'My Pet Dinosaur' Trailer: The Latest 'E.T.' Ripoff Hails From Australia

Plenty of movies have tried to capture the same magic as E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Perhaps most famous is the abysmal, blatant ripoff Mac and Me, which provides endless, unintentional laughs, but there are plenty more than have come and gone. It's hard to manufacture the kind of genuine wonder and emotion that came from Steven Spielberg's sci-fi classic. However, a new family film from Australia is making a valiant attempt.

My Pet Dinosaur is a sci-fi adventure that follows a young boy who stumbles upon what appears to be a tiny dinosaur, the product of a military experiment that sparked some unexpected consequences. It should come as no surprise that the government is in close pursuit. Keeping the dinosaur secret becomes a bit of a challenge as it grows exponentially in a very short period of time.

Watch the My Pet Dinosaur trailer after the jump.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed the My Pet Dinosaur trailer, which hails from director Matt Drummond. The filmmaker appears to have a love for prehistoric creatures since he was also behind the camera for the 2014 family film Dinosaur Island, which looked like a ripoff of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Sure, the dinosaur looks cute before it starts getting bigger. But even though there's sweetness abound in this family friendly story, it just feels like the kind of movie that goes straight to the DVD bargain bin. It could be the result of a poorly cut trailer, but even the footage on display just feels painfully phony. At the very least, the visual effects used to bring the dinosaur to life aren't terrible.

You're not likely to recognize any faces in this movie with the cast starring mostly relatively unknown names such as Jordan Dulieu, Annabel Wolfe, Christopher Gabardi and Tiriel Mora. Though you might recognize David Roberts (The Matrix franchise) and Joanne Samuel (Mad Max). But that's not stopping a production company called Empress Road Pictures from taking it to the European Film Market to find a distributor to send the film to the rest of the world.

Otherwise, My Pet Dinosaur is already slated to hit theaters down in Australia on March 30. I wouldn't bet on it getting a release in the United States, but anything is possible when there's always a fresh audience of kids who love dinosaurs.