Dinosaurs:- Past

In the past Dinosaurs weren’t very well understood and were the topic of great discussion and a source of great mystery. The creatures were included in many stories and, as there was no evidence of how they looked fossils were improperly built, an example of this are the models in London’s Crystal Gardens.

Iguanadon Statue from Crystal Palace Gardens created in 1853

It was originally believed that Pterosaur’s couldn’t fly and that Tyrannosaurus’s were solitary creatures that hunted and lived alone. It was also believed that the majority of dinosaurs were quadrupeds and primarily carnivorous, this transferred into media to show that all dinosaurs were four legged carnivors.


Writer Sir Arther Conan Doyle wrote the novel the Lost World in 1912, this was a highley successful novel and grabbed peoples imagination and boosted  popularity of dinosaurs again, this book stood the test of time and once the technology became available it was translated into a movie.
In the year 1918 an American writer named Edgar Rice Burroughs published the book ‘The land that time forgot’ set in World War 1 aboard a German U Boat the U-33, in the novel the come ashore on an island inhabited by dinosaurs. In 1975 the book got a theatrical transference, bring to life the dinosaurs that had appeared so often in books.
I believe these films were well recived and in my opinion i feel that they are integral in any research into creating a dinosaur realated IP as it shows how well they could be put into films with the limited rescources and that they were still well recieved.


This is a still image from the film The land that time Forgot

In the early 1900's dinosaur fossils that were discovered were often said to be the fossils of mythological creatures a good example would be the Protoceratops. Protoceratop's discovered in the gobi deserts were often mistaken for the legendary griffins as they had many of the attributes that a griffen would have such as the large beak, four legs and large eye sockets.

This image shows how easy it would be to confuse the fossils for those of a griffon.

                                                                           

In the years following world war two monster fever gripped japan after the bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, A director, Ishiro Honda, at Toho studios created a monster that was the result of the bombs being dropped this monster was called Godzilla. In 1954 Godzilla made his theatrical debut and took the world by storm. In 1956 Godzilla was shown in America with and American actor and the title was changed to Godzilla King Of The Monsters and was a rousing success, this started the monster movie craze. The Godzilla ‘Showa’ Series went from 1954 – 1979 and included fifteen Godzilla movies, including Godzilla Vs King Kong which drew in the western market more.  



The Movie poster for the movie Godzilla Vs King Kong released in 1962

In 1992 HiT Entertainment produced the program Barney which was created Sheryl Leech for her son. The program featured a purple dinosaur named Barney and showed children how to behave learn and play with  each other the program was aired between 1992 through to the present.

Barney The Purple Dinosaur from PBS Kids

Barney managed to gain some movie fame in 1998 in his first film Barney's big adventure. Barney has been successful in media and consistently popular with young children, his marketing in media has been well done as he has been popular in toy form as well as televisual popular.

Barney Plush Toy created by Born To Play

Dino Crisis  is a game that was created in 1999 by the blockbuster team behind the Resident Evil Franchise. The game was a survival horror game set in the (at that point) future of 2009 and saw the player pitted against suspense filled environments and monstrous dinosaurs that will stop at nothing to feast on the player. The game was a huge success in both the east and west and made a change from its zombie boasting cousin.

Screenshot of the Capcom game Dino Crisis released in 1999

 Dino Crisis proved so successful that it gained a sequel  the game received as much praise as its predecessor the game was released a year in 2000. The game featured many of the same features as the first game however its main villain had been changed from the Tyranosaurus Rex  to an even bigger threat a Giganatosaurs became the new main villainous dinosaur to show this off Capcom showed to two behemoths fighting. After playing the game myself I believe that this game was much better that the second game was much better than the first and was also much more atmospheric and the gameplay was more involving than the last. I found that the game was much more popular than the first aswell out of the people I asked. 

This is a screenshot from Dino Crisis 2 released in 2000 by Capcom

Capcom released a third instalment of the series and it was released on the Xbox the game was set in the year 2548 the game was set in a research ship, that was conducting experiments on dinosaur DNA the game saw the player pitted against horrifying mutant dinosaurs. The game itself did poorly and was no where near as successful as the two previous games, however it was still kept in the forefront of gaming media as it was a sequel to a highly successful franchise

This is a screenshot from the game Dino Crisis 3 by Capcom released in  2003