I posted a query a while back about movies with atrocious-looking dinosaurs. I really enjoyed reading the posts, so why not a sequel of sorts? What movies had the best looking/ most realistic dinosaurs in them? One movie I do recall is “Valley of Gwangi”-- it had a great Allosaurus as its star!
I don’t think there can really be much question about this: Jurassic park and its many ill-conceived sequels have, hands-down, the most realisitic looking dinosaurs ever put on celluloid.
Now, if you rephrase the question to be, “What’s the best movie with dinosaurs in it?” it becomes much harder to answer. It sure as shit isn’t anything with Jurassic Park in the title, though.
Yeah, we should probably break this into pre-CGI, post-CGI categories. Jurassic Park definitely set the standard for CGI dinosaurs.
I agree that Gwangi had the best pre-CGI dinosaurs. Ray Harryhausen (blessings upon his name) is a genius.
I was impressed as heck at the CGI dinosaurs in Jurassic Park – you can see in the very first shot of the brachiosaurus that they were showing off the CGI capabilities – wrinkly skin, incredibly detailed motion, stuff you couldn’t do with stop-motion dinosaurs.
But I have to admit that even now parts of th movie are starting to look dated. Look at the shots of the velocirators in the kitchen. When it’s a CGI dinosaur (an not one of the mechanical models) they see to “glow” oddly. The lighting isn’t perfectly matched to the backround. The shot “down” at the brachiosaurus, when they’re in the treetop, doesn’t look right, either.
That said, the dinos in the Jurrasic Park series are about the best I’ve seen. and not just the CGI dinosaurs. The model work, puppets, and the full-size mechanical T. Rex were great.
Other CGI dinosaurs are great, too (Walking with Dinosaurs, T. Rex-- Back to the CRetaceous, etc.), but not quite as good, overall.
As for stop-motion dnosaurs, Ray Harryhausen’s work is great, but I’m not sure I’d pick Valley of Gwangi as his best. His other outings – One Million Years B.C., Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Animal World were good, too. For that matter, his mentor Willis O’Brien did a great job in King Kong (just after the T. Rex enters, pay close attention as it scratches its ear. Wonderfully natural, and easy to pass over if you’re not paying attenton). Even some of the stuff in th 1925 The LOst Wrld is extremely good. It’s just mixed in with other stff thats extremely primitive. Other animators did good jobs as well – Jim Danforth’s stuff looked pretty primitive at first , but by the time he did When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth it was pretty good. A technical nitpick – most of the creatures in the flick aren’t actually dinosaurs.
David Allen did some good stuff, too. And there’ a ndeendent film that has awful acting and pretty poor quality overal, but great animation by dinosaiur artist Steve Czerkas and others – Planet of Dinosaurs.
In the neither CGI nor stop-motion category, the rod-puppet T. Rex from My Science Project was surprisingly good. On the trength of it, I believe that the effects guy went on to do some mniature effects for Aliens.
If I remember correctly, Jurassic Park itself didn’t have too many CGI dinosaurs. The Lost World was the first to start using a lot of computer-generated special effects. The famous “T-Rex vs. Car” scene in the first film, for example, was done using a huge robotic tyrannosaur model. That was part of the reason why it was so effective, too- it had none of the slightly “floaty” feel of CGI animals. There was definite weight in every motion it made.
In addition, CGI animal skin tends to stretch in a characteristically unrealistic fashion (see: the Rontos in the altered Mos Eisley entrance in the Special Edition of Star Wars: A New Hope). Even today, the look of the dinosaur skin in Jurassic Park holds up, because it was made of physical materials rather than mathematically simulated.
Although there probably weren’t as many as people might think, there wee still quite a few CGI shots in JP. Not all of the T. Rex vs. car shots were done with the robotic model. The scenes of it breaking through the fence, the scenes where it chases Jeff Goldblum, where it eats he lawyer, the scene with it attacking the galimimus’ and the scene at the end with it attacking the velociraptors were all CGI. All the long shts of brachhiosaurs were CGI. Any shot of the velociraptors with full-body motion (i.e., where it jumps up on the table in the kitchen, or where it jumps up at the people, or at the climax) were computer generated.
See any of the magazines that came out when the film opened. Newsweek, Cinefex, Cinefantastique showed CGI effects. I think there’s a feature on the DVD about it.
Oddly, the JP calendar shows only model scenes, no CGI.
Since JP is pretty much the king, I’m going to second CalMeacham’s mention of the Dinos in King Kong. Like Kong himself, that T-Rex just has so much personality.
Gwangi kicks butt! It inspired me to write a Sci-Fi/Western screenplay couple of years ago. Great to see other fans. Gotta vote for JP as the best yet. The propietary software is what locked it up. Lets not forget kudos to Gertie that started it all!
Ray Harryhausen paid tribute to that scene in Valley of Gwangi by having his Allosaurus scratch is ear too.
A while ago, the BBC did a series entitled Walking With Dinosaurs. To say that the SFX were realistic is an understatement I think.
Obviously Dinotopia!
Call me old fashioned but I love anything that stars Doug McClure.
Do you think Peter Jackson and his WETA team will have any breakthroughs when creating dinosaurs for his KingKong remake?