The Complete Cinematic History of Triceratops (Part Two)

The (First) Diversity Era (1960’s-1980’s) 

 

Toward the end of the ‘60’s and going into the ‘70’s the Triceratops was seen less frequently in movies. When cowboys venture into the Forbidden Valley in The Valley of Gwangi (1969) they encounter multiple prehistoric creatures, and one of the largest and most aggressive is a Styracosaurus. The stop motion effects for the film were created by Ray Harryhausen, who previously animated the Triceratops for One Million Years B.C., but comparatively, this ceratopsian isn’t quite as well designed. For one thing, its skin is purple, which is fine, but the colour scheme is nearly the same as that of the big meat-eater, Gwangi, and its skin texture is pretty much the same too. The design of its skull is also not as accurate or as sharp as the Styracosaurus from Son of Kong. But, the stop motion is smooth, and the creature puts up a good fight against Gwangi, though ultimately loses.

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) featured a different ceratopsian the following year, a Chasmosaurus that angrily stomps out of a cave and attacks some cavemen. Even though Harryhausen created many of the best dinosaurs to feature in motion pictures, this horned dinosaur was animated by Jim Danforth and is actually better than Harryhausen’s Styracosaurus from Gwangi. It’s detailed, the design of the skull is accurate to the real thing (a more angular shield with spikes on the edges, three horns, and spikes near its cheeks) and it chases one of the cavemen before accidentally running off a cliff, falling to its death. The Land That Time Forgot (1975) didn’t have special effects that were nearly as impressive as most of the earlier films looked at so far, but it did feature both Triceratops and Styracosaurus, brought to life with silly-looking puppets. They may not be quite as silly as the Triceratops from The Last Dinosaur (1977), though. It seems the other ceratopsians were better represented in this era, because this role for Triceratops—it’s biggest live-action role in quite some time—is downright embarrassing compared to earlier films. We get a classic T. rex versus Triceratops battle, and the two beasts far exceed their real-life maximum sizes, but they aren’t stop motion or mechanical, they are men in monster suits, a la Godzilla. Even for a Japanese monster movie, these suits look pretty bad, and it doesn’t help that the fight scene is shot in broad daylight, doing nothing to hide how floppy and rubber they are.

On the Planet of Dinosaurs (1977) there are many species of prehistoric creatures, including such famous ones as Tyrannosaurus rex and Stegosaurus, but once again there is a different ceratopsian from Triceratops. A Centrosaurus chases one of the characters over a long distance, but lucky for him the heavy creature can’t move too fast. His luck runs out when he reaches a cliff. The Centrosaurus impales him with its long nose horn and he falls to his death. To be fair, moments earlier the guy was trying to steal the eggs the Centrosaurus had laid. She was just a good mother protecting her clutch, making this yet another example of a ceratopsian defending her young. Phil Tippett’s short film Prehistoric Beast (1985) depicts a Tyrannosaurus rex hunting a Monoclonius, which at that time was believed to be its own species of ceratopsian, but it is now believed to be a synonym for Centrosaurus. Comparing the two designs, Tippett’s is much more scientifically-accurate, with a sleeker body, more proportional skull, and better skin texture.

The last film in this era reinstates the Three-Horn as the main ceratopsian star and stands out as the most memorable example in hand-drawn animated form since Fantasia. The Land Before Time (1988) introduced audiences to Cera, a temperamental baby “Three-Horn” who becomes separated from her father (Cera’s dad would later become known canonically as “Daddy Topps”) and makes friends with other young dinosaurs on their journey to the Great Valley where they will reunite with their families. Cera’s dad instills his racist views to her, claiming Three-Horns never play with Long-Necks, but Cera remains friends with Little Foot and the others anyway, and they would remain friends for many sequels. Daddy Topps has a pretty typical design, but Cera looks quite different from him, with peach-coloured skin, no horns above her eyes yet, only a rudimentary nose horn, and a small shield with only a few bumps. She definitely stands out among the other young dinos, in terms of both her behavior and appearance, and her interactions with the “Sharp Tooth” Tyrannosaurus rex in the original film are very different from any previous films showing interactions between the two species.

                                                                           

The Comeback Era (1990’s-2000’s)                           

           

With the success of Land Before Time came a further thirteen direct-to-video sequels over the years, and going into the 1990’s Triceratops was starting to make a resurgence in popularity. Adventures in Dinosaur City (1991) had anthropomorphic dinosaurs played by actors in suits, and one of the main characters was Tops the Triceratops. This family-friendly flick was made as a direct-to-video feature, and is not as well remembered as the theatrically-released We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993) which had a Cretaceous quartet of lovable animated characters, including Woog the Triceratops. He is blue, chunky, and goofy, but a different family film had a different species of ceratopsian the same year.  Prehysteria! (1993) was a bigger success than We’re Back! and introduced viewers to Hammer the Chasmosaurus. He gets his name from MC Hammer, and pals around with other miniature prehistoric creatures (all of them have a taste for raisins, strangely enough) in this film and both sequels.  

The real reason this era is the comeback era for Triceratops is thanks to one dinosaur movie in particular. Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) set a new precedent for prehistoric cinema, and after getting to meet a towering Brachiosaurus, audiences (along with the characters in the film) wanted to see what else the park had in store. Everyone is frustrated that the first dinosaur on the tour, Dilophosaurus, doesn’t show up, and they even wait outside the T. rex paddock, hoping to see it snack on a goat, but it never comes. Just when it feels like we’re never going to see another dinosaur, Dr. Grant spots something in a field, and the other characters follow him from the jeep over to a sick Triceratops. The camera is low, pushing through the grass, and happens upon the Three-Horn just as Timmy says “Oh wow…” It’s an awesome moment.

The Triceratops was created by Stan Winston Studios, and is a life-sized animatronic that moves its head, its leg, blinks, salivates, and breathes. It looks absolutely real. We get to see it up close and in detail, with the actors touching it and interacting with it in a way that makes you believe this creature really is alive. Ellie Sattler refers to it in a quick piece of dialogue as “The Trike” which is a nickname taken from the novel, but it’s not one I ever liked. Call it after the number of horns on its face, just like the Latin name, not after a children’s three-wheel. This Triceratops never gets on its feet, but in the sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), a healthy individual makes a brief cameo in the breakout scene, destroying a tent and flipping over a jeep. This would be the last big moment for the Three-Horn in this era, and going into the 21^st century, it would once again have to share the spotlight with many other species.

 

The (Second) Diversity Era (2000’s-present) 

 

The first major dinosaur movie of the new millennium, appropriately named Dinosaur (2000), did not take the previous Disney route from Fantasia of making up a purely fictional prehistoric landscape populated by terrible lizards that were nothing like the real creatures. The world of Dinosaur (while still highly imagined and mixing creatures that would never have met in real life) mainly features species from the Cretaceous period, but not the usual pairing of T. rex and Triceratops. There are two species of ceratopsians; the first one seen is the Pachyrhinosaurus, which is part of a mixed herd that’s ambushed by a ferocious Carnotaurus. The massive predator kills one of the Thick-Nosed Lizards, then, not long after, we get a look at a whole herd of them drinking from a river. The designs are among the most accurate ever seen, but the other species that we meet later is one of a kind. There are more Pachyrhinosauruses travelling with a mixed herd on its way to the nesting grounds, and tagging along at the very back is an old Styracosaurus named Eema. She is quite unique, in that her nose horn is broken and has been worn down with time, and she has a pet Ankylosaurus named Url, as well as an equally old Brachiosaurus friend named Baylene. Eema is more plainly coloured and stockier compared to the Pachyrhinosaurus, but she is incredibly detailed, emotive, and stands out from the herd.

The biggest TV movie event of 2002 was Dinotopia (2002) and again, despite having a huge cast of terrible lizards, there was no Triceratops to be seen. Instead, we get a Chasmosaurus, although it’s called the wrong name by the girl working in the hatchery. One of the main characters has to adopt a baby as his “saurian life partner” and because it’s labelled the 26^th egg in the long line of unhatched eggs, that’s the name the baby gets: Twenty-Six. It’s a combination of an animatronic and cgi, and is definitely one of the cutest baby ceratopsians from any live-action film. King Kong (2005) has a brief cameo for a ceratopsian in the theatrical cut, but it’s just drinking from a river, and that’s it. In the extended cut, the creature gets a full scene, and we see it much more closely. This fictional species, Ferrucutus, is similar to Chasmosaurus, with lots of spikes on its shield, and its aggressive behavior is reminiscent of the Stegosaurus from the 1933 original. Triceratops was no longer the favourite ceratopsian of filmmakers, and its one appearance in the 2000’s was a complete embarrassment. Anonymous Rex (2004) features a world full of dinosaurs disguised as humans, and a private investigator Triceratops reveals itself, created with cgi so texture-less and terrible it makes the very first cinematic Triceratops look more convincing by comparison.

The 2010’s started out with Triceratops getting a decent role in a big Pixar franchise. Toy Story 3 (2010) introduced Trixie, another blue Triceratops (the first one this colour since Woog in We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, except this one is female), acting as a counterbalance to the green, male Rexy from the previous two films, but her design suggests she’s from the same line of prehistoric toys. She returned for Toy Story 4 (2019) but had a smaller role, and the big Pixar dinosaur film from this era, The Good Dinosaur (2015), featured a Styracosaurus instead of a Three-Horn. This one is cartoonier than Eema from Dinosaur, and has many animals decorating its exaggerated shield horns.  

Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie (2013) takes place in Cretaceous-era Alaska, and since it was going for scientific accuracy (minus the corny human voiceovers) it featured Pachyrhinosaurus in the lead role. These ones are even more accurate than the ones from Dinosaur, and the cgi is better, too—it’s just too bad the movie they are in sucks. The Jurassic Park franchise evolved into the Jurassic World (2015) franchise, following continuity with the previous movies but trending toward sci-fi monster mayhem over intended scientific accuracy. Still, the Triceratops makes another cameo, although only created using cgi this time. It gallops majestically (well, as majestically as such a big animal can) through a field, which would have been impossible given its short legs and great weight.

The Jurassic World sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) still gave Triceratops its token cameo, but also included a new ceratopsian: Sinoceratops. The short film Battle at Big Rock (2019), taking place after the ending of Fallen Kingdom, has another new ceratopsian, the Nasutoceratops, which looks like a Triceratops without its nose horn. At this point, it’s obvious the world knows the truth now: Triceratops isn’t so special anymore. I think the best visual representation of it from this era comes from its role in Kong: Skull Island (2017): a giant skull in a bone field. What was once one of the most impressive dinosaurs in all of cinema is now nothing more than set decoration.

But…is Triceratops a thing of the past in terms of movie roles? I doubt it. It seems a safe bet to expect another cameo in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) and some more big roles in future dinosaur movies. Even though Hollywood now realizes just how many different species of ceratopsians there are to pick from, the Three-Horn Face will always remain a favourite, and its legendary rivalry with T. rex will never be forgotten. If Jurassic World: Dominion can deliver at least one herbivore-versus-carnivore fight, it should be between Rexy and the Trike.