Favorite Dinosaur Movies

[Monster Jungle X-Ray]

Most kids love dinosaurs growing up, I know I sure did, and I am still fascinated by them to this day. I was really fortunate to have a colossal book called the Dinosaur Scrapbook by Donald Glut. This massive tome explored dinosaurs in art, print, and film and I used to love staring at all the pictures from these fantastic movies, and reading the stories behind making them.

From adventure films like The Lost World, and King Kong to anachronistic cavemen/dinosaur films like One Million Years Years B.C., and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth to the Japanese kaiju films I loved them all. It made me really grow up with an appreciation for innovators like Willis O'brien and Ray Harryhausen to relatively newer guys like Jim Danforth in the art of stop motion animation.

What are some of your guys favorite dinosaur/prehistoric creatures films? Some of my favorites over the years are:
King Kong (1933)
The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)

Also any preferred techniques used to bring these creatures to life? Stop motion/suitmation/CGI/lizardmation/ or even puppets.

[diamondwaspvenom]

Carnosaur is my all time favourite dinosaur movie. It's got great puppetry (thanks to John Carl Buechler), the acting is surprisingly good, the music (especially in the opening credits) has this mysterious and foreboding doom feeling to it, and, of course, the atmosphere is nice and dark.

This movie also helped me realise that there were good b-movies in the 90's rather than only in the 70's-80's.

[Derf]

The Valley of Gwangi is probably my favorite dinosaur movie. Dinosaurus! is another fun one, featuring two dinosaurs and a caveman that are thawed out of some ice chunks and come back to life.

[Pilgermann]

Here're 3 that made an impact on me:

Jurassic Park (1993) - This was one of my favorite movie-going experiences.  It was exciting and frightening, had a great musical score, and the CGI effects are still probably the best I've seen.  The dinosaurs looked so freakin' real to me!  Plus it was nice that they used puppets and animatronics for many scenes.

Planet of Dinosaurs (1978) - A dopey sci-fi flick but it's very entertaining and the stop-motion dinos are excellent.

The Land Before Time (1988) - This movie still chokes me up, thanks in part to its lovely music.

[Monster Jungle X-Ray]

All of these are great suggestions, Carnosaur is a fun b-film.

I remember trying very hard to convince my parents that I simply had to see Planet of the Dinosaurs in the theater when it came out to no avail :sigh: I didn't catch it until many years later on television.

Jurassic Park does remain a benchmark in effects, and I agree that the CGI in that one has not been topped. The dinosaurs actually have weight to them and move pretty realistically as opposed to such CGI atrocities as Anaconda.

[SkullBat308]

Yeah, Carnosaur and Jurassic Park are probably my two fave Dino films, oh and when I was a kid The Land Before Time! 

[JaseSF]

Most of my favourites have already been mentioned (The Lost World, King Kong, One Million Years B.C., When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Godzilla films, The Valley of Gwangi, Dinosaurus!, The Land That Time Forgot, Jurassic Park films). Aside from those, I've enjoyed the times dinosaurs have popped up in television series such as in The Ray Bradbury Theater adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories.

[Silverlady]

I like the various dinosaurs in the JURASSIC PARK films ... But my favoriite dinosaur movie is THE LAND UNKNOWN 1957.  A user on the IMDb board describes it as "Skull Island at the South Pole" and that's really a great description.

A helicopter crashes into a tropical island-like place in Antarctica and before you know it the crew is at the mercy of a giant carnivorous plant and fearsome dinosaurs ... eh, if you call a wobbly T REX (guy in a suit) and a sea serpent puppet fearsome.

It's in BxW ... has some wonderfully bad diologue at times, but it is great fun!  They don't make 'em like this anymore.

[Bmeansgood]

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend  I saw this in the theatre when I was ten years old and distinctly remember seeing a topless woman.  I felt like I had died and went to National Geographic heaven. 

[Pilgermann]

Aside from those, I've enjoyed the times dinosaurs have popped up in television series such as in The Ray Bradbury Theater adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories.

I love the episode for A Sound of Thunder.  Although it's hokey, it's pretty effective and suprisingly bloody.  Better than the big screen adaptation from a few years back (although I kind of like that one, too...).

[WingedSerpent]

Geez, where to start.  I love dinosaur movies and have a ton of them in my DVD collection.  Heck, I even love some of the syfy originals .

First are the Jurrasic Park movies (yes, all three of them).  The raptor are just awsome, if not somewhat scientiffically inaccurate.  Then there is The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.  The Rhedasurus is a ficitonal beast, but still a dino.

Of course there are the original and most recent King Kong movies. 

Godzilla, Rodan.

One million years BC.  When dinosurs ruled the Earth, Carnasaur,  All fun movies. 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Geez, where to start.  I love dinosaur movies and have a ton of them in my DVD collection.  Heck, I even love some of the syfy originals .

First are the Jurrasic Park movies (yes, all three of them).  The raptor are just awsome, if not somewhat scientiffically inaccurate.  Then there is The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.  The Rhedasurus is a ficitonal beast, but still a dino.

Of course there are the original and most recent King Kong movies. 

Godzilla, Rodan.

One million years BC.  When dinosurs ruled the Earth, Carnasaur,  All fun movies. 

Funny you mention Godzilla--The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was allegedly one of the influences upon Eiji Tsuburaya and Ishiro Honda, if not the main one.  And a young Lee Van Cleef played in it as well.

One of my faces is The Last Dinosaur from the mid 70's. Anyone remember that one?

[Monster Jungle X-Ray]

Geez, where to start.  I love dinosaur movies and have a ton of them in my DVD collection.  Heck, I even love some of the syfy originals .

First are the Jurrasic Park movies (yes, all three of them).  The raptor are just awsome, if not somewhat scientiffically inaccurate.  Then there is The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.  The Rhedasurus is a ficitonal beast, but still a dino.

Of course there are the original and most recent King Kong movies. 

Godzilla, Rodan.

One million years BC.  When dinosurs ruled the Earth, Carnasaur,  All fun movies. 

Funny you mention Godzilla--The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was allegedly one of the influences upon Eiji Tsuburaya and Ishiro Honda, if not the main one.  And a young Lee Van Cleef played in it as well.

One of my faces is The Last Dinosaur from the mid 70's. Anyone remember that one?

After starting this thread I went back and looked up some of these films, and The Last Dinosaur was one of them. I remember watching this when it was first broadcast on tv, and just had to look it up on youtube which the whole movie is there. Andrew's review on here is spot on, but there is still something about the T-rex/Triceratops fight that I like.

[AndyC]

Glad I'm not the only one listing Jurassic Park as number one. It's probably the most mainstream choice, but it is the best dinosaur movie I've seen, and I can watch it over and over. Good cast, good performances, some memorable and possibly iconic moments, the story was exciting, the kids actually added something, the John Williams score was one of his best, and the CGI was more lifelike than it's been in most movies over the following 17 years. And it didn't rely entirely on CGI, using some first-rate animatronics.

Unfortunately, I think the sequels fell far short of the original. The second had its moments and I didn't care much for the third at all.

If we're defining a dinosaur movie very loosely, I also put the Toho Godzilla films among the best.

[Hammock Rider]

I'd give it to Jurassic Park for best overall dino movie although for nostalgic fun it's hard to beat good ol' Doug McClure and his Land/People that Time Forgot and At the Earth's Core.  Valley of Gwangi still holds up today.