Worst special effects in a dinosaur movie?

[gytalf2000]

I used to watch a lot of the old black-and-white "prehistoric " movies as a kid, but they are now pretty much jumbled up in my mind. I remember some of them actually had pretty good special effects (for the time they were made, at least!), while others were truly horrendous! Some of them had real lizards with spines attached to them to give them the "prehistoric" look; others just had really bad, ridiculous-looking dinosaur suits! Could somebody with a clearer memory than mine help me out here? What are some movies with really crappy looking dinosaurs?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Really bad live action dinosaurs can be found in The Land That Time Forgot (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0073260/) (indeed any dino movie starring Doug McClure (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0565982/)). They are possibly the nadir of lizards with fins technology.

If you want bad puppet dinosaurs, then how about Reptilicus (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056405/)

Alas, both of these films are in colour.

The Lost Continent (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0043757/) might fit the Black & White bill.

[widdershins]

Another color dinosaur turkey, The Last Dinosaur, a retched TV movie starring Richard Boone, Joan Van Ark, and a T-Rex that looks like it would be more at home as part of a small town homecoming parade float.

[jsc1953]

Just above the nadir of "lizards with fins technology" (great phrase) would be the The Lost World (1960-ish), and One Million Years B.C.

[Michael Ellis]

King Dinosaur used lizards without fins, and claimed that an iguana was a T. Rex.

[Evil Captor]

The random dinosaur scenes in Robot Monster were ... pretty damn cheesy. Strangely, Dinosaur Island, a softcore take on the dinosaur theme, had dinosaurs that, while bad, were better than most of the ones cited here -- and they had T&A to sort of spackle over their cinematic lapses. What was the one by the Russians about the exploration of Venus that had hot blondes and dinosaurs inhabiting the planet? I remember they had a rubber pterodactyl that was just ... totally lame.

[The Scrivener]

You've gotta get The Last Dinosaur, but why take my word for it, when so many IMDB users concur (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076294/usercomments)?

Seriously, though that dorsal tail seam on the T-Rex was hilarious, and I remember that forehead-denting.

[Master Wang-Ka]

What was the name of that one movie... mid-fifties, I think... where the T-rexes were in fact guys in very tall suits?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Originally posted by Master Wang-Ka
What was the name of that one movie... mid-fifties, I think... where the T-rexes were in fact guys in very tall suits?

That's almost certainly The Lost Continent I mentioned above. Suits (cardboard) around 6'6" high .Please don't re-watch it, I value your sanity too much.

[DrFidelius]

Would this count? http://www.jabootu.com/ia.htm

[Voyager]

Barney :D

[CalMeacham]

These aren't even in the running. How abou:

Unknown Island -- tyrannosaurus Rex done by guys in really bad monster suits. Light years[/i[ worse tha The Last Dinosaur

King Dinosaur -- the T rex is a very un-T-rex-like lizard.

The Lost World The 1960 version. Blown-up lizards sub for dinosaurs.

One Million B.C. -- the Hal Roach 1930s version, not the Raquel Welch version. The original flick with lizard dinosaurs. Animal [i]were hurt in the making of this film. The footage showed up in a lot of films after this, including Robot Monster. One illion B.C. also gives us a giant armadillo, and a pig dressed up in a triceratops suit. (!!!!)

But the winner for worst dinosaur effect is:


The Prehistoric Sound. Spanish film with several alternate titles. The dinosaur is invisible (except for the last few seconds). A real savings in special effects. Also features the worst "invisible" special effects you'll ever see.

[NoClueBoy]

Originally posted by Tapioca Dextrin


The Lost Continent (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0043757/) might fit the Black & White bill.

"Rock climbing, Joel."

So it was good for one thing, anyways...



And yet, some of htose old movies (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0065163/combined) had darn good effects, considering.

The Valley of Gwangi, if you're wondering.

[CalMeacham]

quote:
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Originally posted by Master Wang-Ka
What was the name of that one movie... mid-fifties, I think... where the T-rexes were in fact guys in very tall suits?
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That's almost certainly The Lost Continent I mentioned above. Suits (cardboard) around 6'6" high .Please don't re-watch it, I value your sanity too much.

Nope. It's Unknown Island. The Lost Continent, though pretty bad, at least featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs. ("This is the COOL part": Crow)

[Miss Mapp]

Teenage Caveman has lizards-as-dinosaurs, plus guys in rubber suits playing dinosaurs. See the middle picture in the 3rd row down at http://fast.horrorseek.com/horror/tonyrivers/caveman.html to enjoy the goofiness.

[Master Wang-Ka]

...although now that I read back over this thread, I'm amazed no one's mentioned the legion of men in rubber suits that represents Japanese dinosaur/monster cinema...

[The Scrivener]

...But they have, however indirectly. The Last Dinosaur farmed out its special effects to Japan, and used a combination of techniques, including men in foam-rubber suits, to inadvertent comic effect. :D

[Max Carnage]

The Land Before Time 1-6

Those things haven't looked real since the first movie.

[Darwin's Finch]

Originally posted by Miss Mapp
Teenage Caveman has lizards-as-dinosaurs, plus guys in rubber suits playing dinosaurs. See the middle picture in the 3rd row down at http://fast.horrorseek.com/horror/tonyrivers/caveman.html to enjoy the goofiness.

I like the alligator dressed up as a Dimetrodon.

[zev_steinhardt]

I know it's not a movie, but has anyone considered the old Land of the Lost TV Series (by the Kroffts)?

Zev Steinhardt

[CalMeacham]

...although now that I read back over this thread, I'm amazed no one's mentioned the legion of men in rubber suits that represents Japanese dinosaur/monster cinema...



I submit that even the worst of the Godzilla movies has effects far superior to Unknown Island. And even the worst Gamera effects are pure Industrial Light and Magic compared to The Prehistoric Sound

[aleong]

If you want to see a really ugly CGI-rendered dinosaur, check out the Korean monster movie "Yonggary" (released internationally as "Reptillian"), in which the CGI effects (the title monster, helicopters, etc.) look like they were rendered by a Playstation One... the acting is also fugly.

[Silver Serpentine]

The Lost World's (the TV series) special effects are pretty horrible. Not as horrible as I think some of these older ones might be, tho.

[Cervaise]

I guess I'm the only one who's seen The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0009105/), huh?

[Lumpy]

Originally posted by zev_steinhardt
I know it's not a movie, but has anyone considered the old Land of the Lost TV Series (by the Kroffts)?

Zev Steinhardt Had low-frame rate stop-motion animation, and recycled a lot of footage, but it still was stop-motion. I'll take LOTL over lizards with fins any day of the year. Oh, and of course the Sleestaks were men in rubber suits, but they were supposed to be semi-humanoid.

[Darwin's Finch]

Originally posted by Cervaise
I guess I'm the only one who's seen The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0009105/), huh?

Tagline: The crowning triumph of the motion picture.

I guess the bar was set pretty low back in 1918, eh? (I haven't seen it, for the record.)

[CalMeacham]

quote:
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Originally posted by Cervaise
I guess I'm the only one who's seen The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, huh?
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I've seen it -- why do you include it here? It's got great stop-motion dinosaurs by Willis O'Brien (who later did The Lost World -- the good 1925 version -- King Kong, Son of Kong, and Mighty Joe Young. A hell of a lot better than the Men in Monster suits and tricked-up lizards listed above.

Do you mean the 1950s filom The Beast of Hollow Mountain? Even in that case, the dinosaur is better. It features a T. Rex in the Old West,fighting cowboys. Made about decade before Ray Harryausen finally brought Wilis O'Brien's dream of The Valley of Gwangi to the screen. Beast was made on the cheap, but it was a stop-motoion animated dinosaur, and a surprisingly good effort.




If you want a bad FX dinosaur, check out the Danish import Reptilicus -- they used a painfully obvious puppet.

[jayjay]

I present...Future War (http://imdb.com/title/tt0113135/).

A 1997 film that appears to use children's plastic dinosaur models for special effects. It was given the MST3K treatment and deserved it.

[Cervaise]

Originally posted by CalMeacham
I've seen it -- why do you include it here?Yes, the work is by Willis O'Brien, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "great." I mention it because it struck me as a very early first draft, wherein he was still experimenting and working out his methods; watching it, I had the definite impression of reading something Stephen King or Robert Ludlum or some other major genre writer had produced in junior high school, something amateurish and unpolished and not ready for prime time that by itself would never have gotten the exposure except that the author had become famous later.

But yeah, aside from that, you're right, the care and personal craftsmanship in stop-action, however rough, is almost invariably superior to the prosthetic alternatives. I'll take minor O'Brien or Harryhausen over an accessorized iguana any day. So I withdraw the nomination.

And yes, I've seen Reptilicus. Whoo boy, what a stinker. Makes Carnosaur 2 look like Jurassic Park.