Prehysteria - arrivano i dinosauri

I was only little when i first rented Prehysteria on video way back in the early 90's & this little cute fantasy comedy has stayed in my movie loving mind since then.

I'm 38 now & just revisited this old school gem & was so surprised by how well it holds up today. It's 2023 now & this relatively low-budget family B-movie that went direct-to-video is as good and as much fun as anything that's come out lately. There's a magic to those old flicks we grew up watching & loving, there's no CGI, just old fashioned practical effects & puppetry & awesome stop-motion. Legendary B-movie producer & director Charles Band was behind this movie & many other's i grew up watching such as Puppet Master 1&2, Troll, Ghoulies Trilogy, Demonic Toys, Robot Jox, Dolls & Prehysteria. Charles Band had that awesome Full Moon features label that released tons of fun, fantasy & horror B-movies direct-to-video in my local Blockbuster. Prehysteria is a fun little light-hearted family Comedy that's full of fantasy & awesome miniature Dinosaurs. This gem has plenty of heart & that 90's innocence that's lost today. Not only is Prehysteria a nice bit of Nostalgia entertainment it's also a lovely piece of Escapism to a much better time.

A typical all American father & his two kids, a lonely young boy (the kid from Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero) & his rebellious teenage sister live in a secluded farmhouse (like in Critters) & accidentally bring home a bunch of magical ancient Dinosaurs eggs. The magical eggs are from an expedition from an ancient underground tomb in an ancient jungle & taken by a collector of rare oddities. The collector & stealer of the eggs is played by the underrated & hilarious Full Moon Films regular STEPHEN LEE.

Stephen Lee was a funny likeable comic actor that i grew up watching in greats like Dolls & Robocop 2 & Ghoulies Go To College, he was a comic genius similar to the likes of Dan Aykroyd or James Belushi or John Candy, but never made it as big. Stephen Lee is the sort-of villain of this family gem, he's all about the money that these mini mutant Dinosaurs can get him & he's a hilariously silly character & a joy to watch as he wants those dinos back from the family. Of course the family love the little creatures & want to protect them from Stephen Lees greedy collector Rico Sarno.

Charles Band directed this gem from his family entertainment sub-label MoonBeam Entertainment.

The fx are wonderful & take you right back the fun & fantasy of being a kid with a wondering imagination.

It was so nice revisiting this feel good flick & remembering why i loved it so much as a kid. It was a hit of home video & i loved it.

Also the movie has a lovely playful music score by Charles Band's brother Richard, the guy is great & scored most of the Classic's from Full Moon Films like Demonic Toys & Puppet Master & Dolls for an example.

All in all Prehysteria is a lovely, sweet light-hearted family adventure that's full of fantasy & fun.

In one sense, I kind of liked this movie because of a 'mindless', positive atmosphere it sort of conveys. I had a problem with an aspect of the plot, but more about that later. First, the characters were a little goofy and one dimensional. The 'good people' had similar physical and character traits and the 'bad people' had similar physical and character traits ... hmmm. The basic storyline was OK (pretty simple and standard) - nothing too exciting or objectionable. The main attraction was, of course, the miniature dinosaurs - kind of a nice fantasy element to have. However, they had a very minimal presence in the movie.

Outside of that, the movie kept a brisk pace and didn't get too bogged down in any one place. I liked this about the movie.

The problem I had with the plot had to do with the the idea of "stealing". I think this movie may not have been thought out enough - something's wrong especially if this is a kid's movie. I'll keep the next sentence abstract to not be a spoiler (skip it if you're worried). The 'good guys' do some stealing and they don't have the same info the audience has - so it's just stealing and that's kind of a bad thing for a kid's movie.

Overall, if you have kids, because of a questionable plot aspect I'd consider passing. However, this whole movie is pretty low key anyway so it may not matter. Pass this one if you have any other interesting choices.

We do movie night with my son (8) most weekends. He's always been into dinosaurs and I recognized the kid from Last Action Hero on the poster art. So I thought this would be a fun one for him. I was mistaken.

I can ignore generally bad acting in family movies. This however has a plethora of other major issues. Why are there multiple weird sexual situations and conversations? Why are there unironic threats of gun violence and murder? Why is the dad a total d*ckweed to everyone? But beyond that, it lacks adventure and anything even remotely pushing the plot along. This should really be called "jerky widowed dad yells at kids while he chases after a new girlfriend, while also grunting at her a lot."

The basic premise of the film, family accidentally discovers baby dinosaurs, is an easy setup for something good, but it's never delivered on. The Last Action Hero kid dancing to Elvis is truly the highlight of the film. Skip this one. Go watch We're Back, Journey to the Center of the Earth, or the Flintstones movie. All exponentially better family films.

If your wanting a movie that will inspire you and create new emotions....this is not the one. But it is good if you want to keep your small child occupied for a few hours. I didn't rent this for me to watch, but my 4 year old, and he liked it. I saw enough of it to know that the acting is bad and the jokes are lame, but I don't expect kids movies to be great works of art. I expected it to keep my little boy's attention long enough so I could watch the movie I wanted to see, and that it did. And he wanted to see it over again (5 day rental), so I can't trash it too bad.

People can say that this was a bad movie, but I completely disagree. I thought that it was cute, although the dinosaur effects could've been better (ever see Jurassic Park?). Well, they wanted the movie to be cute and seem harmless, so they couldn't give the same vicious effects as "Jurassic Park". This movie is great, if you like animal movies (with dogs or cats) you might not like this movie, but if you like family-oriented comedies and dinosaurs, you might like it. I liked it, and I hope that somebody else does too.