At Last! The Last Dinosaur on DVD
Steve Barton
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Some of you may be too young to remember The Last Dinosaur. Others of you are old enough to remember seeing it when it first aired in 1977 or the million times it ran in syndication throughout the Eighties. Now everyone can get reacquainted with this cult favorite that has dwelled in obscurity for too long thanks to the Warner Archive.
A joint production between Rankin/Bass (the makers of such classic Christmas specials as “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) and Tsuburaya Productions (the creators of “Ultraman”), The Last Dinosaur was originally scheduled to be a theatrical release but ended up premiering as an ABC TV movie in 1977. The subsequent repeat airings and limited VHS release have all been of the 90-minute TV cut. The Warner Archive just released 16×9 full frame print contains the never before seen in the US 106-minute theatrical cut.
“It eats meat! Us!!” “It” is a Tyrannosaurus, ruler of a lost world hidden within a dormant polar volcano. “Us” are members of an expedition led by a big game hunter and überzillionaire (Richard Boone). And “eats” – well, you get the idea, tyrant lizard fans! Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules Bass, who charmed families with The Year Without a Santa Claus and more animated and stop-motion holiday heartwarmers, relied on dinomight for The Last Dinosaur, the sort of thrill-a-minute popcorn-seller that gives bad movies a good name. Join the adventurers as they encounter a perilous array of prehistoric beasts, a tribe of savage cavemen and a T. Rex who, despite its less-than-special effect appearance, can kick some serious Triceratops butt.
Richard Boone (“Have Gun – Will Travel”) and Joan Van Ark (“Knotts Landing”) star in this tale of adventurers discovering a lost prehistoric world beneath the polar ice cap populated by wonderful man-in-suit rubber dinosaurs from the director of another 1970’s made-for-TV classic, The Bermuda Depths.
Long a popular collectors title on the grey market, seekers of The Last Dinosaur can finally own a legitimate print of the film as it was meant to be seen through the Warner Archive right now for $19.95.
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