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!
