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Hollywood dinosaurs: a selective timeline of the movies about dinosaurs
Friday, May 19, 2000
1908 "Prehistoric Man": Little is known but it may have been animated.
1912 "Man's Genesis": D.W. Griffith short may include the first live-action dinosaur.
1914 "Brute Force": Griffith also directed this caveman short starring a young Lionel Barrymore.
1914 "Gertie the Dinosaur": Winsor McCay's first animated short.
1919 "Adam Raises Cain": Tony Sarg provided the silhouette cutout animation for this rarity.
1923 "The Three Ages": Buster Keaton's classic has stop-motion dinos, one of which he rides.
1925 "The Lost World": Terrific version of Arthur Conan Doyle adventure starring Wallace Beery and featuring Willis O'Brien's stop-motion dinosaurs.
1927 "Flying Elephants": Laurel and Hardy encounter dinosaurs in this Stone Age-set short.
1933 "King Kong": Before the explorers meet the big ape, they find dinosaurs. Impressive stop-motion effects by Willis O'Brien.
1940 "Fantasia": History of dinosaurs set to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in the Disney landmark.
1940 "One Million B.C.": Hal Roach and Hal Roach Jr. directed this hoot with lizards dressed like dinosaurs. Footage recycled in 1950's "Prehistoric Women," 1952's "Untamed Women," 1953's 3-D "Robot Monster" and Roger Corman's 1958 "Teenage Caveman."
1948 "Unknown Island": Richard Denning stars; lizards stand in for dinosaurs.
1953 "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms": Terrific stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen.
1955 "King Dinosaur": An iguana plays "T. rex" in this turkey directed by Bert I. Gordon.
1956 "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!": First of the legendary Japanese imports.
1956 "The Animal World": Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien supplied stop-motion effects for this Irwin Allen documentary about life on Earth before man.
1957 "The Land Unknown": Jock Mahoney lands his helicopter in a valley inhabited by prehistoric creatures (mechanical and people in costumes).
1958 "Behemoth, the Sea Monster," a.k.a. "The Giant Behemoth": Willis O'Brien supplied the stop-motion dinosaurs.
1959 "Journey to the Center of the Earth": Pat Boone and James Mason star; lizards play the dinosaurs.
1960 "Dinosaurus!": Thawed-out prehistoric monsters and a caveman.
1960 "The Lost World": Jill St. John and Claude Rains star in remake of the Arthur Conan Doyle story with lizards as dinos.
1966 "One Million Years B.C.": A fur-bikini-clad Raquel Welch flees from stop-motion dinosaurs created by Ray Harryhausen.
1969 "Valley of Gwangi": Harryhausen provided dinosaurs for this sci-fi western in which cowboy James Franciscus captures a "T. rex."
1970 "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth": Animator Jim Danforth supplied stop-motion dinos.
1975 "The Land That Time Forgot": Doug McClure encounters dinosaurs (people in dino suits); followed in 1977 by "The People That Time Forgot."
1977 "The Last Dinosaur": Big-game hunter Richard Boone is trapped in the prehistoric past.
1980 "Dinosaur": Will Vinton supplied Claymation for this short.
1981 "Caveman": Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long and Ringo Starr appear with stop-motion dinos by Jim Danforth and Dave Allen.
1985 "Baby, the Secret of the Lost Legend": Disney adventure features a mechanically operated family of dinosaurs.
1988 "The Land Before Time": First in series of animated adventures about baby dinosaurs.
1993 "Jurassic Park": Dinos soar to a new level of sophistication in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster, the first film to use computer graphics to create the creatures. Followed in 1997 by "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." Stan Winston supplied effects for both.
1994 "The Flintstones": Computer-generated imagery (CGI) and mechanical dinosaurs help bring this live-action version of the animated series to life. Followed in April 2000 by "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas."
1998 "Godzilla": Beast and her babies created by CGI and mechanical dinos wreak havoc in New York.
1998 "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous": This Imax movie utilized CGI animation and 3-D effects.
May 2000 "Dinosaur": Disney's latest uses CGI in live-action backgrounds.
-- Susan King, Los Angeles Times
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