The B-Masters Cabal

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 20, 2007, 5:31 am

I once gave the caveman epic “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” the nickname of “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms: Year One” and this movie the nickname of “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms: I Needed the Money.”

Comment from El Santo
Time: September 20, 2007, 9:45 am

“Without researching the topic (what do you think I am, some kind of film journalism professional?), I tend to think that this was the last great gasp of the stop-motion monster movie”

Well, there was that little thing called Clash of the Titans in 1981…

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 20, 2007, 10:03 am

And there were human-sized stop motion dinosaurs that appeared thereafter. I think “Creatures from the Abyss”, “Zeiram”, “Oblivion”, and some others featured stop-motion beasties. I guess like El Santo said, “Clash of the Titans”, and I’ll add “Q”, were among the last entries.

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: September 20, 2007, 10:23 am

Jeez. I thought of Clash earlier in the day before writing the review, and then let it trickle out of my mind.

But PoD would be the last real stop-motion dinosaur movie, right? (Disallowing Q because it’s a madeupasaur.)

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 20, 2007, 11:05 am

Well, Galaxy of the Dinosaurs featured stock footage from Planet…. What about those softcore dino flix from the 90s (which I never saw), Dinosaur Island and Dinosaur Valley Girls? Stop Motion or Bad Puppets?

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 20, 2007, 11:33 am

Sorry, Nathan. There’s “Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell” which has stop-motion beasties. Although I’m told that they’re madeupasaurs, too.

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: September 20, 2007, 3:16 pm

It’s been a long time (too long) since I saw Dinosaur Island, but while there might have been some stop-motion, the majority of it was puppet and cable work, using John Buechler’s leftovers from Carnosaur. And Dinosaur Valley Girls… I dunno. It was on TV once, and I fell asleep 20 minutes in.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 20, 2007, 4:36 pm

Judging from Greywizard’s review at the Unknown Movies, the dinosaur scenes of Dinosaur Island don’t seem to be of super quality (he said “more stop than motion”, I believe). I watched the trailer to Nymphoid Barbarian, but all of them are makeupasaurs.

Comment from Joshua Weiss
Time: September 21, 2007, 4:07 am

I remember renting this movie for some theme video night back in my University days, and I also remember loving it from start to finish. How could you not at least mention the astronauts plan to dispatch the T-Rex?

Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: September 21, 2007, 6:57 am

I’ve still got my tape of PotD I picked up at Target for cheap years ago. Pretty fun, but no 20 Million Years B.C. I do like the dinosaurs though, and the ridiculous death-by-styracosaur is a hoot.
Dinosaur Island has a brief, stop-motion brontosaur. The main dinosaur’s the same T-Rex mock-up and puppets they used on Carnosaur. I recall that the Deinonychus puppet from the same movie pops up once or twice as well. And that’s about it, if I recall correctly.
It may have been the last great gasp, but we did get ED-209 years later, and that was awesome. (We’ll ignore the stop-motion robotic drug dealer from the first sequel.)

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: September 21, 2007, 7:43 am

How could you not at least mention the astronauts plan to dispatch the T-Rex?

Gotta leave some goodies for the viewers. I’ll just say this: A certain segment of readers will have Turok: Son of Stone flashbacks.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: September 21, 2007, 6:10 pm

Hmm…looks like all of us forgot the last quintessential stop-motion dinosaur movie: Caveman with Ringo, Barbara, Dennis, and Shelley.

Comment from KeithA
Time: October 3, 2007, 10:13 am

Was that before or after Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend or whatever that was called?

Comment from Nathan
Time: October 3, 2007, 10:20 am

Baby wasn’t stop-motion,though. It was a frickin’ man-in-suit brontosaurus.

Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: October 9, 2007, 6:52 am

Was there any suit work in that? I just recall the terrible, stiff and plasticine, albeit full-sized, models/puppets. And a couple of animatronic heads and necks that weren’t much better.
Once upon a time I liked that movie, simply because it had dinosaurs.
I also liked that horrible Godzilla cartoon, as I recall.
I was so young and naive then…though not naive enough to think Godzooky was a good idea. Even youthful naivety can only do so much.

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: October 9, 2007, 8:25 am

Yeah, when Baby is stumping along, it’s some poor schmo on all fours trying not to look like an evolutionary dead end. Plus, as you noted, lousy animatronics.

Comment from KeithA
Time: October 9, 2007, 9:35 am

I stand corrected. By the time Baby came out, I was a little old to see it. Plus, I heard it didn’t have any Sleestaks in it, so what the heck is the point? What the heck is the point of any movie that doesn’t have Sleestaks in it?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: October 9, 2007, 9:45 am

Sleestaks, ninjas, or poop-flinging monkeys. That’s the standard.

Comment from KeithA
Time: October 9, 2007, 10:19 am

A poop-flinging Sleestak ninja?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: October 9, 2007, 10:23 am

I can get behind that.

Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: October 10, 2007, 8:50 am

I haven’t seen it in years and years so I forgive me for not remembering the suitmation.

How about ninjas vs. Sleestaks, with a poop-flinging monkey for comic relief?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: October 10, 2007, 9:04 am

And Aquaman hovering around the periphery, waiting for a chance to make himself useful.

Gentlemen, I think we have just created the perfect movie.

Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: October 11, 2007, 8:59 am

Someone get us a budget!