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Re: Remember Phil Tippett's Prehistoric Beast?



Prehistoric Beast was a HUGE influence to me. It was one of the first animated depictions of horizontal posed dinosaurs. It also opened my eyes to Doug Henderson's work. What I liked most of all (take note dinosaur documentary producers) was that many of the animated sequences had VERY LITTLE VOICE OVER. Phil Tippet knows that good acting and staging are all you need to tell a story. Also (take note dinosaur documentary producers) there were NO SCENES OF DINOSAURS SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER OVER A CARCASS!
When I was an animation student at California Institute of the Arts back in 89, my first animated short was styled on Prehistoric Beast. I can't tell you how many times I watched it, frame by frame. Thanks for bringing back the fond memories Dan.


David Krentz
On Sep 24, 2006, at 5:56 PM, Danvarner@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 9/23/2006 2:59:27 PM Eastern Standard Time,
timgeocity@hotmail.com writes:
<< Remember Phil Tippett's 10 minute experimental film, Prehistoric Beast
(1983-85)? Tell me all about it. >>
"Prehistoric Beast"is best known now as the animation sequences in the 1985
CBS documentary television production, "Dinosaur!", starring Christopher
Reeve. After his Oscar-winning work on "Return of the Jedi", Tippett took leave
of Industrial Light and Magic and animated "Prehistoric Beast" in his garage
using dinosaur models created by Randy Dutra. Tippett consulted with master
artist Doug Henderson on the design of this film and its dinosaurs. The
finished television program with Reeve won an Emmy for Tippett for special effects.
It's interesting to note that PB's pair of Deinonychus do some of the same
stage business that Tippett's "raptors" do in "Jurassic Park". One of the
Deinonychus models was retrofitted with wings as a flying dragon in the CBS TV
production, "The Battle for Endor".
"Prehistoric Beast" was a little masterpiece of stop motion animation
animation and it's regretful the the artform in Phil Tippett's hands has gone into
eclipse. He was the next Harryhausen. DV