Yar

“Babies grow up! You keep that thing, one day, we'll turn our backs, it'll be picking us out of its teeth! Things like THAT eat things like US as snacks!”

―Yar^[src]

Yar is an elderly lemur and a major character of Disney's 2000 animated feature film Dinosaur.

Background

Personality

Yar is shown to deeply care for his family and is slightly overprotective of his son, Zini. When a fallen egg is discovered by his daughter, Plio, she frees the baby dinosaur from its shell and decides to keep it and names him Aladar. Yar seems uneasy about this at first, but he still reluctantly accepts the hatchling. When Aladar grows up, Yar is more laid-back with his family and happily accepts Aladar as one of them.

Appearances

Dinosaur

Yar is first seen in the movie when a dinosaur egg falls on Lemur Island, where he lives with his daughter, Plio, his son, Zini, and (later) his granddaughter, Suri. As the other lemurs gather around the fallen egg, Zini tries to get closer but Yar stops him, telling him it's not safe. Plio is present when the egg cracks, then opens the shell and is happy to see a baby Iguanodon. She holds the baby in her hands and decides that she will raise him. Yar objects because he says that one day the hatchling will eat them and tells Plio to get rid of the creature. Plio apologizes to the baby and lets Yar do it himself. He holds up the baby dinosaur and attempts to drop it, though is unable to bring himself to do it after looking at the newborn and seeing how harmless and peaceful it is, but then the baby urinates on him. Disgusted, he hands the hatchling back to Plio, and she reaffirms him that the baby will learn not to eat meat; she names the baby Aladar. Yar reluctantly lets her keep the hatchling and tells Plio to watch his head, out of concern for the baby's well-being, but hides this by warning her that he may bite.

The years pass and Aladar has grown up a vegetarian dinosaur, thanks to Plio's care. That night, Yar is explaining to the male lemurs about the mating ritual, while Plio is having a similar pep talk with the female lemurs. After the ritual, Plio is present when a fireball falls from the sky and crashes into the ocean, causing violent tremors. Other fireballs soon start falling, destroying the island. Plio urges Aladar to run, and he takes her, Yar, Suri, and Zini on his back, and they escape the island by jumping across the sea to the mainland. Yar and the others are devastated that everyone on the island was killed by the fireballs, and that he and his family are the last ones of their kind.

For the next few days, they wander through deserted lands until they find a dinosaur herd led by Kron, his second-in-command, Bruton, and his younger sister, Neera. Yar and the others learn that the herd is going to the Nesting Grounds. There, they befriend some of the elder dinosaurs: Baylene, Eema, and Url who are at the end of the herd because they are too old to follow the rhythm of the others. Plio is the first to notice that her son Aladar has fallen in love with Neera.

After several days of rough marching, Bruton (who had been attacked by Carnotaurs) informs Kron that Carnotaurs are following them, so Kron decides to accelerate the pace, not caring if someone is left behind. Because of this, Aladar, the lemurs, Baylene, Eema, and Url separate from the herd. On a rainy night, they find shelter in a cave. They also find a wounded Bruton who has been banished from the herd by Kron. Despite the obvious, Aladar helps a reluctant Bruton into the cave. While Plio tends to Bruton's wounds, he asks her why she is giving them false hopes, but Plio reassures him that hope is the last thing that gets lost and that he is welcome to follow them. That night when two Carnotaurs attack them, everyone manages to escape deeper in the cave, but Bruton dies in the process while saving them, and the entrance of the cave is blocked by the falling rocks.

Later, after wandering for hours in the cave, Suri and Zini start smelling something. Plio and Yar smell the same thing, and so they start digging through the rocks to discover a ray of light; however, more rocks fall and cover the exit. Aladar screams in frustration and gives up, but Baylene says that they didn't come this far only to give up, and so everyone starts to push the rocks until they discover something amazing: they have arrived at the Nesting Grounds. Plio is happy that they have finally arrived at their new home, and she with Yar watch happily as Suri, Zini, and Baylene jump into the lake. Aladar then goes to warn the rest of the herd about the cave entrance.

Months later, Yar becomes a great-grandfather when Aladar and Neera have their babies. He holds up a newly-hatched Iguanodon who urinates on him the same way Aladar once did. Yar just smiles good-naturedly and tells the baby that he is definitely his father's son.

Once Upon a Studio

Yar and his family appear at the end singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" as they join other characters in a group photo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Trivia

Yar is very similar to Kerchak from the 1999 film Tarzan. Both are primates who were initially reluctant to accept a family member adopting an unknown creature due to being protective of their families (Yar for his daughter adopting the dinosaur Aladar; Kerchak for his mate, Kala, adopting the human Tarzan), and both suggested abandoning said infants, but both grew to accept them as adults.
- However, Yar was genuinely afraid that Aladar would grow up to be a predator, while Kerhcak believed Tarzan was a threat simply by virtue of being different from the gorillas. Kerchak was also perfectly willing to leave baby Tarzan to die in the jungle, only backing off due to Kala's insistence, while Yar found himself unable to go through with abandoning Aladar on his own. Also, Yar came to accept Aladar as family throughout his life, while Kerchak remained stubbornly disdainful towards Tarzan until he reached adulthood, and only after he risked his life to protect the family, to which Kerchak died shortly after.