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i saw this at the drive-in when i was but a lass, i remember that long-gone summer night clearly, thrillingly fantastic action-adventure. i was enthralled by the terrific(ally cheesy) stop-mo dinos, the unibrow cavemen, the volcano, the escape, those cool shots of the sub entering the ice cave and coming out in the dangerous prehistoric wonderland lagoon, what a trip down memory lane!
(i actually had this on VHS for the longest time but the tape gave up the ghost many many years ago and life intervened and i never got around to replacing it, what a shame — i really must try to get my hands on it if only to play it for the boy and regale him with the tale from my youth and get the obligatory earful about how cheesy and unrealistic it is – such a child of jurassic park era dinos – and thus make myself appear even more crypt-keeper-like in his eyes!)
That poster alone made me salivate for the movie, though I knew from the hallowed pages of Famous Monsters that producer Subotsky wouldn’t spring for stop-motion and got Roger Christian and others to build impressive but ineffectual costumed/mechanical/puppet-saurs — I believe dinosaurs can only EXIST in stop-motion animation world. That said, it was a fun perfect Saturday afternoon matinee.
Sit your boy down and regal him. You are hilarious as usual, leah.
wow, the dinos were that on the cheap? i will NEVER hear the end of it from the boy, awesome, i really must have a look at it now
(thanks for the kind words C, i’m super knackered so i’ve crossed that weird invisible line from merely exhausted into loopy, i’ll do my best not to ramble incoherently on your blog)
Yeah, your rambles are always a pleasure, as are your babbles, blathers and blithers.
Cheap is right. Triceratops = two-guys-in-a-Vaudeville-horse-suit, the breathtaking verisimilitude spoiled by the fact that all four legs bent forward. (Or might I be thinking of the even more wonderful THE LAST DINOSAUR, which was superior by virtue of having its own theme song? I’d fall over from shock if you weren’t familiar with that protean achievement.)
And yet (getting back to LTTF) I remember my dad finding the scene in which a guy is spirited away between the jaws of a pterosaur, legs kicking mechanically, to be in poor taste. He’s a Vietnam vet, but stuff in movies that I laughed off frequently managed to offend him. (Don’t get me started on the time he decided to accompany me to a screening of SCANNERS. I thought he was gonna have me committed.)
THE LAST DINOSAUR was actually Made In Japan using Tsubraya Productions and effects, hence the Rankin-Bass co-production (KING KONG ESCAPES). I saw TLD on its ABC premiere night and was sated as it felt like a fun updated Toho film — loved the drilling ship “The Polar Borer” — and yes, it’s now available in a deluxe edition:
Yes, my dad was a vet and some things bothered him in movies but it wasn’t violence, it was language. He couldn’t stand the cursing in DIE HARD but he loved STRIPES.
aaaah kevin connor ! aaahh doug mc clure ! one of the best combos ever… seven cities of atlantis was my kid cult movie… this one also had a huge impact on me : and the ending was surprisingly dark and desperate…
in looking for a clip of the dinos i discovered ‘TLTTF’ is on youtube in 7 glorious parts (of course it is!) and also discovered someone has done a remake i’ve never heard of — and from the looks of it the reimaginationing provides further proof that modern productions values do not equate to a superior flick by any stretch of the imagination
anyhoo, here’s fabulous part 7: (the sound is completely bung, like a full minute out of sync with the visuals) the film begins and ends with the ‘message in the bottle’ plummeting over the cliff into the sea, v cool
(i apologise in advance if i fuck up this link, my track record for doing links properly on this blog is appalling)
is the remake you mention the one with will ferrell ? totally not worth one second of your time… nothing to do with the original, if they even cared about it…
March 27, 2010 at 10:16 pm
YAY!!!
i saw this at the drive-in when i was but a lass, i remember that long-gone summer night clearly, thrillingly fantastic action-adventure. i was enthralled by the terrific(ally cheesy) stop-mo dinos, the unibrow cavemen, the volcano, the escape, those cool shots of the sub entering the ice cave and coming out in the dangerous prehistoric wonderland lagoon, what a trip down memory lane!
(i actually had this on VHS for the longest time but the tape gave up the ghost many many years ago and life intervened and i never got around to replacing it, what a shame — i really must try to get my hands on it if only to play it for the boy and regale him with the tale from my youth and get the obligatory earful about how cheesy and unrealistic it is – such a child of jurassic park era dinos – and thus make myself appear even more crypt-keeper-like in his eyes!)
and another beauty one-sheet, christian, classic
March 27, 2010 at 11:16 pm
That poster alone made me salivate for the movie, though I knew from the hallowed pages of Famous Monsters that producer Subotsky wouldn’t spring for stop-motion and got Roger Christian and others to build impressive but ineffectual costumed/mechanical/puppet-saurs — I believe dinosaurs can only EXIST in stop-motion animation world. That said, it was a fun perfect Saturday afternoon matinee.
Sit your boy down and regal him. You are hilarious as usual, leah.
March 27, 2010 at 11:29 pm
wow, the dinos were that on the cheap? i will NEVER hear the end of it from the boy, awesome, i really must have a look at it now
(thanks for the kind words C, i’m super knackered so i’ve crossed that weird invisible line from merely exhausted into loopy, i’ll do my best not to ramble incoherently on your blog)
March 27, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Ramble on, sistah
March 28, 2010 at 10:06 am
Yeah, your rambles are always a pleasure, as are your babbles, blathers and blithers.
Cheap is right. Triceratops = two-guys-in-a-Vaudeville-horse-suit, the breathtaking verisimilitude spoiled by the fact that all four legs bent forward. (Or might I be thinking of the even more wonderful THE LAST DINOSAUR, which was superior by virtue of having its own theme song? I’d fall over from shock if you weren’t familiar with that protean achievement.)
And yet (getting back to LTTF) I remember my dad finding the scene in which a guy is spirited away between the jaws of a pterosaur, legs kicking mechanically, to be in poor taste. He’s a Vietnam vet, but stuff in movies that I laughed off frequently managed to offend him. (Don’t get me started on the time he decided to accompany me to a screening of SCANNERS. I thought he was gonna have me committed.)
March 28, 2010 at 4:43 pm
THE LAST DINOSAUR was actually Made In Japan using Tsubraya Productions and effects, hence the Rankin-Bass co-production (KING KONG ESCAPES). I saw TLD on its ABC premiere night and was sated as it felt like a fun updated Toho film — loved the drilling ship “The Polar Borer” — and yes, it’s now available in a deluxe edition:
http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2009/05/last-dinosaur-strikes-again-toho-video.html
March 28, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Yes, my dad was a vet and some things bothered him in movies but it wasn’t violence, it was language. He couldn’t stand the cursing in DIE HARD but he loved STRIPES.
March 28, 2010 at 11:23 am
aaaah kevin connor ! aaahh doug mc clure ! one of the best combos ever… seven cities of atlantis was my kid cult movie… this one also had a huge impact on me : and the ending was surprisingly dark and desperate…
stop-mo dinos are NEVER cheesy ;)
March 28, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Yes, what I recall most is the dark last scene with them wandering through the snow. Even kid’s movies had bummer endings in the 70′s…
March 28, 2010 at 6:42 pm
yeah, and they send this bottle with a message… the last two people on the continent… that made good education…
March 28, 2010 at 4:16 pm
oops.. make that “warlords of atlantis” ;)
http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/221790.1020.A.jpg
March 28, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Love that poster.
March 28, 2010 at 11:10 pm
in looking for a clip of the dinos i discovered ‘TLTTF’ is on youtube in 7 glorious parts (of course it is!) and also discovered someone has done a remake i’ve never heard of — and from the looks of it the reimaginationing provides further proof that modern productions values do not equate to a superior flick by any stretch of the imagination
anyhoo, here’s fabulous part 7: (the sound is completely bung, like a full minute out of sync with the visuals) the film begins and ends with the ‘message in the bottle’ plummeting over the cliff into the sea, v cool
(i apologise in advance if i fuck up this link, my track record for doing links properly on this blog is appalling)
March 28, 2010 at 11:11 pm
yeah, i screwed it up. sorry c!
March 28, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Good stuff.
March 29, 2010 at 7:16 am
is the remake you mention the one with will ferrell ? totally not worth one second of your time… nothing to do with the original, if they even cared about it…
March 29, 2010 at 4:39 pm
That’s LAND OF THE LOST based on the Sid and Marty Kroft kid’s show — which did have stop-motion dinos!
March 29, 2010 at 6:58 pm
ooh right
of course
March 29, 2010 at 9:38 am
golly ! there is a sequel !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People_That_Time_Forgot_%28film%29
March 29, 2010 at 9:03 pm
dave, this is the remake of ‘the land that time forgot’ to which i was referring:
(please just the link this time, fingers crossed:)
March 29, 2010 at 9:06 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
(ok, i give up. no matter what i do i can’t figure out how to just insert a link rather than go the full monty on christian’s blog! ugh)
March 29, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Don’t insert the link — I like the big picture!
March 29, 2010 at 9:57 pm
whew!
anyway that remake – i feel sad for c. thomas howell and timothy bottoms, how dreadful for them
March 31, 2010 at 2:04 am
jesus…. thanx leah ;) i wish they would stop doing remakes…. let me go back to planet of the dinosaurs instead….
March 31, 2010 at 9:21 am
Love those dinos!
March 30, 2010 at 7:55 am
Wow, that looks awful. Was it actually released in theaters?
March 31, 2010 at 9:21 am
Straight to DVD.