Why doesn't anyone ever tell me these things????

Here's a fairly new and potentially really fun book--the existence of which I only stumbled upon by accident:

Here's the deal with it: Roundabout 1939, special effects master Willis O'Brien (the stop-motion pioneer responsible for the original versions of The Lost World & King Kong) was planning on making another "lost world" type film. This one would involve an aviator who crashes in an isolated valley. In addition to the requisite dinosaurs, there would be a tribe of Vikings who ride giant eagles.

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It would have almost undoubtably been a fun movie and a visual delight. But real life in the form of World War II got in the way and production on the film was shelved. Somewhere along the way, whatever pre-production drawings and sketches "O'Bie" had were lost.

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Ray Harryhausen later had had hopes of bringing War Eagles to life. In fact, according to Mr. Harryhausen's web site, there is apparently still some hope of this happening. But whether we ever get to see the movie, at least we now have a novelization of the story.

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The author, Carl Macek, has worked mostly in animation as a writer, editor and producer. According to the Amazon.com customer reviews, he seems to have done a pretty good job in prose as well, penning an old-fashioned pulp-style adventure.

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I've sent away for the book, so I can judge for myself soon. None of the reviews specifically mention dinosaurs, though--so I'm a little worried they've been left out of this version. On the other hand, the story has been extended to include the protagonist using the War Eagles to battle a Nazi secret weapon, which is a cool idea. I really hope, though, that the dinosaurs are still there. No lost valley should ever be without dinosaurs.

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Gee whiz, why don't people TELL me about these things? A book about Vikings on giant eagles fighting Nazis (and dinosaurs?) and I almost missed it.

Dinosaur Movies: Part 3

When King Kong proved to be a huge hit for RKO Studios, the executives in charge quite naturally wanted a sequel as soon as possible. This was rushed through production and arrived in theaters before the end of 1933.

The character of Carl Denhem, running from countless lawsuits brought against him after Kong's rampage through the Big Apple, runs off to the South Pacific. Not surprisingly, circumstances soon bring him back to Skull Island.

Once there, he meets Kong Jr., a small (well, about 12 feet tall) albino version of his dad. He's not as grumpy as his dad, either. When a guilt-ridden Denham helps save little Kong from a pit of quicksand, the ape returns the favor by saving Denham and his friends from several different monsters.










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Son of Kong doesn't have any thing close to the dramatic power of King Kong, but it's a fun film all the same. It's a little too slow in getting started and its increased emphasis on humor sometimes falls flat. Also, the ending is somewhat contrived, invovling the most conveniently timed earthquake ever. But little Kong's fights against a small sauropod and a cave bear are both imaginatively choreographed. Special effects wizard Willis O'Brien wasn't happy with the movie, but the quality of his work is still enormously high.

Making a sequel to a great film is always a dangerous proposition--the filmmakers have so much to live up to. If we compare Son of Kong with the King Kong in terms of overall quality, then the later film doesn't stand up at all.

But if we look at it for what it is--a good B-movie with some nifty stop-motion fight scenes--then it holds up perfectly well. It has the same sense of pure, simple fun infused through it as did the B-movie detective films of the same decade.

Dinosaur Movies: Part 2

The original King Kong (1933) wasn't trying to be an epic. It just kinda turned out that way.

With Willis O'Brien's wonderful stop-motion animation giving the movie backbone and heart, this fairly straightforward adventure story is perhaps the single most entertaining and entrancing film ever made.

Everyone knows the plot--or if you don't, you should be taken outside and shot. A filmmaker named Carl Denham, famous for shooting jungle pictures on location, sponsors a trip to a previously undiscovered island. He isn't sure what might be there at first--but he's pretty sure it'll look good on film.

Boy, was he ever right. Not that he gets a chance to do much photography. He and Jack Driscoll (first mate of the ship that brought them to the island) are soon hip deep in dinosaurs, desperately trying to save leading lady Ann Darrow from the clutches of a giant ape named Kong.

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The two heroes (along with a rapidly shrinking group of sailors) encounter a stegasaurus and a brontosaurus before Kong knocks most of them into a pit. Kong himself then battles--in rapid succession--a tyrannosaur, an elasmosaur and a pteradactyl. Eventually, the big ape is gassed unconcious and brought back to New York for exhibit. That proves to be a very bad idea.

The special effects are backed up by strong direction and photography. The dinosaur stuff is so much fun it makes your toes curl--especially Kong's classic fight against the T-Rex.

It's interesting to compare the original film to Peter Jackson's 2005 remake. (We will, of course, pretend the 1976 remake does not exist.) The 1933 film sets out to be a simple (in terms of story and theme) adventure film. It was done so well it became an epic story on its own merits.

Jackson (a brilliant filmmaker who did a great job with Lord of the Rings) tries to make an epic and largely fails. His King Kong demonstrates that CGI special effects can be a work of art (Skull Island looks fantastic), but he practically beats us over the head with the idea that we are supposed to be sympathetic to Kong, rather than trusting to the story to make this point. He adds a number of unnecessary characters and the film as a whole runs far too long.

And he jiggles the stupid camera all over the place during Kong's fight with a couple of big carnosaurs, so you can't really follow the action. NOTE TO ALL CONTEMPORARY FILMMAKERS: HOLD THE CAMERA STEADY!!!!!!!!!!

So its the original film that is still the true classic. It's still the best darn dinosaur film ever.

Dinosaur movies--part 1

The 1925 movie adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's movie The Lost World is unabashedly in love with its dinosaurs. And, by golly, it should be.

The story is the prototype of all the future "lost world" books and films. A group of explorers discover a remote area (in this case--a nearly inaccessible plateau in the South Amercian jungle) in which dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures have survived. In the book, the expedition reaches the plateau, has a run in with one or two dinosaurs, then gets involved in a genocidal war between a tribe of Indians and a tribe of primitive cavemen.

It's a great story, highlighed by the wonderful character of the cantakerous Professor Challenger, who heads up the expedition. But the movie opts to reduce the Indian/caveman war to an appearance by one ill-tempered apeman, thus leaving more time for more dinosaurs.

With Willis O'Brien, the pioneer of stop-motion animation, heading up the special effects, this is exactly the right decision. O'Brien and Marcel Delgado (who built the models) do a wonderful job of bringing extinct creatures back to life and giving them personality.

Again and again, the movie breaks away from the human characters just to show a few more minutes of dinosaurs battling one another. Towards the end of the film, a volcano erupts and there's a massive dinosaur stampede that is as delightful to watch today as it was 83 years ago.

The finale, in which a brontosaurus brought back to civilization escapes and rampages through London, was the start of a long and honorable tradition of movie monsters destroying a modern metropolis.

In fact, the dinosaurs easily outshine the human actors. Due to some poor editing when the movie was originally released (exasperated by some footage being lost over the years), the actual story has some narrative and pacing problems. All the same, Wallace Berry is excellent as Professor Challenger and the remaining actors do a fine job with their roles.

But it will always be the dinosaurs that are the most important element of this movie. In 1925, stop-motion was still a new technology. In fact, when Arthur Conan Doyle showed the film to a group of stage magicians (including Harry Houdini), nobody could figure out how the special effects were done. Somebody even suggested the filmmakers must have found live dinosaurs somewhere.

Nowadays, with all of us spoiled by modern CGI effects, we're not fooled at all. And O'Brien's animation on The Lost World isn't quite as smooth as it would be 8 years later when he brought King Kong to life.

But the movie is still fun to watch. Stop-motion has its own charm--a look and feel that brings the viewer more fully into a fantasy world than the "perfect" look of CGI can ever do.