Episode 56: Dino-mite! A Dinosaur Extravaganza

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!

Episode 53: Hail to the King, Baby

via GIPHY

All right you primitive screwheads...this episode is devoted to our friend Ashley Williams! Yes, we're taking a trip through the Evil Dead films and TV series. When the original Evil Dead movie first came out, it really shook things up. The camera angles and movements, the strange sound effects, the story, and of course, the charismatic Bruce Campbell, all added up to a hit with horror audiences.

The later entries would add more than a little humor to the horror, and that's where it seemed to really take off. Campbell had a gift for playing Ash as a lovable jerk, who was maybe more lucky than good. And he certainly delivered a number of notable one-liners!

Your Planet 8 crew will talk about the origins of the Evil Dead film series, how Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell got the idea for the first film and financed it, and was it connected at all to an older film called Equinox? All this and more!

We all like the third film, Army of Darkness, the best. It's an odd mix of fantasy, horror, and comedy, but it works really well. Ash pulls a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court act, but despite his technological know-how, he still screws up and conjures up an army of deadites, including his own undead counterpart. There were two different endings and we talk about both the theatrical and director's cut versions.

Finally we take a look at the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV show. It only lasted three seasons, but it was well done and really expanded the Evil Dead universe. Will there be more Evil Dead? Perhaps the truth is hidden in the pages of the Necronomicon...

Starting with this episode's Sensor Sweep, Chief Engineer Bob will be throwing the spotlight on different artists who normally appear at the Godzilla and anime shows Bob puts on in the Bay Area, but Covid-19 has shut all that down right now. This time we are featuring artist Nick Shev. You can find his work at https://nickshev.bigcartel.com/. Nick does a lot of Godzilla art, but also aliens, mummies, original Halloween art, and more. He also does black light art -he takes a printed lithograph and hand draws details with a luminous marker. You can get lenticular stickers from him too. Take a look, there's a lot of very cool stuff on his site!

That's all this time, friends and neighbors. Be sure to share your thoughts on Ash and the Evil Dead. Do you enjoy this film/TV series? Can you see it going on without Bruce Campbell as Ash? We want to know! And you know the drill by now...

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Thanks for listening!