I think "unrealistic" dinosaurs are fine in monster genres, as long as they aren't identified as specific real ones that they don't look like. One of the King Kong movies actually used fictional species names for its dinosaurs.
Shame we have yet to see a fictional dinosaur film with scientifically accurate (or at least as accurate as modern science can confirm) that I know of, mind you Jurassic Park/World overshadows whatever else might be out there with their (clumsily retconned to explain the science behind their unrealistic looks) amphibian hybrids
@@1D991 That's because the first jurassic park was made at a time when not much was known about how they actually looked but it was believed that Spielberg's depiction was as scientifically accurate as possible.
@@redspiderlilys6 jurassic park may have been inaccurate but I don't doubt that some of the most brilliant paleontologists of the next generation will be inspired by that franchise. I watched a commented screening of JP at a dinosaur museum and one of the scientists brought attention to the fact that the opening of the movie has multiple shots focused on snakes and other slow moving reptiles, and the ending includes shots of birds, and how that connects to a major shift in how dinosaurs were perceived in the 80s and 90s, as the scientific community came to understand that rather than being clumsy, scaly, and resembling modern reptiles, dinosaurs had feathers and their movements were much more birdlike characteristics. Really interesting stuff
From what I've heard, Harryhausen included the scenes of the iguana and spider in *One Million B.C.* alongside his stop motion models to show how much the former pales in comparison to the latter. My man...
Really? From what I heard Harryhausen included the Iguana at the beginning to convince the audience that what they were seeing was real. And that later on he regretted doing that. Though I would not be surprised in the slightest if he included it as a jab at the original/the whole slurpusarus trend, considering that overtook stop motion due to how cheap it was in comparison
@@kraikein Harryhausen was very protective of his craft and dismissed other techniques including suitmation and models sadly enough because it made him sound quite arrogant considering the level of craft and talent that went into that.
Words can’t describe my hate for slurpasaur movies. Do people not see lizards as animals? As living things! Making them fight to the death with props *glued* to their skin. It’s so sad for me. Especially that clip of the lizard getting ‘rocks’ thrown on top of it..
a LOT of ''animal lovers'' are just people who like the attention cute dogs and cats give hell even cats can be mistreated and cunts dont care since they arent as friendly if those common animals get mistreated what hope can '''''''ugly'''' animals have theres a HUGE lack of empathy for those poor animals ask biologist or zoologist how dumb the general public is towards reptiles
Tegus are like the beagles of the dog world. They might be able to do something to a human but they’re chow to a rabid cane corso that is an alligator. Plus tegus are generally pretty friendly as well
This is hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Funny because who in their right mind would think a monitor lizard with a glued on frill is a dinosaur, but heartbreaking because of the animal fights and deaths...just ugh. Very well made video though, I love how compassionate you are towards the poor creatures made to be in these films.
Most people would've thought that at the time-if any of them were willing to believe it. The "giant lizards" polemic was strong even among Paleontologists in the era-look at Museum of Natural History for instance.
Don't go down the fake animal rescue rabbit hole then. Most "animal rescue" videos on RU-vid are simply animal abuse for profit. Every time you click on those "heart warming, emotionally satisfying, faith in humanity restored" videos, you're further incentivizing their cruelty
I'm surprised you never mentioned Star Trek, which had the famous "alien" which was just a dog with a horn on its head. I'm sure there's other examples, but that's the one that immediately comes to mind. Of course, they also had many aliens who were just actors with prosthetics glued to their ears or foreheads. The difference is, of course, the human actors can agree to it.
The one that always gets me is the often showing up in the original flash gordon serial's 'dragons.' Which is an odd one because most people seem to think the two living iguanas are killed, but the clear dead iguanas seem to be different iguanas, they have different patterns and seem to be taxidermied and stuffed. Which would be a lot of expense (and time) when taxidermied iguanas would be easier and cheaper and could be rented for a scene. And since hte iguana 'fight' is just. Iguanas doing Iguana things and hanging out until they're obviously swapped with dead iguanas... it seemed unlikely.
I definitely agree that a lot of these 'slurpasaur' movies seem to insult the audience's intelligence, especially in regards to what a typical dinosaur looks like. I mean, if I lived in the 60's, and I decide to watch the new dino movie, and the characters refer to a iguana or crocodile with horns stuck on as a T. Rex; I'd be pretty miffed. Whether or not it's intentional, people shouldn't be treated like they don't know what a dinosaur is. Also, it's really uncomfortable seeing two reptiles forced to fight each other repeatedly. It actually reminds me of when I was reading Michael Crichton's Lost World. There's a moment where two guys from InGen (I think it was InGen, it was a while ago) were talking about why they're using their dinosaurs for experimentation. One of them brings up the fact that people in general are more empathetic to cute, fuzzy mammals, than they are to creepy, scaly reptiles. A detail that became a part of the movie's themes as well. And while that statement irks me a lot (especially when they say that the dinosaurs are patented and lack any rights as living beings), it does make me think that it's true, to some extent at least. But at least there's some people (even back when these movies were getting made) that were bothered by the abuse and spoke against it. Because all animals deserve respect, even if they're "not cute". EDIT 02/01/2023: I'm no longer going to read/respond to any more replies. While I'm glad that I got to start a meaningful conversation about animal rights just by agreeing with Dino Diego's statements; I also feel overwhelmed by it all. That's not even mentioning the rude replies I've gotten as well. Right now I just want to move on to other things. That's all.
It's true. When we go to see a dino movie, whatever he is, at the moment the dinos in question, even if not completely accurate, look overall in good part to their physical form (ex: a raptor still a raptor even wihout feathers) we know and have a good idea about how this latter is, it's sufficient to us. We know all how a Stegosaurus, Triceratops, T-rex or raptor look like in the big lines. Everybody on Earth. And even if they aren't completely accurate, at the moment they all look justly in these big lines, it's sufficient for us. They are dinosaurs for us, and we will not complain at all. However, if we go to a movie who said he have dinosaurs and we only have giants reptiles we will everybody reconizes as just giants lizards or crocodiles just filmed bigger and with adds on them, we will complain because they aren't dinosaurs because they just don't like as dinosaurs visually. Instead, it's preferable to show them as "prehistoric reptiles that live alongside dinosaurs". That will be a good compromise without taking the public as stupid and uneducated folk. The dinosaurs have become so popular at the begginning of the XXs, especially right after "The lost World" 1925 with his Stop-Motion dinos that everybody on earth, even the most stupid and low intelligence people were all fully aware how each dino specie look like in the big lines and from a far distances. This is why is exact to call this part of the subject to said that was quite insulting to the people to show these animals as dinos. Because, in short, from the realisators toward the public, what they have in mind was : "it's okay, at the moment they are giant reptiles, people will accept them whatever how they are". Showing that they realling think that the entirity of the public was stupid to accept everything and were mindless.
Yeah, there’s a word for that. “Personable” I think. People don’t wanna save sharks because they hate them, they’re “scary” and “dangerous” but people wanna save polar bears or koalas because they’re “cute” and “fluffy” . They are personable.
@@vulturedrawz Exactly, if you asked someone if a otter or a shark can be considered "evil" they'd say the shark, despite the fact that male otters often display outright psychotic Behavior such as holding baby otters ransom for food and assaulting baby seals for fun, whereas sharks really only attack things they think is food, you'll really never see a shark holding babies ransom or attacking something for fun, appearance and media portrayals are very big factors in how people think about animals. (Ps I don't hate otters or anything I'm just using them for my statement)
Probably the best use of this technique was in the 1981 film "Quest for Fire". They covered elephants in brown wool to represent mammoths & lions with fake sabre teeth attached to their front teeth to represent sabre-toothed cats. None of the animals got hurt. Infact, the lions were apparently able to eat meat with their toothy prosthetics. (Normal lions would've been fine enough as they co-existed with Neanderthals, while Smilodon did not)
@@jonbeech5158 most modern captive lions aren't given the appropriate amount of space, and it must've been especially bad considering it was over 40 years ago.
The most disheartening thing is that the latest slurposaur movie (that I'm aware of), was made as recently as 1993, the movie "monsters". It featured real life creatures supposedly enlargened by the radiation, and they continued the proud 40s tradition of hurting animals for film, which included _burning a live snake on screen and filming it writhing in agony._
Also, interesting fact, 1955’s Tarantula has the very first on screen appearance of Clint Eastwood! He plays the Jet Pilot who drops naplam on the giant spider.
@@julietfischer5056 Tarantula was first. Revenge of the Creature was the first one where you could really see Eastwood. In Tarantula his face was mostly obscured by a flight helmet and mask. His role in Revenge of the Creature was also more substantial. His lines in Tarantula were pretty perfunctory, whereas he was given a modicum of characterization in Revenge of the Creature.
Ray Harryhausen showcased a demo reel of stop-motion dinosaur footage to the head of Lippert Pictures. The producer was so unimpressed that he refused even to speak to Harryhausen. When another Ray, friend and author Ray Bradbury, saw the iguana in the trailer for King Dinosaur, he stopped the producer and told him, "Mr. Lippert, it won't make a dime!"
Not an expert on the history of cryptids, but as I understand it, Nessie didn’t start being commonly depicted as a plesiosaur-like animal until 1933 (it’s been proposed that the brontosaur depicted early that year in King Kong may have been a big influence in coloring “eyewitness” perceptions). It’s plausible that The Secret Of the Loch in 1934 was still early enough that the plesiosaur-like body plan hadn’t yet become a universal assumption.
@@pepperedash4424 As far as I’m aware, there was no unified, universal “look” for the monster before the “plesiosaur” version caught on, so giant lizard probably made as much sense as anything else. The monster didn’t really catch on in popularity until 1933, so I’d imagine common conceptions of it hadn’t really started to crystalize in 1934. If I had to make a completely unfounded guess, a lot of people in 1933 and 1934 may have been talking about the “dinosaur in Loch Ness,” and to some people in the 30s, perhaps including the filmmaker behind this depiction, “dinosaur” may have simply meant “giant lizard.”
@@diebesgrab The general consensus on the appearance dinosaurs during the 30s derived from paintings by Charles R. Knight. Though his Dinosaur were reptilian in appearance, they weren't full blown lizards.
I'm very glad you have empathy and were clearly uncomfortable by the reptile abuse happening. Saying this because so many people seem to have an attitude that its "so nostalgic!" and see animals like lizards and crocodilians as lesser creatures. I mean, would they still be cool with it these films forced young dogs to fight to a bloody death? Just sayin' I own reptiles myself and used to work at an exotic pet/wildlife rescue, so I know reptiles pretty well. Seeing reptiles like baby crocs, tegus, and iguanas (some of which look very sickly likely from lack of good reptile husbandry at the time and having stuff literally glued on them) being forced to fight is very sad. You can clearly see the animals trying to get away at points or being forced to bite. I am defiantly glad this trend died and most people seeing this as animal abuse.
There's a troll in the comments below I think who is trying to claim that forcing animals to fight for entertainment as a documentary on human behavior. Like how stupid is that? He's also trying to like in the animal abuse to watching a documentary of you know, real animals doing what they actually naturally do.
Something being nostalgic and something being okay aren't the same thing. It is like Principle Skinner said when trying on his old POW helmet "Oh this takes me back"
@@horsetuna There is some early wildlife footage of a tiger killing a crocodile got used in a lot of jungle adventure movies around this era too. Yeah, it is different.
Something noteworthy, Ray Harryhausen recounted that he had a very hard time trying to replicate the live lizard technique for the 1960s version of One Million BC. Among other things, studio lights would put an iguana to sleep. This was probably only "popular" because many/ most examples reused 1 Miion BC footage instead of making their own. Edit: Also, he did use a real crab for Mysterious Island, but he put a stop motion armature in it. Needless to say, it was no longer alive at the time.
God bless Harryhausen, who never stooped to this and always made creatures that seemed like an actual dinosaur. Gwangi was an excellent design but particularly brilliant considering how stupid his "competition" looked in films like King Dinosaur and Robot Monster.
(I edited this post slightly because the creator showed footage of the Rex suit from The Land Unknown in the opening montage, but the movie actually features slurpasaurs more than the Rex. King Dinosaur is all slurpasaur)
I know that it was cruel to the animals but you have to admit there's something immediately recognizably unique about Slurpasaurs and I honestly wouldn't mind a revival of the aesthetic but using CGI instead live animals.
The history of slurpasaurs is exceptionally depressing. Regarding suspension of disbelief of audiences at the time, many of the animals used wouldn't have been seen outside of these contexts by most people. They knew they weren't dinosaurs but they were probably still exotic and strange to the audience in a way that drew attention to the films. That's one reason armadillos were used in a lot of horror films in the silent era. They seemed strange and exotic, so put them in Dracula's castle. Heh. Night of the Lepus has my favorite slurpasaurs that you didn't mention, perhaps because they're just so ridiculous. The Killer Shrews is hilarious to watch. I do think it's probably best that they ditched the slurpasaur that was going to be in Aliens, but the behind the scenes footage of a dog in a xenomorph costume is very amusing. Of course I hope the trend of live animals abused for film dies a much needed and long-overdue death now that CGI is so versatile. Animals may not be fought to the death in major films anymore, but investigations have found the treatment and risks they endure is far from great, despite the "no animals were harmed" blurb at the end. For example, the tiger used in the live animal scenes in Life of Pi almost drowned. There are some good investigative journalist articles on the topic, documenting the corruption in the humane society in Hollywood. When special effects can be done without the potential risk and stress to animals (especially un-domesticated animals like big cats that really aren't kept in ideal conditions once they leave the movie set, either), it should be.
As a tegu & caiman owner it was definitely harsh to observe that 1 million B.C. scene with the tegu and alligator clashing, I’m glad these practices ended ages ago.
Hey Diego, I just found out about another piece of obscure dinosaur media that might be worth looking into. Civilization 2 apparently had an official expansion pack that allowed you to play as a scenario the rise of the dinosaurs. It was basically just a few graphics and texts swapped out but it looked pretty fun, with all the military units replaced by dinosaur species and the technology names being changed to body parts or lineages (like instead of airplanes you developed pterosaurs).
That sounds rad. I need to search for a play-thru or overview essay on that game. I've never played EVO but I just find game history wildly interesting. I think there's a war series where people work with dinos too? I'm a new sub, very cool if the channel does games too!
@@picahudsoniaunflocked5426 War series with dinosaurs? You might be thinking of Dino Riders. You can watch that here: ru-vid.com/group/PLLhOnau-tupRpHH98erzMh3jrSCubyn2m Unfortunately, there is no good game based on it.
I was thinking if Godzilla 1954 could be considered a “dinosaur film”. As in the original film,I remember Dr.Yamane said that Godzilla was “An intermediate species between marine reptile and terrestrial mammals.” Which making it “Synapsid that looks like dinosaurs”. And in many of the incarnations,Godzilla was portrayed as “Monster that looks like dinosaur while having a non dinosaur-related origin”. Heisei Godzilla was one of the exceptions that stated Godzilla was a mutated dinosaur called “Godzillasaurus”.
Thanks for the information. For a long time I always assume if godzilla was some sort of sea dragon, because of the iconic laser breath and the fact if it never referenced by characters as dinosaur in many of the incarnation so it must be something entirely different
@@gojiratheking1065 Well,different incarnations of Godzilla has different origins,while Heisei Godzilla was indeed a mutated dinosaur,other Godzillas have different origins.
Alot of godzilla incarnations have different origins. 54 is a prehistoric kaiju awakened by nuclear bombs 55 is a prehistoric kaiju sealed away in a island fighting a different prehistoric kaiju hanna barbera... they don't explain i think heisei was a godzillasaurus that got mutated by atomic bombs 1998 was a mutated iguana millenium.. i forgor 💀 mv godzilla is a prehistoric titan 2016 is a evolving tadpole that got too close to radiation earth... i forgor agai 💀
Another instance of Reptile abuse, although not related to the slurpasaur stuff is in Friday The 13th when they kill the snake. Not only was it needlessly brutal, it was unscripted and the snake's owner was under the impression the poor animal wouldn't be hurt. That scene makes me tear up every time, I can't imagine how the snake or the handler felt.
25:57 I'm glad you included the Hollywood Dinosaur quote, because I think it's easy to look back at old film trends and say, "wow, people believed whatever they saw!" I know I thought that way several years ago when I saw a slurpasaurus in the classic Flash Gordon series.
@@Skyypixelgamer I don't think so--later in the video, we see a shot that looked like the fight was basically over. I'm glad that standards of animal treatment in movies are completely different now.
As someone who has kept many different species of monitor lizard as well as a few Tegu lizards, that fight scene from the original One Million B.C. is particularly distressing as most Tegus in captivity usually become quite docile and trusting. In the climax of that film there is an Asian water monitor, another intelligent and easily tamed reptile that clearly has one foot tied down during the "volcano eruption" scene and real flames are seen burning the side of its head. I don't mind them using the animals as dinosaurs, but there was absolutely no reason for the sadistic brutality by the assholes who made the film. They could have, and should have, found another way using their much touted "Hollywood magic".
An excellent video. I definitely sympathize with you on the tegu/croc battle scene. It pained me to have to watch two animals literally fight to the death for cheap entertainment like a sick exotic cock fight. I'm very glad that we live in a time where there are more strict protections for all critters in films.
I think the "give dinosaurs exaggerated features to make them more monstrous" trend is going to become worse (well as bad as you can get outside of real animal abuse) if "AI art" ever makes its way into actual movies and TV shows. If you put a dinosaur prompt into Dall-E or whatever, the results look more like a disfigured Papo Rex or a Slurpasaur because that's what the algorithm will create out of the top "dinosaur" image results. Obviously every paleofan recognizes every single wrong detail of them, but if too many people of the general public give it a pass because "eh, it's close enough to what I think of when I hear the word dinosaur", there's some dark years for "dinosaur movies" ahead of us.
@@ExtremeMadnessX He's promising a lot ! Sure, the dinosaurs aren't accurate and are in a Jurassic Park look visually and the only species we get to see will be again the populars Trex and Velociraptor, but overall, in term of sequences, with the atmosphere and ralisation of the scenes themselves building tensions, scaring and actions, it's stand out pretty well ! Will be just a normal dino movie to pass a good time before it, but it's already sufficient. Here, it's not about the dinos themselves we will have expectations but about the realisations and how they mange to made true scary moments with them, on that there all the expectations to be r=really well done. And I hope so on that.
@@kade-qt1zu The dinosaurs depiction and the accuracy of their designs isn't he main goal of this movie. "65" by Sam Raimi and the people behind "A Quiet Place" movie is a science-fiction thriller-action movie. It's on his tension, scary level and actions sequences on which he must succeed. Plus, for the movie's defense by advance, the setting will be in a alien planet, so where the evolution was different. So, if the dinos don't look accurate at all, like they were, will be normal and made sens in the same time. Will more be like a modern version of "Planet of the Dinosaurs" from 1977 than anything else.
Worth mentioning the archosauromorph reptile Shringasaurus discovered in 2017, which looks remarkably similar to the rhino iguana with horns from the 1960s Lost World remake.
I won't lie, the iguanas with a sail on their back didn't look like a half bad Dimetrodon. And there is something fun about using a giant lizard for a monster, obviously its completely inaccurate. Now if they could have put the costumes on without hurting the animals that would have been much much better. Edit: HEY That was Attack of the Killer Shrews or... something like that. That was a fun movie, and it was just dogs wearing a mantle. Greyhounds IIRC.
Good thing Hollywood has retired this technique IMO. Passing off a lizard as a dinosaur in a movie, no matter how cheap, is not worth the animal abuse.
Yes, but now you can see all sorts of animal abuse on social media, inclyding RU-vid. par example... the videos about turtles with colourful barnacle, and then jewlry etc., glue all over their shells. This kills the turtle slowly as the shell is part of the living integument of the the animal. Then these arses remove what they glued to the poor benighted creature claiming they found them like that, or worse...they sell them as living(but not well and not for long) decorations. Then there's the whole "rescues kitten/puppy from situations the "rescuers' put the animals in, in the first place. People can be pretty vile just to get a like on socmed. :(
If it's just an iguana crawling around it's not hardly abuse. It is however painfully stupid. Humans are animals too, so I guess in a way it is animal abuse.
Filming them just walking is not really abuse, but gluing a fin on a caimans back and having it fight a Tegu lizard ( wonder if the caiman killed it) can sure be considered cruelty.
Interestingly, at least one of the banthas in the first Star Wars (A New Hope) was played by an elephant in a costume. Also, the Corellian hounds seen on Ferrix in Andor are played by costumed dogs, too.
These type of "slurpasaur" are acceptable since the animal are just scenery, have just outfits adding on them and just at maximum walk in front of the screen. Nothing more. A good majority of the movies and productions in this video show that in many extents.
I am happy that we as humans have progressed enough to deem such animal cruelty wrong. Yes, some fringe elements are there and will always be. But we have made so much headway. Thanks for the video
I kinda like the looks of giant lizards as “dinosaurs”. Though obviously, it would be far easier to achieve this in an ethical manner, in the modern day. And obviously any animal fights would either be CGI, or done with puppetry.
Isn't that the guy who jokingly was blamed for all of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park escaping, because he had been credited with being the dinosaur supervisor?
One of the (many) issues with slurpasaurs is that dinosaur legs are directly beneath the animal, not splayed out to the side like a lizard. Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur, and may well have had lizard legs.
i am honestly suprised you did not mention a trend similar to slurpasaurs which used enlarged rats and bunnies for the monsters. Examples include:"food of the gods","food of the gods 2 " which is a sequel to food of the gods,"night of the lepus" which uses rabbits, and a movie that would have been made by Daei called "giant horde beast nezura" which would have been made to cash in on that giant monster craze it would have been brought to life by putting live rats on city set but that would not have been made due to difficulties making the film
It's possible he might do this in the future, although this film was specifically about dinosaurs and just happened to note that other animals were used as well in passing such as elephants for mammoths
@@horsetuna there was a section in the video were he talked about movies that used simular ideas i am just suprised he did not mention the terrifying pet store rat in that section
Oh, even better! The Nezura production didn't use tame, trained pet store rats, it used honest to goodness sewer rats. Untrained, wild, disease-carrying sewer rats. This obviously did not work.
Interesting breakdown. Actually, I've written a book entitled OPERATION RED DRAGON: THE DAIKAIJU WARS, PART ONE that intentionally incorporates a a Slurposaur as one of the named monsters. He's described (and drawn) to look like an alligator with fins and horns on him, and a dangling tongue, of course. I included him as part of the homage to the works which inspired it. So in a way, I might be the only person left in the world still using the trend. (If ever realized on film, of course, I would never endorse using an actual alligator.)
Ah yes the one that attacks the submarines and battleship before the final battle! Warriah (i think i’m spelling it right) was my favorite monster from the book actually! Felt the most intimidating to me. Atomic rex has a few monsters that could be likened to slurpasaurs in it as well. I’m content with the asthetic referenced in the forms of original creatures while being portrayed by non live animals. The practice was unconvincing and immoral, but there’s just a way that it catches ones eye that makes me guiltily intrigued so it seems at least a modest source of inspiration.
That's an interesting way of looking at it. Essentially continuing the trend, but in the form of literature. Definitely the more responsible way of doing it at least.
@@DinoDiego16 your new this video comes out at a convenient time because I was actually going to write about this phenomenon in a Sci-Fi series I'm working on. How might I get official permission to mention you in a complimentary way in the writing?
One of the lesser known examples of this trend is actually from one of the most famous franchises of all time. In Star Wars: A New Hope, the large furry creatures called “Banthas” on Tatooine were portrayed by a costume wearing elephant. Additionally, the Tusken Raiders in the Bantha scenes were played by the elephant’s trainers, who after each take would reward her with apples.
I grew up seeing many examples of both stop-motion and slurposaurs… it both bothered me and tempted me. I asked for a lizard and my reason was so I could attach a spinal sail to it and have my own dinosaur. Luckily, although I did get a lizard… and although I did cut the spinal sail off of a plastic model… I couldn’t see it working without hurting the lizard. It lived for six years, tormenting me with the responsibility of getting bugs for it to eat. 🦎
As a reptile keeper myself, this made sad. thank you for making this video about spreading the information because before this, i had know idea about this trend. also, im still gonna make fun of you calling it tegu lol.
Disregarding the more important matter of the animal cruelty, which is completely beyond the pale and essentially evil, I have absolutely no time for film producers who think they can pass off lizards or alligators as dinosaurs. It is lazy and an insult.
I think saying that the horned armadillo is supposed to be a glyptodon is giving them way too much credit. They probably glued those horns onto the poor critter without any knowledge of the ice age mammal. And, ethical dilemmas aside, I do think the rhino iguanas look good as dimetrodons in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Crazy how back then you could lift entire scenes from other movies with no repercussions, but now you use a 2 seconds clip from a movie and the studio will come down on you like a ton of bricks
Yeah, I remember watching some of the few movies that involve basically gluing prosthetics on reptiles and letting them fight. So it’s strange how these movies kind of get left out of instances of animal abuse on camera. I always hear about cannibal Holocaust and cyclone but rarely stuff past the color age. 🎩 🐍 no step on Snek! 🇺🇸🇭🇰
As a kid watching this I was also hella confused how nobody other than me was ever appalled by the obvious animal abuse. I think it really goes down to the general public just having less sympathy for reptiles.
@@toniotrussardi8126 People typically only show empathy to animals if it doesn't require effort or the animal is a dog, rats for example are proven to show empathy to other rats such as bringing food to injured rats but people still default to killing one's they find in the house rather than using more humane methods.
@@orangeninjapocket603 there are entire books about how if you really want to make someone appear evil in a movie, you have to have them hurt a cat or a dog. One of the books about the phenomenon how to write good movies is called, save the cat
As bad as it sounds, I’m just glad they didn’t reuse the coati snake clip My heart goes out to every animal involved in that movie, but you just know that snake didn’t survive and that’s just heartbreaking,. Easily the most difficult thing I’ve seen in cinema as a snake owner
Glad slurpasaurus are no longer in use, besides at best looking rather goofy and silly, and at worst looking lazy and shitty, this technique is just straight up animal abuse, the footage of the tegu and alligator was especially uncomfortable, seeing those poor dudes fighting is just sad. And other examples, with the “mammoth” elephant with its fur, especially knowing how intelligent elephants are, it looked especially agitated. When they fight to the death especially is just tragic.
As a kid I found this so disturbing due to how awful it was for the animals. Sad many innocent animals suffered for absolutely jokes of a film (not saying it's better if it's a good movie(
Imagine if modern day movies could just get away with reusing clips of an older movie. Like a new alien invasion type movie comes out and they just splice in clips from Independence Day.
Austin Powers made that in sort of type of joke in the second movie, they literally used the clip of Independence Day with the aliens blowing up the White House with Doctor Evil even saying it was from Independence Day.
Occasionally you can find a low budget direct to "video" film that will recycle old film footage. I know the movie badass recycled a bus wreck scene from another movie
What an excellent video! 😃 As a kid, I was an avid dino fan and had many books, toys and model kits. Those old films with lizards etc, dressed as dinosaurs never convinced me one bit. I always preferred the stop-motion ones.
17:35 Fun fact: They reused the sound effects of a group of elephants from another film that Star Wars ended up using as the basis for the TIE fighter sound effects.
There are two slurpasaurs in the first chapter of the original Buster Crabbe ”Flash Gordon” that work quite well. They’re two monstrous reptiles on an alien world, so they fit in better than ”playing” dinosaurs.
I can't believe you didn't talk about the fact that the special effects director for King Kong vs Godzilla, Eiji Tsuburaya, ate one of the three octopi who played the Giant Octopus after its scenes were done. Also, the Giant Octopus; who's official name is Oodako, was so popular that he showed up in a reshot ending of Frankenstein Conquers the World, then in the sequel, War of the Gargantuas, both as props iirc, not live octopi.
No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. (The filmmakers wish to make it clear that this statement does not extend to the making of other movies from which they may or may not have stolen footage)
I remember seeing a snippet of The Lost World on TV and wincing at the sight of the monitor and alligator mauling each other. I didn't like what I see because I could tell those were real animals being forced to fight in an unnatural scenario.
Wow this video really brings back some memories. At the science museum in my hometown they used to have monthly screenings of old sci Fi movies including some of the ones shown here! I honestly love the old cheesy special effects, especially the slurposaurs. I hate when they fight eachother or get hurt on screen though :(
Gluing a sail to an iguana and calling it a Dimetrodon works a hell of a lot better than the other reptile shortcuts. It looks more like a Dimetrodon than the other efforts. The series _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_ would recycle footage from _The Lost World_ in a few episodes. Both were Irwin Allen productions, starring David Hedison.
you know what would be awesome... stupid but awesome? a movie where they use the slurpasaurus, and all the old setups for use normal animal for the "giant monster" trope..... but only 1 character is convinced of it while the rest are like "something looks off here...." or the reverse where everyone is convinced and only one guy is like "uhh... is that a green screen?"
15:47 At least the Journey to the Center of the Earth adaptation uses lizards to play as Dimetrodons and not dinosaurs. I know that wasn't intentional, but at least they didn't show an Iguana and call it a T. rex. It's still bad they painted a Monitor Lizard red and called it a Chameleon, rather than using an actual Chameleon.
@@gergopiroska5749 At least they weren't called dinosaurs, and Dimetrodon does look very similar to some modern lizards, even though they are more related to mammals than they are to reptiles.
@@jacobcox4565 tbh i don't hate old movies as they have their charm But calling an iguana with glued on horns a tyrannosaur is fucking terrible Whats even worse is that they already knew the basic look of dinosaurs
I would be fine if Slurpasaurs returned in a less cruel way. They could make the spikes and horns CGI and not include any scenes of the animals fighting or getting killed. There was also that point about them looking nothing like dinosaurs, but they could just be referred to as "prehistoric reptiles" instead of dinosaurs.
The silhouette shown in the thumbnail looks like the costumed lizard used in the 1928 “Mysterious Island” with Lionel Barrymore. Gonna check on that. They built a fairly elaborate costume for their lizard.
my iguana hank has headshots available for any filmmakers out there, he told me to tell you that he doesn’t do his own stunts for reasons seen in your video,
Similar to the stop motion crab is Raccacoonie from Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is an actual taxidermied racoon filled with animatronics. Funny that in Jurassic World franchise is that Giganotosaurus gets very tall keratin spikes almost like a sail but Mosasaurus doesn't have a flicking forked tongue like the real animal did because of fears that audiences would think it was made up.
I feel like films like King Kong and the original Jurassic world and the JP trilogy don't really count, since those were scientifically recreated, were new mutated forms or something, however I did not like when JW dominion tried to pass off the giga as the "original version" like that thing is just a really big concavinator mixed with a croc
The Slurpasaur technique is goofy at first glance, but I can't help but feel bad for the animals involved in. Especially since they had to fight to the death for entertainment. As others have said, maybe the Slurpasaur technique can return in CGI rather than live animals. Omni Viewer payed homage to the Slurpasaur technique through the monster Wanirah in his novel "Operation Red Dragon: The Daikaiju Wars Part 1"
Perhaps in a matter of coincidence, but just before this came out I had a plot idea involving this phenomenon for my sci-fi comedy series using these old movies I wonder if I can get away with actually mentioning Dino Diego in the writing as one of the vigorously researched footage used
As a 71 year old man who grew up watching these sorts of things, it felt somewhat normal to me. Like, I'm not saying I support a baby alligator with a Dimetrodon sail on its back beheading a tegu but given the time they were all made, the makers really just want to make something as realistic as possible and something that excites the audience without spending huge bucks on stop motion. I felt like it's clever that they used real animals, but it was also a bad thing that some of them have the animals fight. And like you said, animal rights were really not understood well at that time... Also, I wouldn't blame the creators for using reptiles as stand-ins for dinosaurs, they really just fit this sort of monstrous look and behaviour towards them.
Honestly, animals don't have rights. Rights are a creation of human beings, and humans only enjoy them if they're willing to fight for them. Whatever 'rights' animals are perceived to have are simply what mercy we are willing to extend them.
@colbyprice-lampkin7547 nobody ever said that they weren't terrible people but if you don't know better you can't do better. Animal rights just weren't a consideration so it was accepted at the time and as awful as it was at least society has learned from it
My favorite example of a slurpasaur would be in the 1982 film Deadly Eyes. In that they used dachshunds (dressed as giant rats) for the movie's monsters, creating an effect that was way more adorable than terrifying.
Fun Fact (sort of): The giant octopus in Godzilla VS King Kong was acted by *four* different *octopi.* By the end of shooting, *three* of the octopi were *released,* while the *fourth* was *eaten* by the special effects director.
I used to run a blog about old b-movies and you would not believe how many of these films I've actually seen. I think I've seen every frame of that gator-tegu fight like nine times.
Im not a lizard person, I like my life forms being the same Class as myself... but seeing that damn croc mauling the Tegu over and over again, every time i was like god damn old movies stop! I can happily respect and love old movie like those but thank god we've advanced a good amount in our attitude towards animal cruelty.
Tegus aren't monitor lizards, but they did converge on the same lifestyle as them. Their closest relatives are more obscure, like worm lizards and racerunners