October 10, 2008
They can’t all be Jurassic Park
Chapter V Enterprises
Five non-blockbuster dinosaur movies:
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) After betting some other artists that he can, too, draw a dinosaur, Winsor Z. McCay draws friendly herbivore named Gertie—and then enters own picture. Gertie takes her creator carefully on her back for a ride.
The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915) Cavemen Stonejaw Steve and the Duke vie for the attentions of Miss Araminta Rockface, but Theophilus Ivoryhead wins out after he is mistaken as the slayer of Wild Willie, the Missing Link—a monkey-man who had terrorized the countryside.
A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1991) (pictured above) Tagline: “Where the prehistoric meets the prepubescent.” In a post-Armageddon world, a young woman finds herself in a fight for survival against mutant cavemen, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.
Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939) Millions and billions and trillions of years ago, Caspar Caveman and his pet dinosaur, Fido, come up against Daffy when they’re out duck hunting.
Gospozha Dinozavar (“Madam Dinosaur” in Bulgarian) (2002) To escape from her parents’ constant fighting, Nusha imagines a world in which animals, dinosaurs, birds and people sing, dance and fly. When Nusha’s parents invite Madam Dinosaur to take care of the girl, M. Dinosaur befriends her by explaining existential problems, and she includes her new babysitter in her imaginary world. Nusha and Madam Dinosaur sing their dialogue.
These are actual movies. But there have to be more out there. What are your favorite dinosaur movies, both good and horrifyingly bad?
– Tom Frail
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“Where the prehistoric meets the prepubescent.”
Wow. I don’t think they know what that word means. Unless they’re describing the mental maturity of the intended audience…
Seriously, the leading lady is very, very NOT prepubescent.
TO answer the question, my favorite dino movies are Jurassic Park, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and Valley of Gwangi. Not the most accurate movies, but the sheer fun makes up for it.
Mine is the 1981 flick Caveman with Ringo Starr. Surprisingly good stop motion animation on some cheesy dinosaurs, and a lot of funny antics. Not exactly a great movie, but one of my personal favorites.
Dinosaur Valley Girls.
It’s written and directed by Donald Glut, the guy behind Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia.
It’s… uh…
Well, the dinosaurs are a lot more convincing than the breasts. And it’s got a great-in-a-short-bus-way garage band song about an Allosaurus called Jurassic Punk. And the King of Cartoons is a paleontologist.
It’s a linear descendant of movies like Ten Million BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. We need more of this in the cinema — you can never have too much stop-motion animation and fur bikinis.
Fantasia’s Rite of Spring sequence and The Valley of Gwangi (cowboys and dinosaurs!).
I love this blog!
Strangely the movies mentioned here seem to be all comic movies or mainly non serious movies.
Jurrasic park succeeded because it was a good movie with great storyline and effects.
[...] looking through the feedback from last week’s post on dinosaur movies, The Valley of Gwangi seems to have a fan base, and it’s easy to see why. [...]