The idea that a race of super-lizards ruled our planet millions of years before even the most primitive of humans existed is a pretty exciting concept. Not only does it make for some great adventure stories, but it has the extra added benefit of being true. With Jurassic World hitting theaters on July 12, now’s a good a time as any to look at some other movies about dinosaurs from bygone years. Let’s start with the obvious one, shall we?
10. Jurassic Park – 1993
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
An eccentric billionaire dreams up a crazy scheme and it nearly kills everyone involved. It’s a classic tale. Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel about a zoo with dinosaurs was not only a box office smash, it introduced us to one of the greatest concepts ever: a dinosaur that can spit acid on your face.
9. Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend – 1985
Starring: William Katt, Sean Young, Patrick McGoohan
A brontosaurus (a species of dinosaur that, it turns out, was real all along) mother and her baby are discovered in the jungles of Africa, and it’s up to the Greatest American Hero and Lt. Lois Einhorn to protect them from poachers.
8. Dinosaur – 2000
Starring: D.B. Sweeny, Julianna Margulies
One of Disney’s first forays into CGI films, this film dared to ask the question “What if the dinosaurs in The Land Before Time looked real?”
7. Planet of Dinosaurs – 1977
Starring: Mary Appleseth, Harvey Shain, Derna Wilde
A spaceship gets lost (as they’re wont to do) and crash lands on a mysterious planet – a planet of… wait for it… dinosaurs! A fun, late ’70s treasure featuring a climactic battle with a T-Rex.
6. Theodore Rex – 1995
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is a cop in the future who doesn’t play by the rules. But, she meets her match when she’s assigned a new partner – who just happens to be (spoiler alert) a dinosaur! The hilarity, you guys!
5. The Lost World – 1925
Starring: Wallace Beery, Bessie Love
Originally based on a Arthur Conan Doyle story, it’s one of the first movie and/or TV properties with the words “lost” and “land” or “world” in the title. Which leads to the obvious question: “how in the world do you lose an entire land filled with dinosaurs?”
4. Walking With Dinosaurs 3D – 2013
Starring: Charlie Rowe, Karl Urban, Justin Long
Walking With Dinosaurs and their fellow televised ilk had a documentary-style realism unseen before. The Walking With Dinosaurs movie has that same CGI realism except the dinosaurs all talk. Which, thinking about, could have been possible – we don’t know they didn’t, right?
3. The Land Before Time – 1988
Starring: Pat Hingle, Gabriel Damon
You think the Fast and Furious series has gone on for a long time? Pfffft. Dom Toretto and Brian O’Conner have nothing on Littlefoot and Ducky. This animated classic from Dob Bluth (An American Tail, The Secret of N.I.M.H.) and produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg has spawned a total of thirteen sequels.
2. King Kong – 1933
Starring: Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong
Yes. This movie (and it’s many sequels and remakes and so on) are about a giant gorilla. However, King King did not come from an island full of giant gorillas. No. He came from an island filled with giant got-danged dinosaurs. And if watching a giant gorilla fight a giant dinosaur isn’t your idea of a good time, we don’t know what to tell you.
1. We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story – 1993
Starring: John Goodman, Charles Fleischer, Walter Cronkite(?!)
Hold on to your hats. So, a time traveler named Captain Neweyes (Cronkite) goes back in time, feeds some dinosaurs some magical cereal to make them smart and then brings them to our present to grant the wishes of some street-wise kids. Then, things get weird. How did this movie not win all the Oscars?
