Review by Cineanalyst

With the 2021 blockbuster of "Godzilla vs. Kong," it doesn't seem the art form has matured much in the 100-plus years since this stop-motion animated split-reeler, with a title that almost takes as long to read as it does to see the film, "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy." Despite its title, this is a quasi-comedic experimental piece of stop-motion animation from Willis O'Brien, the same guy behind the effects in "King Kong" (1933), as well as "The Lost World" (1925) and "Mighty Joe Young" (1949), among other things. How appropriate then that the brief narrative climaxes with a dinosaur making quick work of killing the ape-looking so-called "missing link." The joke, then, being that mankind, or cave men in this case, pretends afterwards that they had anything to do with this prehistoric battle of monsters.

I'm also now wondering whether the origins of Godzilla and King Kong rest on a phallic metaphor--what with this title card setting up the fight: "Wild Willie decides to go down to the stream and catch a few snakes for his dinner." Unfortunately for the gorilla-like Willie, he bites off more than he can chew in the long-necked dinosaur.