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Connections can be found anywhere in life. Movies are one example of things that have connections. With either a certain actor or a filmmaker, designer, researcher or composer. One topic that has interesting connections is the films that involve dinosaurs. Dinosaurs have a big impact on everyone in pop culture. Since these were animals that existed on our planet long ago, and is almost nothing like it today with our modern life. They’ve captured our imagination ever since the early 1800s for their weirdness, their power, their ferocity and their wonder. People’s perception of dinosaurs would have changed through time with more modern and advancing science. Dinosaurs have been featured in many movies and many of these films have some interesting connections that connect each other in a whole.

Gertie the Dinosaur (1912)

Gertie the Dinosaur was one of the earliest pieces of animation produced, and the first dinosaur film ever produced.(IMDB) Originally presented as a vaudeville act that involves the creator Winsor McCay as a ringmaster on a stage next to the screen where the animation of a trained Brontosaurus plays.(Sam Faulkner) The short film would have a big impact on the film industry and animation industry. It was featured on Disneyland’s The Story of an Animated Drawing in 1955 and has influenced them to build a statue of Gertie in Disney World’s Hollywood Studios to honorate her legacy in film.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1925)

Based on the novel of the same name, this involves Professor Challenger that teams up a science expedition to Venezuela to find a plateau that he claims is the one place to find dinosaurs alive today. Many of the dinosaurs were done by animator Willis O’Brien. Which he based their designs after famous paleoartist Charles R Knight, which many filmmakers working on dinosaurs use for inspiration.. He used stop motion for many of the dinosaur effects. But before that he experimented with many shorts like The Dinosaur and the Missing Link in 1915 and The Ghost of Slumber Mountain in 1918. (Cine-Saurus) Many documentaries and TV shows would often used stock footage of this movie since it’s in the public domain and the movie has been remade/re-adapted four times. One in 1960 directed by Irwin Matthews that was infamous with portraying the dinosaurs by live iguanas, alligators and monitor lizards. Another in 1991 that starred Jonathan Rhys Davies and Eric McCormick, as a TV series in 1999 to 2002 on TNT, and a 2001 BBC and A&E adaptation with Bob Hoskins and James Fox with visual effects done by Framestore who also worked on something else that’ll be mentioned later(Julia Tifford). This film would help inspire many more dinosaur related films that would come later in this essay. (Sam Faulkner)

King Kong(1933)

The story involves a aspiring filmmaker named Carl Denham who funds an expedition to a lost world known as Skull Island in search for a giant gorilla the natives worshiped named Kong. But soon the natives kidnap their actress they had along, Anne Darrow, as a sacrifice to Kong. Only for Kong to have a love for this new woman and takes her back to his lair. Carl Denham, Jack Driscol(Anne’s boyfriend) and the rest of the crew set out to rescue her while encountering giant dinosaurs along with Kong. After they rescued Anne and knock Kong out with smoke bombs, Carl sees an opportunity to exploit him as a new attraction in New York City. Unfortunately Kong escapes and goes on a rampage while searching for his loved one Anne. They finally meet and Kong climbs up the Empire State Building hoping no one would reach both of them. Until he was unfortunately killed off by World War I biplanes and falls off the building. The connections continue with both Willis O’Brien being the animator and his dinosaurs influenced by Charles R. Knight, who also worked on The Lost World. Which took influences for the story from that previous film. King Kong would become a ground achievement in movie making. Toho made a crossover with Godzilla (Something that will be mentioned later) fighting King Kong and King Kong fought his robot imposter, Mecha Kong in 1962 and 1967. Two remakes of King Kong were later made, one in 1976 with Jessica Lane and Jeff Bridges and special effects done by Rick Bakker and Isidoro Raponi (Who would later work with Disney in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend in 1985). Then a more faithful remake in 2005 made by Peter Jackson,stars Jack Black and Naomi Watts, and has visual effects done by WETA Digital. Those films would spawn 3 versions of King Kong rides at Universal Studios. Goes to show you that other than a certain movie that’ll be talked about later, Kong really helped popularized dinosaurs and like the Lost World it helped influence more aspiring filmmakers. (Jack Anthony Ewins and Sam Faulkner)

Fantasia(1940)

Walt Disney would soon have his chance to take on dinosaurs with Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in Fantasia. Which chronicles the history of life on Earth, from Earth’s beginnings, then the earliest life in the ocean, and to the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs. Fantasia soon had an influence on some of Disney’s attractions. Like the Magic Skyway for the New York’s World Fair in 1964 to 1965, which is now moved to the Disneyland Railroad, and the Universe of Energy attraction in Epcot in 1982.. This would later influence another Disney film later in the future.

The Beast of 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Now, a newcomer of stop motion named Ray Harryhausen has a starring chance to do a dinosaur film. After learning stop motion from his mentor Willis O’Brien, Ray did some animation tests first at a family garage and then a special hobby house made by his parents. He was originally going to do a project called Evolution, but later canceled it after finding out about Fantasia’s own dinosaur scene. But Ray would have another chance by adapting his best friend Ray Bradbury’s story called The Fog Horn. The story is about a fictional lizard like dinosaur called the Rhedosaurus that was awoken out of hibernation during an atom bomb test in the Arctic Circle. Like King Kong, soon goes on a rampage through New York. This film had later inspired many monsters on the loose in the city films, made cameo appearances in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth in 1970 and Planet of the Dinosaurs in 1978, and even influenced the most famous of movie monsters that’s coming next. (Jack Anthony Ewins)

Godzilla (1954)

Created by the Japanese company Toho, the famous king of monsters and probably one of the most iconic fictional dinosaurs. Similar to Beast of 2000 Fathoms(Which was one of the main inspirations), this ancient giant dinosaur was awoken by nuclear bomb tests in the Japanese sea. Which angered Godzilla as he mercilessly attacks Tokyo, Japan. Since tanks, missiles, warplanes can’t stop him, a scientist named Dr. Serizawa discovers by accident how to stop him with an oxygen destroyer bomb. Godzilla in the original film was meant to be a symbolism for nuclear destruction, as how the Japanese suffered from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in World War II. The movie would later spawn 30 other films. 28 follow ups from 1954 to 2004, and two remakes in 1998 and 2014, along with an upcoming one in the summer of 2016 by Toho. As mentioned before, King Kong has been in a crossover with Godzilla in 1962, and has been parodied and referenced many time in our culture. (Jack Anthony Ewins and Cine-Saurus)

One Million Years B.C. (1964)

Ray Harryhausen decided to return to dinosaurs again in this remake of a 1940 movie of almost the same name starring Raquel Welch and John Richardson. Though previously he worked on The Animal World in 1956 which had a 10 minute long segment featuring dinosaurs, which had some scientific consultants involved. B.C. revolves around Tumak(John’s character), a caveman who was banished from his tribe over a fight of food from his father and then decides to join a tribe with Loana the Fair One(Raquel’s character) who both fall in love while they try to survive in a hospitable world full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The models of the dinosaurs were created by Arthur Hayward, a paleo artist hat worked at the Natural History Museum in London.. This film was later followed up with another movie made by the British company Hammer (The company who made the original and the remake) with the 1970 film, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. That also included stop motion, this time by Jim Danforth and David W. Allen (Who would later on Crater Lake Monster in 1977, Cavemen in 1981, and then work alongside Harryhausen in Clash of the Titans) and had a dinosaur that was a look alike and possible reference to the Rhedosaurus. The two films were referenced in a banner in a famous future feature film that’ll be talked about soon (Jack Anthony Ewins), and in a Reading Rainbow episode based on the book Digging Up Dinosaurs, and Putting them Back Together again by Aliki. The film was also shown in the documentary Dinosaur! Hosted by Walter Cronkite in 1991.

Valley of Gwanji (1969)

Ray again goes back to dinosaurs in this film that has originally created by his mentor Willis O’Brien in 1942. This involves a cowboy showman who decides to investigate a lost valley in Mexico which contained some numerous dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. One in particular is an Allosaurus/Tyrannosaurus Rex named Gwanji that they capture for their circus and exploit it to the public, only to escape and cause havoc in the city.This is the second dinosaur related film that Ray Harryhausen worked on that was distributed by Warner Brothers, and the second to have the dinosaurs modeled by Arthur Hayward. This again takes some illusions from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and King Kong, and was also referenced in the upcoming film that’ll be talked about soon enough. (Jack Anthony Ewins and Sam Faulkner)

The Land That Time Forgot (1975)

Based on the novel of the same name by Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (which takes some inspiration from The Lost World), the story involves when a British crew that survived a ship sinking by a German WWI submarine, rebel against the Germans as they raided their submarine. But after the compass of their submarine headed south to a mysterious island known as Caprona/Caspak, the two crews join forces in order to survive in a harsh prehistoric world of dinosaurs, sea reptiles, pterosaurs and Neanderthals. As well as trying to survive, they learned one of the secrets of evolution on how so many different species from different periods can live together in one place. The film’s director Kevin Conner and one of the actors in the film, Doug McClure, would later work on on 3 more Amicus production films (Company that made this film). Two more Burroughs adapted stories in At the Earth’s Core in 1976, The People That Time Forgot in 1977, and a film in a league of it’s own, Warlords of Atlantis in 1978. (Jack Anthony Ewins)

Prehistoric Beast(1984)

Phil Tippett, a stop motion animator that was influenced by the works of O’Brien and Harryhausen decided to tackle this short film he made in his home garage. The short involves a horned dinosaur named Monoclonius that wanders away from his herd out of his own hunger. He enters a deep woods which unfortunately a T-Rex stalks him and tries to attack him. This short would help him get involved with the Discovery Channel Documentary Dinosaurs! Hosted by Christopher Reeve where he did a few more stop motion dinosaur animations with designs inspired by the works of Doug Henderson. The footage from this short, like the Lost World, would be constantly shown in documentaries. Like Dorling Kindersley's Eyewitness Dinosaur, National Geographic’s Really Wild Animals hosted by Dudley Moore, and History Channel’s Dinosaurs:Secrets Revealed. This short would also help gain him to become dinosaur supervisor to a famous film that will be coming very soon.

The Land Before Time (1988)

Made by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Steven Spielberg from Universal, it tells the story of Littlefoot an Apatosaurus along with Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Spike the Stegosaurus. Five dinosaur children that got separated from the herd from an earthquake and when Littlefoot’s mother dies when sacrificing herself from the main threat, Sharptooth a T-Rex. Littlefoot was told in her last words to find a place where all the other dinosaurs had headed, in the Great Valley. For research the crew went to visit the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian and the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. This had later spawned 13 sequels, along with a TV series and a recent movie in 2015. This movie would later influence Steven Spielberg to work on the next film that’s coming up. (Jack Anthony Ewins and Sam Faulkner)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Here’s the dinosaur film that most people know and the one thing that references a lot of dinosaur films. The story based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name, involves rich tycoon named John Hammond (played by Richard Attenborough, brother of famous naturalist David Attenborough) who invites two paleontologists and a chaotician to an island where he’s constructing a theme park that contained a lot of dinosaurs brought to life by genetic technology from extracting DNA from dinosaur blood found in mosquitoes trapped inside amber. Though as excited as they are the guests unsure about John and his team doing this. Meanwhile an employee of the park named Dennis Nedry decides to do some corporate espionage by stealing some DNA for a rival company. Problem is that he left the power on for too long that let’s the dinosaurs escape and cause havoc. Like with many films involving dinosaurs they had scientist consultants to make sure the dinosaurs would be accurate as can be for their time, Jack Horner was their main supervisor. This was directed by Steven Spielberg who previously worked with Universal on the Land Before Time. This also involves Phil Tippett who was involved as dinosaur supervisor. Originally the dinosaurs were going to be done in stop motion, but Dennis Muren of ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) convinced Spielberg to do the dinosaur effects in computer generated imagery. But it wasn’t a whole loss for Phil, since he did help with the CGI artists on using the stop motion technologies into new uses for CGI, like the Dinosaur Input Device he invented, while Stan Winston did the animatronic work. The film also references and gives a lot of homages to past dinosaur films. From The Lost World, King Kong, Valley of Gwanji and When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth.(Jack Anthony Ewins) Like those films Jurassic Park would help inspire many newer filmmakers. After Jurassic Park’s release Spielberg would work on another dinosaur related film based on a book, We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story that starred Walter Cronkite and John Goodman. Then again work on The Flintstones in 1994 that also with Goodman with CGI effects again done by ILM, and puppet effects done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. They’ve also worked on Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs from 1991-1994, and Dinotopia in 2002. John Goodman would also narrate the 2001 Discovery Channel documentary, When Dinosaurs Roamed America. Spielberg would also work on the short lived series Terra Nova in 2011. (IMDB) The movie spawned 3 sequels, The Lost World Jurassic Park in 1997(Loosely based on Michael Crichton’s second novel of the same in 1995 and takes more inspiration from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World and the 1925 film), Jurassic Park 3 in 2001, and most recently Jurassic World in 2015(Which taken unused elements from both books by Crichton) and as of this essay, a 5th film in the works set to be released in 2018.

Walking with Dinosaurs(1999)

After the release of Jurassic Park, documentaries wanted to try their hand on using CGI animation to bring these prehistoric creatures to life. Made by BBC and Discovery Channel this six episode series talks about the life of dinosaurs from their beginning to their extinction. Tim Haines, the series producer actually had a few things in mind originally when making this series. At first, he wanted to do a documentary on prehistoric mammals. Tim and the BBC decided that dinosaurs would be a better fit since people are familiar with dinosaurs than prehistoric mammals. Tim also wanted ILM to do the visual effects for the series, but found out it was too expensive to pay working fees for a TV series. so he went to his local studio in the UK called Framestore. Also they originally wanted David Attenborough to be the narrator(Who worked on Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives in 1989), but refused to be part of fictional documentary, so they had Kenneth Branagh in. Like with many documentaries, research and scientific consultants were used to make sure the dinosaurs were accurate for their time. The show’s success ended up BBC spawning more prehistoric related shows made by both Framestore. One of the locations that they filmed at (Fern Canyon in California’s Redwood State Park), was also a location used for the second Jurassic Park film, The Lost World. Like Walking with Prehistoric Beasts(Based on Tim Hanes original idea), Allosaurus: The Ballad of Big Al in 2001 and Walking with Cavemen in 2003. The creators would later form their own company called Impossible Pictures. Though still made numerous prehistoric programs from BBC, like The Lost World in 2001,  and Dinotopia in 2002. Spin-offs of WWD like Chased by Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters in 2002 and 2003 that hosted Nigel Marven, Walking with Monsters in 2005, Prehistoric Park in 2006(Again hosted by Nigel Marven). Including Primeval in 2007-2011, March of the Dinosaurs in 2011, and Primeval:New World in 2012. Soon the series was adapted into a feature length film in 2013. A live show based on the series of the same name was made since 2007 created by Global Creatures. They would later create a live show for King Kong in 2013 and Jurassic World in 2016. Despite refusing narrating in Walking with Dinosaurs, David Attenborough would star in other prehistoric life documentaries like First Life, Flying Monsters in 2010, and Natural History Museum Alive in 2014.(IMDB)

Disney’s Dinosaur(2000)

The story’s about an Iguanodon named Aladar who gets adopted by a family of Sifaka lemurs as they raise him as their own. But as a meteor shower destroys their island, they end up in a desert with a herd of dinosaurs looking for the Nesting Grounds, while avoiding vicious Velociraptors and Carnotaurus. The connections start in the early years where in 1988 when Walon Greene wrote the early draft that originally supposed to be directed by Robocop director Paul Verhoeven and Phil Tippett. This originally going to have stop motion effects done for the dinosaurs with some closeup animatronics done by the Chiodo Brothers, along with makeup effects by Rick Baker for the lemurs (Like he did in King Kong). Though it was shelved when Phil had to work on Jurassic Park. It was later picked up again in 1994 and directed by Ralph Zondag who was an animator in We're Back. This film involved many famous paleoartists to work on the concept art of the film, like Pete Von Sholly, William Stout, Doug Henderson, Mark Hallett and the characters designed by David Krentz(Who would later work on Dinosaur Revolution in 2011 and the Walking with Dinosaurs Movie in 2013). Like Disney’s previous film with dinosaurs Fantasia, this spawned a ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom called DINOSAUR (Originally called Countdown to Extinction in 1998). One of the animators, Peter Lepeniotis, would later work on two dinosaur documentaries for Discovery Channel. One was When Dinosaurs Roamed America in 2001(The same year Jurassic Park 3) came out, and Dinosaur Planet in 2003.

Land of the Lost(2009)

Based on the 1974 to 1977 TV series of the same name by Sid and Marty Krofft. In fact the third adaptation, since they remade it before in 1991 to 1992 with effects done by the Chiodo Brothers. This tells the story of a paleontologist who is not very well regarded in his field of study that uses an invention to travel back in time along with two comrades. They end up in a strange dimension where everything in history is mixed into one place. They encounter the Sleestak lizard people, apemen, and of course dinosaurs. (Julia Tifford and Jack Anthony Ewins)

The Good Dinosaur(2015)

This is one of the most recent dinosaur films other than Jurassic World. Made by Pixar this tells the story of Arlo the Apatosaurus who has a fear for everything ever since he was born. But after he loses his father to a flood and ends up getting swept away from his family in a river, and ends up lost. He remembers the way back from his father’s advice of following the river to Clawtooth Mountain, where he’ll finds his home. Along with a caveboy he names Spot, he learns to conquer his fears as he progresses to his journey back. The main inspiration was when head of story Bob Peterson, as a kid went to see the 1964 to 1965 New York’s World Fair that had the Magic Skyway attraction based on Fantasia’s Rite of Spring. (IMDB)

Connections can be made with anything in the world. Including movies about dinosaurs. From the start of films in the early 1900s to recent times, many connections can be seen with people and the history of dinosaurs in the movies. Why all these connections are made is because many people really love dinosaurs, pluss dinosaurs are very profitable in the movie business.

Bibliography:

Cine-saurus-The History of Dinosaurs at the Movies. The Dinosaur Museum. The Utah Humanities Council.Web.2006-2014. 16 July 2016.

Tifford, Julia. The Top 25 Dinosaur Films. Screen Rant.Web. 22 June 2015. 18 July 2016.

Ewins, Jack Anthony. “Jurassic June.”Online playlist. YouTube. June 2014. Web. 20 July 2016.

The Internet Movie Database.IMDb.com,Inc,2016.Web.20 July 2016.

Faulkner, Sam. A History of Dinosaurs At the Movies. Gamesradar. Web. 1 Dec, 2014. 20 July 2016.