Customer Reviews

Prehysteria [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This video is excellent for kids. There is no violence, though there are some uses of words of doubtful taste. There is an explanation of how the movie was made, how the dinosaurs were designed and created. Very creative and a cute vision of those violent animals that is not scary for the young children.

Stardate: Wednesday, November 25, 1998. That was the first time I had ever saw this adorable film, though it is still not my favorite in the series (That trophy goes to Part 3), but still adorable otherwise. I was 9 years old when I first rented it from the now-closed Hollywood Video on Woodway.

Anyway, the film starts off with a somewhat typical family of the 90s, The Taylors. The father is widowed and works as a raisin farmer, the son is into Elvis, and the daughter seems to be on the verge of rebellion. But then their lives change when the past comes to them. They discover miniature dinosaurs, which the 2 kids name after various music icons, like Elvis, Paula, Jagger, Hammer, and Madonna. But it's not until the sleazy museum curator, Rico Sarno (Played by Stephen Lee from Dolls, The Pit and the Pendulum, Ghoulies III, Robocop 2) wants them back. He was the one who had originally discovered the eggs that the dinosaurs hatched out of, in South America.

Like I said, this film is a childhood favorite. Now that I'm older, I will admit it is silly at times, but what's to expect? It's still the childhood favorite that I remember.

Recommended.

EXTRAS: The Paramount VHS (Which I own and sourced to DVD-R) has no trailers at the beginning, but the Videozone has an intro by Full Moon CEO Charles Band, where he talks about The Shrunken City and Remote and in depth details about Moonbeam, a behind the scenes, an interview with Peter and Andrea Von Sholly, and a trailer for Remote (1993)

Okay this is kind of a cute kids movie that some adults will enjoy as well. Granted the miniature dinosaurs aren't up to Ray Harryhausen standards, but then it is still overall a lighthearted movie that most kids will enjoy. When some eggs are taken from a South American temple the curse seems to fall on the bad guys stealing them rather than the kids trying to protect them from commercialism. This one is not out on DVD yet so if you don't have access the the VHS you have to try and catch it on TV.

As the first entry in the short-lived Moonbeam Entertainment's video lineup, "Prehysteria" shares similar traits with future features like Dragonworld and Magic Island in that it's a well-made movie - practically on-par with the production values of lower Hollywood output at the time - but is otherwise entirely inconsequential. I don't mind a load of clichés in a movie as long as they're not actually driving the movie, but in this case, the only reason you have to watch the film is if you want to see the same character twists and plot points you've seen in a hundred other movies, minus any kind of veritable hook or interesting gimmick.

The storyline: when a clutch of prehistoric dinosaur eggs are lost by the greedy curator Rico (Stephen Lee, The Pit and the Pendulum) and uncovered by a struggling small-town family, the hatchlings will help bring young Jerry (Austin O'Brien, Last Action Hero), his sister Monica (Samantha Mills), and their father Frank (Brett Cullen, Ghost Rider) closer together.

To the credit of the designers and puppeteers, the five little dinosaurs look pretty darn good considering the budget. The animatronics are more than serviceable, allowing a surprising amount of subtlety in movement and expression. The stop-motion governing the flying dinosaur is very good. A couple of scenes in which they're running don't look particularly convincing, but all in all, the dinoes are a sight to see. Now they just need to do something worth watching. E.T. had supernatural powers, Gizmo spawned a race of vicious little monsters, and even Orky was huge enough to be taken seriously, but all these pygmy dinosaurs do is trash the kitchen (which we only see the aftermath of) and dance to Elvis music. They're just not very interesting creatures, and the only reason the family wants to keep them from the bad guy is because the kids think they're cool.

The humans aren't exactly riveting, either. The family is your basic semi-dysfunctional motherless unit, the curator displays not an ounce of actual humanity as a villain, and his assistant/Frank's girlfriend (Colleen Morris, "Valley of the Dolls" series) is of the general attractive & bland variety. However, the otherwise boring writing does feature a rather interesting (and likely unintentional) sexual undertone... 11-year-old Jerry is remarkably candid about his father's carnal needs ("Leave him alone, he's horny" he admonishes his whiny sister), Frank demonstrates a very sleazy sort of deceit when he assures his jealous daughter that he and his girlfriend are "just friends" not ten minutes after we see them in a heated make-out session, and the scene in which a paranoid Rico forces an unwilling Colleen Morris into his office and slams the door behind him could be right out of a thriller because for the love of me it looks like he's about to rape or kill her (he doesn't).

The end of the movie really feels rushed since it doesn't even assure us why the curator won't be trying to steal the dinosaurs again. In retrospect, the movie's continual '90s pop culture references are kinda fun in a cheesy way, and the presence of extensive special features at the end of the tape was pretty ahead of its time in 1993. I'm torn about whether to rate this one two or three stars, but since I personally didn't have a lot of fun watching it, I'm going to have to go with the former. This one's good for nostalgic purposes but otherwise won't win any new fans nowadays. Consider carefully before buying.

This movie is amazing. I use to watch it on TV all the time. It is a fun movie for kids and a great movie for the whole family to watch. It is a movie about a greedy cold-hearted museum owner, Rico, who goes on an archaeological hunt in Spain and discovers these mysterious eggs he takes them and hopes what he has found will make him millions. We then meet Frank Taylor a widowed raisin farm owner and father of two children: Te rebellious teen Monica and Elvis loving Jerry. They also have a dog named Ruby who recently had puppies but they had to be given away because Frank can't afford anymore pets. While visiting the local museum we meet Frank's love interest and museum employee, Vicky. When leaving they take their cooler but it ends up being Rico's eggs. Ruby ends up taking the eggs and hatches them and we discover that the eggs have Dinosaurs. The Dinosaurs are very tiny in size and the Taylor's end up liking them and keeping them as pets but trouble strikes when Vicky warns the family that Rico wants his dinosaurs back at any cost. The family also grows tighter especially when trying to protect their new pets and the kids also are dealing with their father's new love interest. It's a great simple family movie. The dinosaurs look awesome in the movie and are not CGI animated they are cool robotic dinos. The VHS also contains a cool Behind the Scenes featurette that has interviews with the actors and talks about how the dinosaurs were made and how they work. It's a great video for little kids, family, or anyone who grew up as a child in the 90's