“Dinosaur!” was released in 1985 and was directed by Robert Guenette. It is an American documentary created for television and hosted by Christopher Reeve, who was an avid dinosaur fan. The film was originally shown on CBS. The program is 48 minutes long, 60 when you add in commercials. It is an example of an early dinosaur documentary. The film was also shown on the Disney channel in the 90’s. A VHS release of the program was done in 1993. The film won a primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.
Some of the dinosaurs shown in the film are stop motion creatures that were created by Phil Tippett. The previous year Phil did a 10-minute experimental short about dinosaurs called “Prehistoric Beast” 1984. Tippett was trying to improve go motion techniques. Director Guenette and the film’s writer, Steven Paul Mark asked Tippett to expand on his original short and create more sequences using different dinosaurs. Some of the original short and the new sequences were then used as a base for the documentary. The filmmakers added some footage from films such as “King Kong” 1933, “Caveman” 1981 and “One Million Years B.C.” 1966.
Included in the program are interviews with prominent paleontologists of the 80’s, Jack Horner, Bob Bakker, Phil Currie and Dale Russell. Facts given in the film were primarily based on the knowledge of dinosaurs at the time. As with life itself, dinosaur data has evolved over the years. The most prominent inaccuracy of the film is the depiction of all the dinosaurs being of the same period. The film does its best to cover the lifestyle of basic dinosaurs as well as debunking some of the myths.
Tippett’s go motion techniques and illustrations add dimension and emotion to the dinosaurs he created. Moving scenes of loving, caring parents and inquisitive offspring will dominate one scene whereas the next will be a predator stalking and cornering a normally passive herbivore. Some of the scenes are actually scary and a little disturbing.
Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation. The technique incorporates motion blur into each movie frame involving motion. The technique was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett. Tippet and ILM first used it in the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” 1980 to create some effects for the Tauntaun creatures and the AT-AT walkers.