Omae Umasou Da Na

(how many heart puns can I fit in this post? lol)

Omae Umasou Da Na is a really sweet story about family. The name of the movie roughly translates to "You are delicious". The title is very fitting as the story follows Heart, an orphaned T-Rex that is adopted by a Maiasaura, a herbivore mother. Later in life Heart himself ends up raising an abandoned herbivore child.

The movie is most definitely made for children, as it is based on a children's picture book series. However, it doesn't hold back in the least when it comments on the discrimination against families that do not fit the picture-perfect model.

Heart's mother is forced to make a choice to either abandon the baby T-Rex she found, knowing there would be no way for it to survive on its own, or leave the herd she was part of. She did at first think about abandoning Heart because of the harsh reaction and cruel attitude of her herd mates. But after hearing Heart's pitiful cries, the mother decides to leave the herd and the plains to live in the forest with both Heart and her biological son Light.

The family is happy, but that doesn't change the fact that Heart is a carnivore. Both his mother and brother do their best to find Heart something to eat, but no matter if Heart dines on his favorite red berries or not, he just never feels satisfied. The older the brothers get, the more differences they find separating them, but both of them still care for each other until one faithful day. In hopes of finding something to satisfy his hunger, Heart wanders outside the forest into the plains and witnesses a pack of T-Rexes kill a Triceratops. Heart runs away in horror but things escalate and he is forced to face the fact that he will not survive without eating meat. Ashamed and afraid, he runs away from his family and home in the forest to live in the plains like the other T-Rexes.

Now an adult T-Rex that has no problem with hunting herbivores for dinner, Heart stumbles upon an unhatched egg. But just when he was about to eat it, the egg hatches into a baby ankylosaurus. Heart calls the newborn delicious, title-dropping the movie's name. However, the baby ankylosaurus mistakes the word for delicious, "umasou", as his new name and starts calling the T-Rex his daddy. Heart no longer has the heart to eat the baby and decides to raise it instead. He intends to train Umasou to be strong quickly so he can go on his own as soon as possible, but won't get eaten by a carnivore right after leaving Heart.

While at first Heart found the ridiculously optimistic Umasou annoying, he quickly started to care about the kid and actually started to treat him as his own son. Heart still felt like herbivores and carnivores shouldn't care about each other after his traumatic experience as a child. With a heavy heart, he sends Umasou away as soon as the child has grown stronger. Heart quickly regrets his choice and ends up angering the other T-Rexes in the area by stealing/rescuing Umasou from them. Heart was already being disliked by the other carnivores for being different and refusing to live in a pack. The father and son are forced to run away from their home but neither is complaining since they want to find a place where they can live happily together as a family.

Heart does get the chance to reunite with his mother and brother towards the end of the movie when a catastrophe strikes the valley the dinosaurs live in. Some think that Heart and his family accepting the fact that they can't live together is a bad conclusion to the conflict when the whole point of the movie is accepting and loving others even when they are different from you. However, I really like the ending. There are just things that you can't change no matter how hard you try. Heart can't stop eating meat or he will die and the possibility of him eating his mother's and brother's friends is very likely. But just because they live apart from each other, doesn't mean that they stop loving and caring about each other. When Umasou grows up, he too will have to leave his father, just like Heart left his mother. Still, they would choose to spend a small part of their lives together, rather than never being part of each other's lives at all. And that's why I love the conclusion the movie has. You won't be able to have everyone you care about to be part of your life forever, but as long as you get to share some of your happy moments together with them, it is enough.