MovieChat Forums > One Million Years B.C. (1967) Discussion > Best Dinosaur fight in movie?

Best Dinosaur fight in movie?

posted 18 years ago by bluejuice-2
11 replies | jump to latest

I used to love the Dinosaur v Dinosaur fight scenes in most of these movies I watched as a kid. My fav Dino was the Triceratops which won some(1 million years BC) and lost some(Valley of the Gwangi which actually had a Styracosaurus instead of Triceratops.) But the best fight scene for me had to be the 'Classic' King Kong Vs T-Rex. The recent remake is way way way too overcooked, but the original was a classic bout, up there with the Sugar Ray's and Hagler's! Just the timing and the brilliant animation where Kong gets up off the deck to win, class! Any other memorable contests???

[–] DinoGuy 18 years ago

I have to agree with you onthe Kng Vs. T-Rex fight in the original. The fight in the remake was ok, but dragged on way too long. Plus they were shown chomping at least once on Kong's arm-those steamshovel jaws would have crushed the bones in an instant, that's what they were made for.
If you have the DVD of the original, pause it when Kong flips the T-rex,you can see in one or two frames the dowels used to support the heavy models.
Plus...the Kong/T-Rex fight was actually a proof-of-concept scene shot some time before the rest of the film, Kong is markedly different in this. His proportions are more correct for a gorilla, the crest on this head is more pronounced, his jaw is more square, and he just looks meaner. Cooper and Shoedsack ordered a few changes done after the project was approved.

[–] stp43 18 years ago

I always hated King Kong versus the outsized Allosaur in the original movie because I always wanted to Allosaur to win!

I remember seeing the Ceratosaur versus Stegosaur then another Ceratosaur fight in its entirety only once, when it ends with the two Ceratosaurs plunging off a thousand-foot drop into a river. I always liked that fight as a kid, probably because I remembered it as faster than it likely was.

The best fight is still Gwangi versus the Styracosaur, both because of the quality of Harryhausen's animation (yes, nitpickers can point to some minor sloppiness such as when Gwangi seems to float on air while moving backwards and the to the overall lack of a truly decisive blow to the Styracosaur that telegraphs that that creature is doomed - Carlos' spearing of the Styracosaur doesn't count because the spear barely lodges on the creature's side) and because of the far-superior dinosaur voice effects used as opposed to those in One Million Years BC.

[–] Senior_Stuffs 18 years ago

I hated the way King Kong won too, especially as a kid, where more of my symathy lied with the non-human characters as opposed to what I then called soppy human characters, who were there for romantic interest.

I am in the minority saying this: so when Kong died I was happy.

In this film I just like that shot where the Ceratosaur jumps - nice entrance.

[–] scifi1980 17 years ago

I would always feel bad watching that scene as a kid when the Styracosaur loses. The thing was still breathing after Gwangi went after the group, but I think it was pretty much blinded after Gwangi bit it across the face. It's eyes were all bloody.

Does anyone know which movie that has the two Ceratasaurs fighting? I remember seeing still photos over the years but never actually saw the movie.

[–] DinoGuy 17 years ago

The movie was The Animal World, made in 1955. It was an Irwin allen produced documentary. The dinasaur squence was in the first 10-15 minutes. It was a collaration between Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, and should have been much better than it was, but not through the efforts of the two great stop-motion animators. The Great Irwin made the piece on the cheap, insisting on sub-par dinosaur models and wanting everthing done fast and cheap, to include large, non-animated mechanical dinosaurs that didn't match the stop-motion figures. It is rarely seen today (I myself have only seen snippets on various programs). More information can be found in a book, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life.
I need a life....

[–] scifi1980 17 years ago

Thanks for the info. I had seen the photos in numerous dinosaur books over the years but never knew what film it was from.

[–] obit1 17 years ago

The complete sequence is on youtube...type in Animal World dinosaur segment and viola

The model animation is quite nice (in many cases as good as Gwangi) but the models themselves are really small... much smaller than the ones Ray is used to and certainly MUCH SMALLER than the ones Marcel Delgado made for the Kong films.

Remmember, they were going to show the dinosaurs as non-moving diaramams and at one point, Irwin Allen was thinking of enlarging Ray's 16mm footage of test animation for the never made EVOLUTION. But he was convinced by Willis O'Brien to make all new animation scenes.

It wasn't cheap, even though it might look it today, being table top and all. Consider that there were two glass artists and the set makers and special props and the animated armatures and puppets and the mechanical big heads and upper bodies and O'Brien as supervisor and Harryhausen as chief animator and Harold Wilson on the machining ....... all of this had to be shot in 2 months.

The expense was seemingly justified by Warner Brothers because Allen had won a best picture documentary Oscar for THE SEA AROUND US.....

http://www.woodywelch.com

[–] DinoGuy 17 years ago

Thanks for the YouTube info. Very cool. I recall having this as a ViewMaster set when I was about 6.
The dinos are actually quite well animated, but there seem to be almost as many shots of the mechanical models than the animated ones. And I recall reading the Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus and Tyrannosaurus models were all the same, just a few cosmetic differences (ie the Ceratosaurus had a nose cone, the Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus were different colours). And the quick shot of the Brontosaurus (whoops, Apatosaurus) eating the caveman...well, it was done as a "what-if?".
Again, thanks for the link.

[–] obit1 17 years ago

You're more than welcome and yes, the allosaurus, ceratatosaurs and t-rex all came out of the same mold...the ceratosaurs had an added nose horn and the ceratosaurus models were a kind of gray green as opposed to the allosaur/t-rex which was a desert tan in color.

http://www.woodywelch.com

[–] VoyagerOne 17 years ago

Some excellent comments!

I just have to pipe up and say -- "The Last Dinosaur"! As far as a 'T-Rex' vs. 'Triceratops' fight, I gotta shout out! They've got a funky one, complete with stabbing and gushing blood! Sure, it's guys in suits, but hey, what was that Triceratops doing in there anyway...?

[–] onnanob2 16 years ago

All of the dinosaurs and other large prehistoric reptiles look great in "One Million Years B.C." Archelon, the giant prehistoric sea turtle, may be a bit too large, but it's still an excellent effort! The fight between prehistoric man and allosaurus is fantastic! Also fantastic is the fight you mentioned between the triceratops and the ceratosaurus. I would imagine the flying pteranodon was one of the harder models to animate.