The face looks familiar. Even his name seems to ring a bell. But, you say you just can't place D.B. Sweeney's face? Come on, you know! Remember him as Shoeless Joe Jackson in the nostalgic film "Eight Men Out" (1988)? Or maybe as one of the WWII flight crew members in the youthful ensemble cast "Memphis Belle" (1990)? Maybe from the popular hockey-player-meets-ice-skater date flick "The Cutting Edge" (1992)? Well, before the Long Island native took on an acting career, he attended college for a year in New Orleans before deciding "that's not for me," and then went back to New York where he attended NYU to try to make it as an actor. "Not that I thought it would work out," he laughs, "I sort of went into it like you would go to Europe with a backpack and put off your future. But it worked out so I stuck with it."

Recently married, Sweeney interrupted his honeymoon to promote the Mouse House's latest innovative feature "Dinosaur," which he describes as "by far the most Disney has spent on a movie." He plays the heroic pre-historic creature Aladar, who leads his family and a group of dinosaurs to safety after a meteor shower threatens their existence. Now joining the ranks of Hollywood's all-time greatest stars landing their vocals to Walt Disney Pictures, Sweeney describes his excitement and experiences as an animated character and the joy of being a packaged toy.

Q. Most actors comment on how they enjoy voicing animated characters for their children. What prompt you to lend your voice?

A. When I initially got involved with the project, I had just asked my agent to get me into any Disney animated movie. I didn't expect to be given the main role in the biggest movie Disney has ever done. I would have been very happy to be the third horse on the right in whatever movie they were doing. So it was all bonus for me to find out what an elaborate production it was and what a great character I got to play. Plus, it is really fun to know that you're a friend to all these kids for a long time and I have a couple of young nieces who I knew would be excited if they could say I was the voice to one of the dinosaurs. In a way.you're immortalized to young people.

Q. Were you ever into dinosaurs as a kid?

A. Not to an extreme really. I sort of got into baseball cards pretty young.

Q. The film spanned more than five years in the making. How much of that time were you in the mix?

A. I started about four years ago and would go in about every three months for four hours. And in the beginning there were only sketches. I never even got a script because it was all top-secret. Disney was understandably concerned about some other studios knocking them off. You know like how they never have one volcano movie there is always two, or two movies about the destruction of the Earth, or cute little bugs. So they were concerned about someone beating them to the starting gate, therefore they didn't even give us a script and just gave me some of the lines to the scenes. It was kind of hard to figure out what they wanted based on a few lines of dialogue and no images.

Q. Did they have their artists watch you during the recording sessions?

A. Actually, I would go in and they would video tape me. I didn't know at the time how they created the characters, but they video taped everything I said into the microphone and they were basically using my facial expressions as a template for the dinosaur that they were then going to build. Even though they had already been working for a few years on how to make the body movements, they still needed the faces, which they would borrow from the actor's expressions.

Q. How did the character of Aladar develop over that four-year period?

A. Good question. Um.the plot function was already in place when the meteor destroys Aladar's home on Lemur Island and these dinosaurs are sent on this exodus where Aladar meets for the first time other dinosaurs. But initially, I think the Aladar character was very one dimensional, sort of pure and always doing the right thing. (Smiling) Boring, I guess you could say. So I wanted the evolution during the time I was involved have to do with putting different shadings in. There is a scene where they are trapped in a cave and Aladar loses his faith and says this line how we're not meant to survive. It just added enough depth to make him seem more human and relatively more plausible for an audience.

Q. This is your first animated film, so what were your expectations?

A. The first few sessions I really didn't have an idea what to do because when you work on a set or a stage you have the other actors, you have the props, you have the whole story to work around. I was sort of casting about because you don't have the security of knowing everything that you normally need to know. And you're also on a sound stage and the only other person in there is a reader, someone to throw you your cue lines. So it's not even the other character in the scene. You do the lines one at a time and there is about nine people in the sound booth who can push a button and talk to you, but you can't decide when you hear them, so you hear them only when they want you to hear them. So it is a little bit off-putting, and for me I tended to push every line and ended up over-acting. It just sounded so bleached of any kind of humanity that you start coloring every line and giving it equal value. It is a very hard way to work. And over time I learned that you just have to trust that the filmmakers won't make you look foolish.

Q. What was it like for you to finally see your voice animated along with your character?

A. I was surprised by how I was completely transported when watching the movie. I had seen fragments of the film when Aladar was talking. But I ultimately thought it was going to be a dinosaur movie that kids would like and grown-ups would (laughing under his breath) tolerate. And I was kind of surprised how well the film came together as a complete narrative.

Q. How about hearing yourself as a toy?

A. (Smiling) I thought of that when I got the part and that it would be fun to have my own line of toys. And believe me, it exceeded my expectations because I've been doing these speaking toys now for about five months. It's amazing what is feasible with these computer chips that they now can put in these toys. We go to a sound stage and read a bunch of lines that our characters might say. And we have to emphasis every syllable and exaggerate the lines a little bit more because these chips are not as advanced as the actual recording. I remember when I was a little kid, I had a GI Joe and when you pull the string he would say about three different things. If you were lucky, anyway. (Laughing) Now, the toys I'm doing actually have a voice recognition, so if the child says, "Aladar, where's Zini?" Then the toy says (in his innocent-like Aladar voice), "Well, I don't know where he is." It really is sophisticated.

Q. Now Disney animated films and musical numbers go hand-in-hand. We're guessing you were relieved when you knew there were no tunes in the film?

A. (Laughing) Yeah, well I knew they weren't going to let me sing or that would have been another part in the movie I wouldn't have been in. But when I found out there was no music I thought that signaled how much of a risk this project was going to be, because it goes outside the blueprint for most Disney animated films which are sort of structured like Broadway musicals with a few less songs. So that was really interesting and that is when I got the idea that the producers were going more for "Jurassic Park" than "Beauty and the Beast."

Q. So then what sort of research goes into playing an animated Cretaceous character?

A. I have an 8-year old that lives next door to me and he did all the research for me. (Laughing) Now he's twelve, but at the time I asked him what an Iguanodon was and he went to his library, pulled out a book and showed me. I said, "how unfortunate that I have a beak." That was one of the changes the animators made was that they gave the Iguanodons lips and teeth to appear more human. But I was hoping Aladar would be more of a fierce dinosaur instead of prey. I was lobbying for some claws or fangs so he could defend himself. But they just gave him his wits and a good heart.

Q. You mentioned you collected baseball cards, so would you say any of your films allowed you to live a childhood fantasy, like for example in "Eight Men Out?"

A. I've been very lucky because I got to do "Lonesome Dove" and pretend to be a cowboy. I got to do "Eight Men Out" and be in the World Series. When I was in "Memphis Belle" I actually got to fly a B-17 after we were up in the air. So yeah, I've really had a lot of fun. Not everyone gets to pretend to be a dinosaur. I got to go to work and get paid to lay on the ground and start groaning. (Laughing) I mean, unless you're in the porno business, not many people get to do that.

Q. What is on-deck for you now, no pun intended?

A. I have a film called "The Weekend," with Brooke Shields and Gena Rowlands. It's due out in September. It has passed through a few film festivals in Europe and is already being called a gay "Big Chill." This group of friends come together to mourn the death of the one person who was like the glue that kept the whole group together. And I play that glue guy, so it is a great part because everyone talks about how great it was when I was alive. (Laughing)

Q. Do you consider yourself to be a successful character actor?

A. When I first broke into the acting business Francis Ford Coppola hired me to be in "Gardens of Stone." I had the main role and thought how this is going to be really hard to play different kinds of roles now. You look at a guy like Tom Cruise and basically as much money he makes he gets to play Tom Cruise. So if that kind of success having a big hit movie had happened to me, I'm sure I would have been very happy going down that path. But in a sense, I was glad that I didn't have that big hit movie during the beginning of my career because it has allowed me to play a lot of different roles. (Smiling) But I'll take that big hit now though.

Q. Last question for you. What do the initials in your name stand for?

A. (Smiling) It stands for Danny Boy. I was a short kid in high school and you want to get rid of a name like that as quick as you can.