1914 saw the premiere of "Gertie the Dinosaur" - an animated short featuring a playful brontosaurus. Prehistoric cinema was born. The genre would go on to spawn a host of films, culminating in the blockbusting "Jurassic Park".
The early history of dinosaurs in the cinema is identified with one man - Willis O'Brien. The young O'Brien was inspired to make animated films using a technique known as stop-motion. His 1925 spectacle "The Lost World" featured battling dinosaurs so convincing that many were sure they were real.
In 1933 he premiered his masterpiece, "King Kong". The film features a superbly animated tyrannosaur and pterodactyl and is rightly regarded as a classic of fantastic cinema. Unfortunately O'Brien's working methods were prohibitively slow and costly. He suffered numerous professional disappointments, and his career foundered.
The baton was passed to O'Brien's protΓ©gΓ©, Ray Harryhausen. He developed a back projection technique which slashed the cost of animation production and went on to make such gems as "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) and "The Valley of Gwangi" (1969).
Other dinosaur films emerged, done with considerably less money and skill. "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" (1956) features an allosaur hilariously animated in something called 'Regiscope'. For his remake of "The Lost World" (1960), Irwin Allen used real life lizards embellished with stuck-on fins.
Eventually Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" (1993) revived the genre. Computer graphics were used to bring realistic dinosaurs to the screen. Plotwise, the film is a lightweight affair, but all is forgiven when the stars of the show appear. The brontosaurus is magnificent, the raptors are wicked and characterful, and the T-Rex attacks suspense masterpieces. It was followed by "The Lost World" with Spielberg offering more of the same, while "Jurassic Park III" is out this summer.
Visit the picture gallery, watch a set report, and find out more at our "Jurassic Park III" mini-site.
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