Yuku free message boards

TheLizard wrote:

---

Planet of Dinosaurs affected me deeply as a child, perhaps more than any other film. When I was little, I would sometimes spend the night with my grandmother when my parents went out. She would tape stuff on TV that she knew I would like, so I had something to watch when I was over there. Sometime in the mid-late 80's she recorded this, because she knew I loved dinosaurs. To her dismay, I would watch it almost every time I was over there. Things like the quality of the acting, and the polyester wardrobe and all that went over my head. I was just taken in by the spectacle of the thing. The dinosaurs were probably the first stop motion dinos I was exposed to. I loved it, and still do. It's like a family member that you can only see the good qualities of, and ignore the bad. The whole credit sequence with the zooms on the stylized drawings of prehistoric creatures coupled with the bizzare synth music grabbed hold of me in a weird way. Like I was descending into some psychedelic prehistoric nightmare. I still love the score to this movie, there's some really weird sounds mixed in at times, like dinosaur indigestion or something. If a soundtrack was ever released, I would buy it in a heartbeat. The spider, the T-rex, shooting that ornitholestes or whatever it was with the bow and then spearing it... all aspects of this movie are permanently engraved into my brain. Seeing it at such a young age really left an impression on me. More like a gorge, or a canyon. A lot of people claim King Kong was their first movie to have an affect on them like that, but even as a child I guess I was destined for cult weirdness. If I had to make a list of movies that I love for nostalgic reasons, this would probably top it. Oh, and in the mid 90's when I was about 12 I found a copy of the Goodtimes VHS (which I still have) at a Toys 'R' Us in Little Rock and was overjoyed! I brought it home and said "Look what I found, Gramma! Planet of Dinosaurs!" And she was like "Oh, No!" HA! RIP Gramma, and thanks for Planet of Dinosaurs! And hey, Aupperle, thanks for being essential in shaping my childhood!

Hi Lizard,

Thanks very much for posting what will forever by my personal favorite review of our little dinosaur epic. I think I feel the same way about some of the Bert I. Gordon movies I saw on TV when I was very young. I still love his giant grasshoppers invading Chicago and will enjoy ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE and THE SPIDER whenever I get the chance. It's nice that there are some things we don't grow out of.

all the best
Jim Aupperle

 

TheLizard wrote:

---

Planet of Dinosaurs affected me deeply as a child, perhaps more than any other film. When I was little, I would sometimes spend the night with my grandmother when my parents went out. She would tape stuff on TV that she knew I would like, so I had something to watch when I was over there. Sometime in the mid-late 80's she recorded this, because she knew I loved dinosaurs. To her dismay, I would watch it almost every time I was over there. Things like the quality of the acting, and the polyester wardrobe and all that went over my head. I was just taken in by the spectacle of the thing. The dinosaurs were probably the first stop motion dinos I was exposed to. I loved it, and still do. It's like a family member that you can only see the good qualities of, and ignore the bad. The whole credit sequence with the zooms on the stylized drawings of prehistoric creatures coupled with the bizzare synth music grabbed hold of me in a weird way. Like I was descending into some psychedelic prehistoric nightmare. I still love the score to this movie, there's some really weird sounds mixed in at times, like dinosaur indigestion or something. If a soundtrack was ever released, I would buy it in a heartbeat. The spider, the T-rex, shooting that ornitholestes or whatever it was with the bow and then spearing it... all aspects of this movie are permanently engraved into my brain. Seeing it at such a young age really left an impression on me. More like a gorge, or a canyon. A lot of people claim King Kong was their first movie to have an affect on them like that, but even as a child I guess I was destined for cult weirdness. If I had to make a list of movies that I love for nostalgic reasons, this would probably top it. Oh, and in the mid 90's when I was about 12 I found a copy of the Goodtimes VHS (which I still have) at a Toys 'R' Us in Little Rock and was overjoyed! I brought it home and said "Look what I found, Gramma! Planet of Dinosaurs!" And she was like "Oh, No!" HA! RIP Gramma, and thanks for Planet of Dinosaurs! And hey, Aupperle, thanks for being essential in shaping my childhood!

Hi TheLizard,

I sent your post to Pat Cardi, a very good friend of mine who starred in TWISTED BRAIN, played a chimp in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and appeared in William Castle's LET'S KILL UNCLE. Pat has a great love of film and I thought you might enjoy his response which I posted below.

"What an excellent letter.  The writer really articulated something about "old" films and their effect on us as children. I liked how he mentioned that the acting and polyester wardrobe went right past him and that the film had such an amazing effect on him. I had that same feeling on so many low budget films of the past. Many times I go back and look at films like "The Time Travelers" and "Colossus Of New York" and suddenly realize that they were really very hooky efforts. But as a child, the bad effects, overacting, and obvious plot points went way over my head - the films as a whole had me mesmerized. I think as we get older, and more sophisticated, we expect so much more out of films. The major studios now spending hundreds of millions on films and effects has risen the bar so high that we lowly peons who want to make independent - under-financed films can't get a handle on creating pulp films that the market will take seriously.Yet there is a market full of children and teens who would love a film regardless if it was shot by James Cameron, or Pat & Jim. Perhaps our market for these films is on cable, Internet TV, and DVD rentals. I still believe that there are young folks out there who would love small-cap thrillers, if we could only find a way to get to them distributed. They would be such fun to make if we could only figure out a way of making enough money to keep the lights turned on."

Pat (Twisted Brain) Cardi

here is the link to Pat Cardi's blog
http://patcardi.blogspot.com/




An added note from Jim A.
It was my grandmother who took me to the local drive-in to see JACK THE GIANT KILLER. She even let me talk her into watching the entire film a second time in the same evening and being in a drive-in she had no escape for herself. That film really blew my mind and was the first time I ever saw the stop motion magic of Jim Danforth. Years later I got to know Jim Danforth; worked with him on a couple of projects (including PLANET OF DINOSAURS for which Jim did the matte paintings) and we remain friends to this day. Thanks again for your post and positive thoughts!

Cosmo wrote:

---

Pat Cardi wrote:
The major studios now spending hundreds of millions on films and effects has risen the bar so high that we lowly peons who want to make independent - under-financed films can't get a handle on creating pulp films that the market will take seriously.

It's sadly true, Disney tried to make a pulp blockbuster ( John Carter ) tho, and it wasn't that bad, reminded me of Flash Gordon and other movies likle that from the 80's.

It's sure not easy to get a little low budget film in front of an audience these days. There is not room in the theaters and you'll seldom even find them on a for rent or sale shelf in a store. The internet is about the only outlet I can think of for the small independent film.  I never made a dime off of PLANET while we were in a few theaters and out on a number of DVDs so there's no reason you can't make the same money today on the internet (i.e. 0). The main reason I did PLANET was "for the experience" and that sure hasn't changed if you make a small film today. Besides learning my trade the greatest reward is hearing from people like Cosmo and TheLizard who actually enjoyed our little epic and isn't that what it's about anyway?