The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy

This film is a 1910s version of what would today be called Claymation. It features dinosaurs, apes, and caveman. It is worthy of mention as it was one of the first films made by the legendary Willis O'Brien, who would later do the special effects for "The Lost World" and "King Kong". O'Brien's clay animation in "Missing Link" is certainly not as good as his work in later films(which featured far more advanced models). However, as this was one of the first films with stop-motion animation, it was a pioneering work for O'Brien, and for the film industry in general. It was probably not the first film to use stop motion animation, but it may well be the first dinosaur movie to have done so. These historical notes will make it worth seeing for some people, in particular those interested in film history.

This will be the first in a series of reviews I write on the work of Willis H. O'Brien, the clay model animator who would become famous for the silent The Lost World and the original King Kong. In this short, he makes some cavemen, a cavewoman, an ape called Wild Willie, and a dinosaur. The themes are: fighting over a girl, trying to get food, and how strong are one species against another. Verdict: Primitive but an important look at how stop-motion animation would evolve through the years after O'Brien's pioneering work here . I'll review a few more of his shorts from subsequent years before his big break on The Lost World...

Way before Willis H. O'Brien put the king in Kong, this marble sculptor created with the help of a local news cameraman his first film, "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy," in April 1915. He used claymation with stop-motion to tell the story of a caveman, in love with a cave woman, and his attempt to prove his worth to her in a dishonest way by claiming to kill the missing link.

O'Brien, who had run away from home at 11 to take a variety of jobs, including a ranch hand, a cowboy, and a professional boxer, gravitated towards the arts by taking up marble sculpturing while serving as an assistant to the head architect to 1915's San Francisco's World's Fair. Fascinated by dinosaurs, he tinkered around with clay models at that time. He created, with the assistance of a cameraman, a six-minute claymation film, complete with human and animal movements.

His creativeness he displayed in the clip was unique in that, while claymation animation was seen in movies in the past, O'Brien's film was entirely composited of clay figures and typography.

He followed up his "Missing Link" film a year later with 1916's "Prehistoric Poultry." Although half the length as his debut experimental movie, "Pountry" shows a deeper sophistication in movement of his characters. Both of O'Brien's movies were shown to friends and other animated lovers in private settings.

Thomas Edison was shown O'Brien's clips and was impressed by his technological advancements on screen. He had his company hire him to produce a series of dinosaur animated films for young viewers. The Edison Company released his two movies in 1917, which were followed up by several other originals. O'Brien's work in the next decades would both amaze and scare audences worldwide, including his work on 1933's "King Kong," his most famous film.

It's amazing stuff now and it was probably even more so back in 1915. I can't believe it's gotten such low votes! Even if you can't get past its primitive nature (no pun inten ... oh well, what the heck, pun intended), surely you can appreciate it as a dry run for King Kong. Amazingly graceful, fluid movement at times, and O'Brien really must have had some fun scrutinizing every last detail of the missing link's body movements. Obviously the work of someone who cared.

Dinosaur and the Missing Link, The (1915)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Edison short running five minutes from Willis O'Brien who would later go onto create The Lost World and King Kong. In this film, three cavemen are trying to win the affections of a woman but she will pick the winner from whoever kills a missing link that is terrorizing them. The winner eventually gets the girl but in fact he had some help from a dinosaur. This is a very entertaining and fun short even though it really can't compare to D.W. Griffith's two prehistoric films, Man's Genesis and Brute Force. The claymation effects here are very well done and I really loved the look of the missing link and the cavemen. The highlight of the film is a scene where the missing link is eating the guts out of a dead animal and this is a scene you have to see for yourself just to believe. The dinosaur is actually the weakest thing in the movie but it doesn't take away from any of the fun.