| Prehistoric Beast | |
|---|---|
 Prehistoric Beast's rerelease online poster (Tippett Studio, 2011 for the poster and rerelease) | |
| Directed by | Phil Tippett |
| Written by | Phil Tippett |
| Produced by | Phil Tippett |
| Cinematography | Phil Tippett Terry Chostner |
| Edited by | Julie Roman |
| Music by | Mark Adler |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 10 minutes |
| Country | United States |
Prehistoric Beast is a ten-minute-long experimentalanimated feature film conceived, supervised and directed byPhil Tippett in 1984. This sequence is the first film produced by theTippett Studio, founded by Tippett. Made with thego motion animation technique, scenes fromPrehistoric Beast were included in the 1985 full-length documentaryDinosaur!, first aired onCBS in theUnited States on November 5, 1985.[1] On April 2011, the Tippett Studio had published on its YouTube official channel a digital restoration of the short.[2]
Set65 million years ago in what is now theCanadian province ofAlberta, this short film depicts the chase and predation of aMonoclonius (sometimes synonymous withCentrosaurus) by aTyrannosaurus rex (or aclosely related genus likeAlbertosaurus/Gorgosaurus orDaspletosaurus).
The short opens with a tracking shot in the middle of a forest at night. TheTyrannosaurus rex is busy eating and finishing anEdmontosaurus carcass. The next morning, a herd (and family) ofMonoclonius/Centrosaurus is seen grazing. One member wanders into the forest to find more food. It finds a field of flowers and begins grazing. It wanders in further and starts to be hunted by the sameTyrannosaurus rex.
TheTyrannosaurus rex steps on a twig, which makes theMonoclonius wary. TheMonoclonius lets out a trumpet to signal the herd, then keeps walking deeper into the forest. It soon stumbles upon the remains of theEdmontosaurus killed by theTyrannosaurus rex. While theMonoclonius ponders over the carcass, theTyrannosaurus rex sneaks up from behind.
TheTyrannosaurus rex begins the battle by attacking theMonoclonius and biting hard on its back. TheMonoclonius manages to break free from its enemy's jaws and gores theTyrannosaurus rex in its shin with its nasal horn. This enrages theTyrannosaurus which then corners theMonoclonius near some trees. TheMonoclonius lets out one last cry before it is presumably killed. TheMonoclonius herd hear the call of their separated member but continue to graze after a moment. They call out for its missing member (unaware that it has been killed). TheTyrannosaurus rex is last seen trying to find a place to sleep and digest its meal.
Prehistoric Beast was only released in specialized animation festivals, but it convincedRobert Guenette and Steven Paul Mark to request Tippett's skills in order to transform it in a full-length documentary. They then asked Tippett to realize new sequences with other dinosaur species, and thePrehistoric Beast material was added to the new one, resulting onDinosaur! in 1985. Tippett had already participated inThe Empire Strikes Back (1980), animating thetauntauns seen in the film, and his experimental work onPrehistoric Beast andDinosaur! served to the animated dinosaurs sequences he made some years later forJurassic Park (1993).
As with the subsequent documentaryDinosaur!, Phil Tippett, while makingPrehistoric Beast, received assistance fromILM stop-motion animatorsRandy Dutra (who made the dinosaur molds and skins) and Tom St. Amand (who made the inner articulated metallic skeletons of the dinosaurs).[3]
In the 1933 filmKing Kong, aStegosaurus attacks the film characters and after having killed it by gun fire one of the characters identifies it as being "a prehistoric beast". This line, taken from the film, inspired Phil Tippett when giving a title to his 1984 animated short film.[4] An excerpt from thisKing Kong scene is shown in the final 1985 documentaryDinosaur!, as a reference toPrehistoric Beast, the short sequence by which it was preceded.