Prehistoric Poultry

Running at about 3 minutes long, O'Brien had what look like a lot of fun making this stop motion animation, set in prehistoric time. You can see how this film was a stepping stone for "The Lost World". Though the animation is a bit crude, it is amazing what he was able accomplish here. This film is quite funny. You can find it as one of the additional features of the abridged version of "The Lost World", though there is no mention of it on the DVD. Scroll to the end of "The Lost World" movie will have a few short films that will include another O'Brien film "R.F.D., 10,000 B.C. A Mannikin Comedy". I think this is a must see for O'Brien fans!

This is the second of my reviews of Willis O'Brien films which will eventually include the original The Lost World and the original King Kong. In this 4-minute clay-modeled short, a skeletal looking long-necked bird or "dinornis" as the inter-title names him, is only looking for food and is a pet of a caveman. But a neighbor then targets this dinornis which then...Oh, I recommend just watch this quite amusing short on YouTube if you want to find out. So that's a recommendation for Prehistoric Poultry.

Prehistoric Poultry (1916)

** (out of 4)

Three-minute short has a cavemen being part of a prank but thankfully his pet chicken is there to get revenge. The whole key to this film is whether or not you find the prank to be funny. If you do find it funny then I'm sure you'll enjoy the film as a comedy but I didn't find the prank to be too funny so that's why the movie didn't work for me. The claymation effects from O'Brien are fairly weak when you compare them to his earlier films dealing with the cavemen subjects but they are still fun to look at. The flying chicken sequence at the end was a real blast to watch as were a few of the earlier scenes with the chicken. The film doesn't run long enough to get into any type of story so that's why it's important to either find the prank funny or not. The film certainly isn't a bad one but it's probably the weakest I've seen from the director.