, yes, the story ...

Aladar (voiced by DB Sweeney), an iguanodon, is separated from his parents while still an egg. After a breath-taking journey he is found and raised by a group of proto-lemurs and grows into a strong-minded, playful, sensible herbivore.

When a catastrophic meteor storm lays waste to the land, he and the lemur survivors join a herd of sundry migrating dinosaurs as they strike out for a promised land of lush vegetation and cool water.

The group is led by the obstinate Kron (Samuel E Wright) whose sister Neera (Julianna Margulies) is especially attracted to newcomer Aladar, not least for the way he cares for the young and old on the fringes of the group, particularly kindly old brachiosaur Baylene (Joan Plowright).

It's all a little Land Before Time, but like all the best Disney animated features it throws in some harsh doses of reality - enough, I would guess, to genuinely scare younger movie-goers. The arch-beasties, the carnotaurs, are pretty fierce and not beyond picking off some principal characters.

This being Disney, of course, the creatures are heavily humanised - the bigger the eyes and the softer the jawline, the more we are meant to like them.

Korn and his shout-the-loudest cronies subscribe to the survival of the fittest school of staying alive; whereas Aladar is more of a nurturer and, wouldn't you know it, he's proved right when the ragtag band of outcasts and old-timers proves so resilient. In truth, the flagging story is not the problem it might have been. The animators' attention to detail is staggering - water drying on Aladar's face, wind ruffling the lemurs' fur - and while the subtle sophistication of Toy Story is absent, there is more than enough to look at for the film's 80 minutes.

And don't do anything silly, like wait for it to come out on video.

NICK CHURCHILL