This episode serves as sort of a companion piece to our last one that focused on King Kong, as we turn our eyes this time to one of Kong's foes, dinosaurs! Most kids grow up loving dinosaurs, spending time playing with plastic dinos and learning the names of the many different species. There are so many different types, with new ones still being discovered. Perhaps part of the magic of dinosaurs is the fact that these amazing creatures actually existed! While we love our Kongs and Godzillas, the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a real (and terrifying) beast, and we can go to museums and see its skeleton, and get a sense of just how imposing it would have been. For over 100 years, artists have depicted dinosaurs in film, going back to the days of silent pictures, all the way up to today, with the popular Jurassic World films. Dinosaurs never seem to leave the imagination of humanity.
The Planet 8 crew watched a whole heap of dinosaur films, and we'll talk about them -in no particular order! But rest assured, we will discuss many well-known films, as well as some oddities and a few not so great movies. Like the range of species in the dinosaur world, dinosaur films are many and varied!
But we couldn't discuss dinosaur movies without talking about the work of stop-motion animation legend Ray Harryhausen. The way Harryhausen imbued his creatures with life, with personality, is still impressive. Films such as Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Valley of Gwangi, and 1,000,000 Years B.C. all come under our lens.
Of course, other techniques besides stop-motion have been used. We'll look at the pros and cons of these too, including puppetry, men in suits, and CGI. And don't miss our discussion of - DINOSAURUS!!
You can't talk about dinosaur movies without bringing up Jurassic Park/World, so of course we'll go there. The first Jurassic Park film revolutionized special effects, and the dinosaurs in it still look fantastic.
We're sure that people will be watching dinosaur movies (or holograms, or virtual reality programs) far into the future!
For our Sensor Sweep segment, Bob shares some news about some artists you should know about. Nick Shev, who we covered on a previous episode, is now designing t-shirts! He has a bunch of cool Godzilla tees over at his Tee Public shop: https://www.teepublic.com/user/nickshev
Another great artists you should check out is Gaz Gretsky. Especially if you are a Power Rangers fan, you will want to see Gaz's shop! Head over to https://www.etsy.com/shop/gazbot to check out all his cool stuff.
Well, it's time to return from prehistoric days to the present. Yeah, we know it's not much fun right now, but we hope everyone is staying healthy and safe! And we hope you were entertained by this episode. Send us your feedback here or at our other locations:
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Thanks for listening!
Cool Episode Folks! Dinosaur Movies..., one of my favorite genres.
ReplyDeleteJust for Chief Engineer Bob's clarification Yes, the Chasmaosaurus is a species of Ceratopsid (like the Triceratops), and the Elasmosaurus is a genus of Plesiosaur, and both are "Real" Dinosaurs.
I love all of these movies, whether they be Good, Not So Good, well Paced, or Tar Pit Death Slow, I will watch any of them, almost anytime.
Something you should all check out is Dark Horse Comics' Age of Reptiles. Awesome artwork, that tells the story in wordless fashion. There are several graphic novels collecting this series.
Other Dinosaur Movies that should be mentioned: We're Back, Carnosaur, The Land Before Time, Disney's Dinosaur, ICE AGE: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and (even tho not animated, but definitely "2-D")Theodore Rex starring Whoopi Goldberg!
There where a bunch of really cool Dinosaur related cartoons to be seen as well: Valley of the Dinosaurs, Dino-Riders, Dinosaucers, Denver, the Last Dinosaur, Extreme Dinosaurs, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (short lived, but very cool!), and DinoSquad just to name a few.
I remember loving Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Valley of Gwangi, and "DINOSAURUS!!!" when I was a kid, and still do now.
We had a limited number of Dinosaur items to choose from as children or the 60's and 70's, and now there are so many Dinosaur toys & clothes are made now! I would have killed for these items as a kid!
You may have to do a second episode on this subject.
Thanks again!
Kevin deAntonio, Cosmic Collector and Space Merchant of Monsters
I tried not to go too far down the cartoon rabbit hole as I only had so much time to watch stuff in prepping or the episode. There is a CRAZY amount of dino films and TV out there.
DeleteOh, yeah, dinosaurs, baby! Like all of you guys, I was a big dinosaur kid as well. I checked out all of the books on dinos and other prehistoric creatures from my elementary school's library many times, and then later had a few of those kids' prehistoric life books as well. And I had what toys could be found (in that regard, I have to say I'm a bit envious of kids from roughly the 1990s onward and all of the cool, mostly accurate, non-monochrome dino toys they can get).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I loved it when dinosaurs showed up in movies, although I have to admit, I haven't seen many of the ones you discussed in the episode. One exception is Caveman. Saw that in the theater with a bunch of friends and we loved it. Haven't seen it since, though, so I don't know if it holds up. And I'm glad Bob mentioned that sequence in Fantasia - I loved that and was actually thinking about it while listening even before it got mentioned.
And Dinosaurus! is just one of many films with an exclamation point in the title. Heck, some of the best movies ever made have exclamation points in the title, to wit: Airplane! Top Secret! Mars Attacks! The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! Need I say more?!
-Edo Bosnar
Thanks! <—- Note the exclamation point in the response. 🤪
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