Old Dinosaur Related Movies/Shows

[edgaguirus]

I've never seen that one.

[darthzilla99]

I've never seen that one.

It was the highest budget movie that toei made while also being the most shoddy looking. They tried to copy the Jaws method of not showing the Monsters often but still failed. The dinosaurs were operated by massive cranes to make them 1 to 1 scale and failed. Also the movie is super mean spirited as the protagonist is a sleazy sexist asshole and several of the female characters get ripped to shreds.

The soundtrack is the most funky dinosaur movie ever as it has disco music. The soundtrack was used as a meme on YouTube.

[edgaguirus]

I saw a review of the film, and it has some unusual music choices.

[Iced Snowman]

Discotek media will be releasing Legends of Dinosaurs and Monster birds on blu ray November 24. This will include English dub and Japanese with English subtitles.

I pre-ordered this Blu-Ray last night. It appears that the release date has been updated to November 29, 2022. I have the Media Blasters DVD and had paid a pretty penny for it, used. Looking forward to watching this cheesefest in higher quality video & audio.

You can pre-order it at Right Stuf Anime for a decent price.

[JAGzilla]

Just got done with the International Version of One Million Years B.C. (1966). I'd only seen it once before, a decade+ ago, and it bored me then. It was better this time. A bit slow, which is a mixed bag. Some scenes linger well and create effective atmosphere or drama, others start to drag a bit. But Ray Harryhausen and Raquel Welch do live up to the hype. The effects are pretty great, with even the slurpasaur iguana being relatively convincing. The Archelon, Triceratops, and shrieking hellspawn Pteranodon were my favorite of the animals; the Brontosaurus would be up there, too, but its scene is unfortunately brief and uneventful.

The Canary Islands was a fantastic choice of shooting location. Those harsh, barren volcanic landscapes fit this movie like a glove.

[JAGzilla]

Just cracked open the Diskotek Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds Blu-ray. This will be my first time seeing this movie, and I'll do my usual stream-of-consciousness review. My expectations are low, but hopefully it at least manages to be fun. Will confirm that the soundtrack is funky if the menu song is any indication. As a side note, the opening trailer for other Diskotek releases claimed that 'Blu-rays are forever' and estimated to last potentially 100+ years if kept in good condition. I'd never heard that before, and that makes me feel a lot better about collecting physical media. I can hand these things down to my (very hypothetical) great grandkids!

EDIT: It kinda takes a while to get going, but that's no big deal. It's '70s AF, which is fun. Feels a little bit cheap and shoddy so far. I'm up to the first 'attack', which was hilariously bland. No tension or anything to it at all. They tried to rip off Jaws without having any idea how Jaws did what it did.

EDIT: The tone and pacing are really wonky. It tries to be spooky and atmospheric with the fog and the old woman singing the folk song, and it doesn't really work. The scene involving the girl, dog, and horse was some amazingly bad what-the-fuckery.

EDIT: Okay, and then we get another unapologetically obvious Jaws knockoff with the festival scene. It did what it has to, I guess. And then the pranksters get what's coming to them. That scene... could have been worse. At least we got to see the monster, even if it, ah, wasn't entirely convincing. The follow-up with the American family was hysterical. Why isn't "It's really super big news!" a fandom meme? Oh my God, this movie was made for MST3K.

EDIT: And then there's a King Kong '76 POV shot knockoff, followed by a pointless, low-quality shower nudity scene, followed by the plesiosaur watching the chick get dressed. We don't have much trash this shameless in the genre, so this movie gets big entertainment points just for standing out.

EDIT: Okay, but Jun's death scene was done well enough. The choice of music combined with the close-ups of the plesiosaur's eyes and drool made it kinda feel like weird porn, though. MST3K would have had so much fun with this thing.

EDIT: And done. Yeah, it was pretty awful, but did have the decency to mostly be fun about it. The Rhamphorynchus attack on the townsfolk was a highlight. The random final battle, not so much. Those stuff props really just couldn't do anything to each other. That's expected, though, and a long, boring, anticlimactic ending kind of makes the whole movie, honestly. I will say that Diskotek did their job well. The movie mostly looks very nice on Blu-ray.

[JAGzilla]

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (1970), via the Warner Archives Blu-ray. I caught bits and pieces of it on TV as a kid, but this was my first time seeing it all the way through. I've heard it's supposed to be terrible and went in with that expectation, only to be very pleasantly surprised when it wasn't. It's actually pretty good for what it is, comparable to One Million Years B.C.. I mean, it's goofy exploitative popcorn junk heavily reliant on an absence of clothing, features no intelligible dialogue, and there's an unfortunate slurpasaur fight, but it's good dumb fun. That's all it needs to be.

The effects were actually really rock solid. I'd have to do a side by side comparison, but from memory, I'd say they outdid OMYBC. I hadn't expected the amount of dinosaur/monster action we got, with the standouts being the Plesiosaur, Pentaceratops, giant crabs, and good ol' Mommy Rhedosaurus. I had no idea that model was reused after TBF20KF! In hindsight, it's on this movie's poster, but I hadn't recognized it. I appreciate that she and her baby had a lighthearted, whimsical portrayal; it's a great way to break up the usual roles dinosaurs get in these movies. I love that she's the inspiration for Rexy in the Jurassic Park finale, too, and that the banner in that movie is a nod to this one.

It's a shame the giant ant scene was never filmed, though. That would have been something to see.

[Angilasman]

I really prefer the splashy, fun tone of When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth when compared to One Million Years BC, which I think is a bit too solemn and serious for what it is.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Jim Danforth's work in WDRtE is largely phenomenal. The Pentaceratops and Plesiosaur scenes are definite highlights.

[NSZ]

Couple of pedantic things, Jag, 1. It's a Chasmosaurus, not a Penta, and 2. That's not the Rhedosaurus.

[JAGzilla]

Couple of pedantic things, Jag, 1. It's a Chasmosaurus, not a Penta, and 2. That's not the Rhedosaurus.

1. Yeah, that was my second guess.

2. You callin' Gwanjipedia a liar? https://gwangipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Rhedosaurus

[NSZ]

Couple of pedantic things, Jag, 1. It's a Chasmosaurus, not a Penta, and 2. That's not the Rhedosaurus.

1. Yeah, that was my second guess.

2. You callin' Gwanjipedia a liar? https://gwangipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Rhedosaurus

I ain't callin' it a truther!

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

It's not the same model but it's obviously an homage.

[JAGzilla]

On closer inspection, I guess it isn't the same. Sources seem to differ on that point. Meh. It's a cool homage, if nothing else.

[mikelcho]

Just got done with the International Version of One Million Years B.C. (1966). I'd only seen it once before, a decade+ ago, and it bored me then. It was better this time. A bit slow, which is a mixed bag. Some scenes linger well and create effective atmosphere or drama, others start to drag a bit. But Ray Harryhausen and Raquel Welch do live up to the hype. The effects are pretty great, with even the slurpasaur iguana being relatively convincing. The Archelon, Triceratops, and shrieking hellspawn Pteranodon were my favorite of the animals; the Brontosaurus would be up there, too, but its scene is unfortunately brief and uneventful.

The Canary Islands was a fantastic choice of shooting location. Those harsh, barren volcanic landscapes fit this movie like a glove.

IIRC, the Brontosaurus had an actual entire scene in One Million Years B.C. where (I think) it encounters the Rock Tribe, but it was cut. Is this scene on the Blu-ray of this film as a bonus feature?

[JAGzilla]

IIRC, the Brontosaurus had an actual entire scene in One Million Years B.C. where (I think) it encounters the Rock Tribe, but it was cut. Is this scene on the Blu-ray of this film as a bonus feature?
[/quote]

I don't think so. I wasn't aware of that scene; that's interesting. I spent a few minutes looking up info, and it does seem to have been filmed, but I guess it was lost or something. It's a shame it was cut. I'd have loved to see it.

[mikelcho]

IIRC, the Brontosaurus had an actual entire scene in One Million Years B.C. where (I think) it encounters the Rock Tribe, but it was cut. Is this scene on the Blu-ray of this film as a bonus feature?

I don't think so. I wasn't aware of that scene; that's interesting. I spent a few minutes looking up info, and it does seem to have been filmed, but I guess it was lost or something. It's a shame it was cut. I'd have loved to see it.

If you want to find out more about the Brontosaurus scene and why it was cut, and even look at a black-and-white still from it, read the chapter on One Million Years B.C. in the paperback book From the Land Beyond Beyond: The Making of the Movie Monsters You've Known and Loved - The Films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen (1977) by Jeff Rovin.

[JAGzilla]

That definitely looks like a book worth checking out. I'll keep it in mind!

[Pkmatrix]

Just got done with the International Version of One Million Years B.C. (1966). I'd only seen it once before, a decade+ ago, and it bored me then. It was better this time. A bit slow, which is a mixed bag. Some scenes linger well and create effective atmosphere or drama, others start to drag a bit. But Ray Harryhausen and Raquel Welch do live up to the hype. The effects are pretty great, with even the slurpasaur iguana being relatively convincing. The Archelon, Triceratops, and shrieking hellspawn Pteranodon were my favorite of the animals; the Brontosaurus would be up there, too, but its scene is unfortunately brief and uneventful.

The Canary Islands was a fantastic choice of shooting location. Those harsh, barren volcanic landscapes fit this movie like a glove.

IIRC, the Brontosaurus had an actual entire scene in One Million Years B.C. where (I think) it encounters the Rock Tribe, but it was cut. Is this scene on the Blu-ray of this film as a bonus feature?

Oh, there was an actual scene filmed? I'll have to crack open my copy of Ray Harryhausen's book, I don't remember that.

[mikelcho]

Just got done with the International Version of One Million Years B.C. (1966). I'd only seen it once before, a decade+ ago, and it bored me then. It was better this time. A bit slow, which is a mixed bag. Some scenes linger well and create effective atmosphere or drama, others start to drag a bit. But Ray Harryhausen and Raquel Welch do live up to the hype. The effects are pretty great, with even the slurpasaur iguana being relatively convincing. The Archelon, Triceratops, and shrieking hellspawn Pteranodon were my favorite of the animals; the Brontosaurus would be up there, too, but its scene is unfortunately brief and uneventful.

The Canary Islands was a fantastic choice of shooting location. Those harsh, barren volcanic landscapes fit this movie like a glove.

IIRC, the Brontosaurus had an actual entire scene in One Million Years B.C. where (I think) it encounters the Rock Tribe, but it was cut. Is this scene on the Blu-ray of this film as a bonus feature?

Oh, there was an actual scene filmed? I'll have to crack open my copy of Ray Harryhausen's book, I don't remember that.

If you look three posts above this one, there's the title of a book listed that definitely not only mentions it, but shows a black and white still from it. This book, btw, was also the first time I had ever heard of this anywhere.