Planet of Dinosaurs

One of the amusing things about this movie is that it looks so much like a porno film, but instead of sex you get action scenes with pretty well done effects.

The rest is a laugh riot; but a touchingly well meaning one. You can now find this film on a "Goodtimes" video release with the watershead dino/kids flick "Journey To The Beginning Of Time" on a double bill. If you dig dinos and the seventies, you could hardly do better.

Planet of Dinosaurs was one of those movies which I wanted for ages but got hold of it eventually.

A spaceship crashes onto a mysterious planet and its occupants discover they are millions of years into the past as this planet is occupied by dinosaurs (more of which later). After setting up camp following the spaceship's sinking in a lake, they explore the planet and start to live like stone age man. Several of the crew are eaten by the dinosaurs and the survivors accept they will be never rescued and have no choice but to make this planet their home.

Now to those dinosaurs, which are done in stop-motion and look excellent. These include a T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Policanthus and also a giant spider.

The cast is made up mostly of unknowns and their acting is certainly not brilliant.

Despite this, I rather enjoyed this movie and is worth watching just for the dinosaurs.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

I gave this sci-fi outing a 5 because of the incredible special effects. A stranded space crew must fend for itself on a primitive planet full of dinosaurs and the like. The dinosaurs are classic stop motion creatures, most probably by Jim Danforth, a student of Ray Harryhausen's and best known for his work on "The Outer Limits" and "Jack the Giant Killer." Danforth, if it was indeed he who worked on this film, obviously learned well from the master, not just the quality of the stop motion work but the blending of live and animated footage, employing a technique invented by Harryhausen called Dynamation or Super Dynamation. The human actors in this flick are pretty awful, and the plot is from nowheresville. But the dinosaurs make up for a good deal. I understand Harryhausen visited the set during production, so I'm not surprised by the excellence of the animated sequences..

Planet of Dinosaurs is an ultra cheesy camp sci-fi tale that leaves a lot to be desired.

It tells the story of a spaceship (With oddly skeletal crew) which crash lands on a planet filled with dinosaurs. They must seek shelter, food and safety and figure out their next move.

With sfx that are bad even for the day, they look like plastic childrens toys used for stop motion animation. The performances are generic, the cinematography is lifeless and the thing doesn't scream B-movie it screams D and that's perhaps me being kind.

When dinosaurs are on screen it's cringe inducing, when they aren't it's incredibly boring. Ugly, lifeless mess.

The Good:

Concept isn't terrible

The Bad:

Looks hideous

Criminally boring in places

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Moustaches were a legal requirement in the 1970's

Space outfits in the 70's for women looked like they should have a Hooters logo on them

If you have people rooting for the dinosaurs, you've ballsed up

They didn't have the budget to get that one guy a shirt

Planet of the Dinosaurs contains some terrific animation, all performed on a budget that would make Harryhausen blush -- and he worked under some very tight restrictions. The plot and the acting are not exactly gripping, but the filmmakers themselves agree that it was basically an exercise to exert some early filmmaking chops and possibly make a modest profit. Their primary motivation was love for stop-motion. It shows!

Ctomvelu1 -- Jim Danforth painted mattes but the animation was performed by the others listed in the credits, Steve Cerzkas and Doug Beswick. I invite anyone who enjoys stop motion to visit the Facebook group Stop Motion Monsterland, where pros and fans both hang out to discuss this unique art form. Also on FB are The Ray Harryhausen Appreciation Society, The Fantastic World of Ray Harryhausen and When Jim Danforth Ruled the Earth. The same people cross over these groups with daily frequency.