C.C.C. Issue #17: Top Ten Best Dinosaur Movies

Tomorrow the disappointing Walking With Dinosaurs Movie, based loosely on the BBC series of the same name, comes out on blu ray and DVD. I decided to take a look at the ten best movies featuring the ferocious and awesome prehistoric creatures that have scared and fascinated so many people of all ages.

Note: I didn’t include the Jurassic Park sequels, even though in many regards they are better films (mainly in visual effects) than some of the ones I have on here, but to fill three spots with Jurassic Park and sequels would be too easy. 

Honourable mentions: The Land Before Time (1988), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), and Godzilla (1954).

Before the endless stampede of straight to video sequels that never seemed to go extinct, there was the theatrically released animated film The Land Before Time, from producer Steven Spielberg (this was years before he went on to direct Jurassic Park, based on Michael Crichton’s dino novel). Even though this was one of my favourites as a kid, it has definitely lost much of the charm since, and I really have no desire to watch it anymore. Yes, it did have a few tense and exciting scenes, but at the end of it all it’s still just a kid’s movie. As for When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, I’ve only seen clips of it and not the full film, but I bet as soon as I do see it one day, I will put it in this list. And as for Godzilla, though undoubtedly a classic, I wanted to give some of the other lesser known dinosaur films a chance on this list. Even though Godzilla is a dinosaur, he isn’t one in the traditional sense; here I’m looking at dinosaurs designed to be close to scientifically accurate.

10. Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985)

First up is this oddball family film, which follows scientists trying to find and capture a living Brontosaurus, known to the local African tribes as Mokele Mbembe. An adventuring couple befriends an infant which they call Baby, and try to reunite her with her parent. This movie is sort of bizarre because it’s clearly targeted at a younger audience, while trying to be something the whole family can enjoy. One scene will feature Baby playing with the scientists and its all laughs and smiles, but the next scene will have the adult Brontosaurus gushing blood as the dinosaurs are brutally attacked with machine guns! Plus, there are multiple shots of African natives with fully exposed breasts. How is this a family film? What it lacks in consistency it makes up for with (mostly) convincing animatronics. The dinosaurs walk, run, swim, and emote, which isn’t half bad considering the age of the film. The action is sporadic and there are a number of sappy scenes, but the depiction of the Brontosaurs is decent enough for this film to get a number ten spot. 

9. Carnosaur (1993) 

This Roger Corman production was rushed into theaters three weeks before Jurassic Park’s wide release, to try and capitalize on the dinosaur craze at the time. The film fails to come anywhere close to the level of quality that Jurassic Park achieved, but looking at it without drawing comparisons, Carnosaur is actually quite entertaining and as sinister as Spielberg’s mega blockbuster, but in a different way. A mad scientist woman (played by Diane Ladd, mother of Jurassic Park star Laura Dern) has the crazy idea of developing a virus which makes women become impregnated with dinosaur fetuses, which burst from the abdomen like a Chestburster out of Alien. She believes the earth belongs to the dinosaurs, not humans, so as well as developing the virus, she injects Dino DNA into chickens. She ends up with a giant clutch of eggs, as well as a full grown Deinonychus and Tyrannosaurus. It’s an insane plot, but what is really entertaining are the dinosaur effects. It’s a mix of unconvincing animatronics and even more unconvincing puppets, but unlike the PG-13 terror that Spielberg’s dinos delivered, these Carnosaurs are out for blood. It’s fully R-rated as Raptors tear people to shreds and women give birth to slimy reptiles. The ending is one of the darkest conclusions to a movie I’ve ever seen. It’s cheesy but amusing, and the sequel Carnosaurs 2 makes for another great Mesozoic massacre. 

8. Planet of Dinosaurs (1978)

You may remember seeing this movie on my Best Worst Movies list. It is bad, yes, but the dinosaurs are superb and movie is entertaining. Think The Lost World, only instead of a plateau it’s an entire planet, and the people are from the future. The main dino that gives the group problems is a giant T.rex, which is one of the best stop motion dinosaurs ever put on screen. I remember seeing numerous shots of it in dinosaur documentaries from the nineties and wondering what movie it was from. When I finally found out I rejoiced. Other dinosaurs that live on this hostile world include Centrosaurus, which is a ceratopsian similar to Triceratops, but with a huge spear-like nose horn, and an Allosaurus the size of a man that’s thick skin make it resistant to laser beams, but not T.rex’s powerful bite. There’s also a giant spider, a swamp serpent, and even the Rhedosaurus model used in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms appears, but as a large lizard rather than a giant monster. The dialogue is cringe worthy, the acting is weak, and the costumes and props are a joke, but luckily the dinosaurs make frequent enough appearances and are done well enough to make this a fun dinosaur movie worth watching. 

7. The Lost World (1925)

The first film to ever prominently feature dinosaurs, this silent black and white classic is an adaptation of the novel of same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who also wrote Sherlock Holmes. Professor George Challenger assembles an expedition to a remote plateau in South America, where they discover a world that time forgot. Dinosaurs, ape men, and other prehistoric creatures roam these lands, and the explorers manage to bring a Brontosaurus back to London, where it runs rampant and escapes into the River Thames. There’s a wide range of animals and dinos, and some truly groundbreaking scenes, including an Allosaurus ambushing a herd of Triceratops, and a fight to the death between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a spiky Agathaumas. The dinosaur stop motion effects by Willis O’Brien are quite impressive, but are only a precursor to his even more remarkable work on King Kong that came eight years later. This film served as inspiration for many great dinosaur movies to come, including King Kong and Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park. 

6. Caveman (1981) 

This is not your typical prehistoric adventure: it is sixty five million times funnier than any other dinosaur movie on this list. Unlike Carnosaur, which intends to be serious but comes across as funny, Caveman is straight up slapstick comedy. Ringo Starr—yes, former Beatles member Ringo Starr—stars as Atouk, a bearded, semi-upright homo sapien who’s about to change the world. He has the skill, the ambition, and cluelessness needed to bring about a new way of life for his people. Together with his buddy Lar (played by a young Dennis Quaid) and a group of outcasts, Atouk plans on overthrowing the meathead leader of his former tribe, Tonda, and taking his dark haired, big breasted girlfriend, Lana, whom he desires to “zug zug” (take a wild guess as to what that means). This movie piles on the laughs scene after scene, and has numerous memorable moments. A clumsy T.rex gets sacked by a blind octogenarian caveman, and later falls off a cliff after being intoxicated by a cannabis-like plant. Atouk and his friends discover a chiropractic technique to make everyone stand upright. A Korean caveman invents English. I could keep going. Go and check this underrated movie out for yourself. It’s not the greatest dinosaur movie ever, but it’s definitely a great movie, period. 

5. Dinosaur (2000)

This mainly animated feature from Disney may not be among the most revered movies in their library, but you cannot deny the incredible spectacle that is Dinosaur. Containing what I would consider the best non-Jurassic Park cgi dinosaurs to be featured in film, Dinosaur still looks amazing today—even if it’s not always 100% photorealistic. The aim of the movie isn’t perfect dinosaur accuracy. Here, the dinos have human looking eyes, speak English, make facial expressions, and have emotions (sometimes too much emotion, to be honest). Aladar, an orphan Iguanodon adopted by Lemurs, is plunged into an unfamiliar and dangerous world, when an asteroid forces him and his adoptive family to join a herd of other dinosaurs heading to a refuge called “the nesting grounds”. Though the plot is similar to Land Before Time, it manages to appeal to a wider audience than just little kids. The ferocious Carnotaurs are terrifying and a nice change from seeing T.rex as the principle meat eater, and the wide variety of plant eaters make for colourful characters, both visually as well as emotionally. Having some of the herbivores possess vindictive qualities, such as herd leader Kron and second in command Bruton, is another welcome change from the typical notion of plant eaters are nice and meat eaters are bad. A visual treat with excellent cinematography, Dinosaur is definitely an underrated dino movie. 

4. One Million Years B.C. (1966) 

This remake of the 1940 film One Million B.C. showcases incredible stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen, as well as the beautiful Raquel Welch in a now famous fur bikini. Set during a time when cavemen and dinosaurs shared the planet (which never happened, by the way)—a brutish, primeval world of death and chaos—a primitive tribe scrapes out a living in a mountainous area. With tensions high, one unfortunate man, Tumak (played by John Richardson) gets kicked out of the cave and has to fend for himself. He comes across a somewhat more advanced tribe of blonde hunter-gatherers living alongside the sea. Among them is Loana (Raquel Welch), who is instantly attracted to this foreign Cro-Magnon hunk. They run off and face the harsh outside world together, eventually returning to Tumak’s former tribe. The conflict doesn’t stop there, as his cranky old friends see Loana as a threat, and they try to put an end to the prehistoric pair. The creature effects are consistently excellent throughout this movie. There’s a mix of stop motion and real creatures projected to look larger. An epic battle between a Triceratops and a Ceratosaurus, a faceoff between Loana’s tribe and an Allosaurus, and a Pterodactyl that flies away with Loana in its claws are just some of the greatest moments. It has awesome visuals (both in regards to the dinos and Raquel) and is a must see. 

3. The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

The genre mash-up of Western and Science Fiction doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it can be easy to screw up (see Cowboys & Aliens). But no other movie has done this quite as effectively as The Valley of Gwangi. In the mysterious and dangerous Forbidden Valley, dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures still thrive. An unlikely group of adventurers, ranging from circus performers, cowboys, and even a paleontologist thrown in for good measure, discover this valley and all of its dangers firsthand. There are Pterodactyls, a Styracosaurus, and deadliest of all, Gwangi, a purple Allosaurus. At times he looks like a fearsome carnivore; at times he looks like Barney from hell. The scenes of Gwangi getting lassoed by the cowboys and tugging them around are not only exciting, but exquisitely done with stop motion by Ray Harryhausen. Gwangi gets captured and brought back to the circus in a wooden cart/cage, but when he’s lined up for his great debut, a sabotage allows the dino to break free and cause mayhem. He eats people and kills a performing elephant before being barricaded in a church which is set on fire. There are lots of fun action scenes throughout the movie, as well as its fair share of darker, gruesome (for its time) moments, but makes for a fun time all around. 

2. King Kong (tie between both 1933 original and 2005 remake) 

I can’t pick the remake over the original (the seventies remake isn’t even an option), or the original over the remake, because both films deliver top notch dinosaur action and effects. While the original has a timeless battle between Kong and a Tyrannosaurs Rex—all done in flawless stop motion—the remake has a battle where the stakes are even higher, as Kong takes on three V.rexes—not T.rexes, V.rexes: their modern day counterparts—all while juggling poor Anne Darrow who somehow never gets squished or chomped. The story of King Kong has become infused in popular culture: beast falls for beauty, men capture beast and bring him back to civilization, where beauty falls for beast, and beauty ultimately kills the beast. Willis O’Brien’s stop motion effects have stood the test of time and made King Kong a cinematic landmark. Peter Jackson delivered comparatively excellent cgi creatures in his remake, which won the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 2005. The dinosaurs, though mostly inaccurate based on scientific evidence, are still incredible and terrifying. The Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Pteranodon from the original are all ferocious, and the Venatosaurus, V.rex, and various creatures in the chasm (all created for the remake) are all just as harrowing.

1. Jurassic Park (1993)

Was there ever any doubt? Jurassic Park easily takes top honours as the defining dinosaur film for a generation. For sheer epic adventure, Jurassic Park wins, but throw in a bunch of the best looking dinosaurs ever put to film, and you end up with one of director Steven Spielberg’s finest cinematic accomplishments. When dinosaurs run amok, no one is safe at John Hammond (Rich Attenborough)’s island theme park, as the park’s first guests—including Paleontologist Dr. Grant (Sam Neil), and Dr. Malcolm, played perfectly by Jeff Goldblum—must try to survive the deadly cretaceous clones. At times it’s as scary as Jaws, such as when Hammond’s grandkids are trying to evade a pair of Velociraptors in a kitchen. At times the action is as epic as any Indiana Jones adventure, from the Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing our heroes in a jeep, to Grant and the kids running from a herd of Gallimimus. As for the visual effects, VFX creators at ILM spared no expense, pushing the boundaries with what could be done at the time. Though there are only a handful of computer generated dinosaurs in the whole movie, each shot looks as realistic and amazing now as it did twenty years ago. Stan Winston’s animatronic dinosaurs are just as impressive, which gave the actors as much to react to as the audience, making the acting seem even more genuine and the whole concept that much more believable. Jurassic Park is a modern classic, and I cannot recommend it enough if you haven’t already witnessed this spectacle.


Jurassic Park image from http://www.chud.com/83099/franchise-me-jurassic-park/
Caveman poster from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman_(film)