What's Your Favorite Dinosaur?

Okay, you bozos out there, this is Stephen Chiodo, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million.

Kilowatts of power. When I was a kid, when I was a little boy, I always wanted to be a dinosaur. I wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex more than anything in the world. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I am Brian.

I'm Norris. I'm Phillip. And we're coming to you live via digital recording from the Kitty Corral. to discuss the most important thing in the world dinosaurs dinosaurs now i know i posted earlier i think this year because it it happened i saw the meme and then it happened in the real world in a different way which rarely happens because usually memes run everything they're in charge of our lives now but there's one that came up that it's some i've seen a couple variations i feel like but it says to some extent whatever i'm paraphrasing when you grow up no one even asks you what your favorite dinosaur is it's like they don't even care i know and then within like a day of seeing that i'm this wasn't it was even weirder that it was a random person did not know them it was some weird thing online that i ended up talking to somebody and i haven't really talked to him since but like out of the blue they went Hey, what's your favorite dinosaur?

And I was like, wow, good question. And you've thrown off the whole thing. So there is no scale anymore. That's not true. Obviously, the cool people will ask you, what's your favorite dinosaur?

So I thought that was sort of the theme for all of this, really. So we can get to that for ours. It's probably going to take a while because we also want to think of dinosaurs in movies. So, you know, that's a lot to process. So we're going to take a while.

We're going to consider what our favorite dinosaurs in movies are and favorite dinosaurs in general, all of these things. So in the meantime, I also recently sat down and talked with Don Lessom, which, I mean, his name is Dino Don. So if that's your nickname, you know, you've got to be like the coolest guy ever, right? I mean. And kind of, you know, an authority on dinosaurs, maybe.

I would hope so. Possibly. Well, to put it in perspective, was he a consultant for Michael Crichton? Yes. Yes, he was.

Did Steven Spielberg ask him to be involved in Jurassic Park? Yes. And did he go on after all of that to build full-size robotic dinosaurs? Yes. Yes to all three of those.

So. Can you get much cooler? I don't think so. Not really. So, yeah, that's enough of my intro.

I'm just going to let him tell you about all of it. So, yeah, while we think of our favorite dinosaurs, you guys listen to me talking to Don Lesson. Well, normally I start like at the beginning with people and performers and stuff and see like where they grew up and how they got involved in stuff as kids. Yours is different just because, you know, if it's like the arts or sports or what kids are into, every kid likes dinosaurs. So, like, were you already that kid that was just like dinosaurs are awesome or did it find you later in life?

Yes. Both. Both. I did the normal thing, which is be obsessed from three to eight. And I lived in New York, so I got to go to the greatest collection of fossils.

I had a great aunt who took me every Sunday to meet T. Rex. And it was like love at first sight, you know. And I used to give tours. Nobody asked me to.

So it was already a show off when I was five. And, you know, I loved them until I was eight. And in those days, we'll get back to it. But the big influence then was there wasn't a lot of dinosaur stuff out there. So the books, there were a couple of books like The Golden Age of Dinosaurs written by a guy who turned out to be the real Indiana Jones, Roy Chapman Andrews, who explored in Mongolia in the 1920s.

That's what I read. And I thought, oh, when I grow up, I'm going to go out and do this. And then, of course, other things came along like girls and baseball. And I didn't even think about dinosaurs. I studied gorillas.

And I didn't want to be a scientist because the work was too hard. And it's like, you know, every five minutes, gorilla scratches butt. Gorilla scratches butt. I can't do this. So I thought, okay, I really like what these guys produce as research.

So I'll be the middleman. They can't talk to the public because they're scientists. And that'll be my job. So I got a job as a reporter. And I worked for the Boston Globe. and the editor of the magazine section when they said, you know, these two dinosaur scientists are on TV all the time and they look insane.

And they were. So why don't you go hang out with them and write a story about them? So I said, sure. So I went out to Montana and Utah and I thought, whoa, this is way cooler than being a reporter. And I just, different things about dinosaurs impressed me as a grownup than as a kid.

As a kid, it was the size of the animals themselves and the ability when you had a little to really feel like you're in the world of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, like everybody else, I lose that as a grown-up. But the expedition, the scavenger hunt for pieces of a thing that no one has ever seen before, and these guys who can read an ancient landscape from a desert that you're in and be able to envisage what it was actually like 65 million years ago, that was fascinating to me. And then, of course, the guys are crazy, so that was fun too. Food is terrible and the weather is awful, but I love being in the exotic places too.

So everything about it really appealed to me. And I thought I had a fellowship, mid-career fellowship that exists for journalists, different subjects. There's one at MIT for science. And so I had a year off paid. So I thought I'm going to go to every dinosaur dig in the world.

And it turns out there's only like 35 people in the world who dig dinosaurs. So you could do that. So that's how I got started working with the real thing. And I thought there's so much going on in the science that people don't know that I can write a book about it, which I did, and about 12 people read. And I realized, oh, I should be writing for kids.

But that's how I got started. So, I mean, going from journalism, I mean, do you have to invest official schooling time, or did you just hands-on jump into dino digs and learn there? Well, I never pretend to be a paleontologist, and I don't publish scientific papers, so I'm still a popularizer, you know, like low-budget David Attenborough kind. So just in different media over time, and I have a kind of ADD personality. So every five years I would do something different, but always with dinosaurs.

So movies, TV, books, uh, now I'm doing VR and the last five years with robots. So different things, but, uh, you know, you can learn about dinosaurs a fair amount just by reading and by being present. It's not like brain surgery, you know, uh, I'm not qualified to do either, but it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier to, to dig a dinosaur. It's a very 19th century kind of technology still.

Dig a hole and get things. Out of it. Brain surgery is a lot to deal with. Dinosaurs have been dead for a while, so you don't have to worry about it. No, but I always thought it would be cool to write a book about a mystery where you dug a hole for dinosaurs, but you found a dead guy from like 100 years ago.

Then you had to discern the mystery. That has to have happened at some point, right? I mean, we've been burying dead bodies around this country for years. I know. Maybe Jimmy Hoffa is in it.

Exactly. With a dinosaur somewhere. Jimmy Hoffa was a dinosaur. That's the revelation we've come across. So you've gotten to the point of at least being notable as somebody who kind of knows what they're doing enough that before we even get to the movie part of it, Michael Crichton came to you?

A little bit the opposite. You were hanging out at his house. Yeah, I was just waiting outside. So he, I read in one of the sort of advanced publications of books, I was doing book reviews at the Boston Globe, and I read Oh, this guy, you know, popular author is doing a book on dinosaurs. Oh, I should meet him.

So, you know, his publicist was happy for him to talk to the newspaper. So I interviewed him about the book. And he was a very brilliant, likable guy. And I told him about the charity he was starting for dinosaur research because I go on all these digs and these guys had no money at all. And yet there's all this money made out of popularizing what the researchers they did.

So it just seemed unfair to me. and I knew nothing about the charity and he said you know nothing about a charity and let me help you and he said well first I'll give you a little money which was very nice and then he said I'll introduce you to this little guy with a lot of money Spielberg so I said sure and I didn't actually think about it for a while I knew they were making the movie And then like the third assistant producer called me up one day and said, where do I get Amber? We want to put it in the cane. Where do I get it? So I called some guys in Dominican Republic and found some Amber. Let me get my Amber guy.

Hold on. Amber guy. I find the Amber guy. And then I just kept getting questions like this. And so the involvement in the movie came along kind of slowly, accidentally like that.

And I was really the secondary person, the number one person. The character in the movie is loosely based on is Jack Horner, a paleontologist who was at the museum of the Rockies who, They changed completely because he loved kids and hated adults. In the movie, the guy hates kids and loves grownups. And then I started getting calls like Sam Neill, the guy who plays Alan Grant. So he calls up and he said, I heard you're the guy I'm supposed to talk to.

I said, what can I help you with? He said, well, I want some VHS tapes of David Attenborough. I said, why? You're playing a guy from Montana who doesn't really speak. He said, I didn't ask your opinion.

Welcome to Hollywood. Exactly. So what came out of that experience was at the end of the movie, I said, can I have all the sets and props and the dinosaurs? Because no one's listening to me. And this is not accurate about dinosaurs.

And we can raise a lot of money for charity. And Spielberg is a good guy. He said, sure. And Universal is afraid of Spielberg. So they said, sure.

And we gave Universal a 20% royalty on the exhibit, which they had to then give to the research. So they got a tax break. We got $ 3 million for research, and I got into the museum exhibit business, which really fascinated me a lot. Which, I mean, just kind of working with Spielberg, what was that? Because at that point, I mean, he was already such a huge name.

Post-Jaws, like everything he did after that was huge. So being, you know, one of the few directors that a normal person on the street could name, like, he's kind of huge in the industry. So just kind of being thrown in there with him, what was that like? Well, for me, it was fun. You know, Crichton actually said it. because he directed some movies and he hated the actors, so he stopped directing.

But he said, you know, the first day on the set is the most interesting thing in the world. The second day is the most boring and it stays the most boring because they do the same thing. You know, they might do a hundred takes, but it was fascinating to first see. And I joined the excavation, the fake excavation in Montana, which was really in the Mojave Desert in California. And the first impression I had before I even met Spielberg was this is so bizarre because, you couldn't dig a hole in a national park.

So they made a fake rise with a fake hole in it to put the fake dinosaurs in to have the fake scientists dig. And then, so I'm sitting way back with a hundred people, you know, Spielberg's way up in the front of his director's chair. And I said to the third associate producer I was with, this is wrong. You know, these guys are wearing like buttoned down shirts. People on digs, they haven't had a bath in two weeks.

They should be wearing dirty t-shirts. And she said, oh yeah, I don't know where to get them. I said, I have a suitcase full of dirty t-shirts. So that was one of my big contributions to the movie. And then Laura Dern, if you remember the movie, there's a scene where a guy on the dig is looking at a screen and he's able to see the fossil in the ground.

Unfortunately, no such thing exists. It would be great if it did. And she was saying, well, it took a million years for the tail to curl up like this. Actually, it takes about two hours because you get rigor mortis just like a person. But in their case, the tail bends back.

So I said to the third assistant, this is wrong. So she went, it was like a Merrill Lynch commercial. She went to the second to the first. So we finally got to Spielberg and he said, who said that? I said, ah, shit.

I just got here and I haven't had lunch yet and I'm going to get thrown out. And he said, come up here. We'll rewrite the line. So then we got to talking and I think actually he enjoyed talking to somebody who didn't want something from him. By this point, as you say, he was such a big deal that the movie set is filled with suck ups.

You know, and they all want to get in his face and get promoted so they can be the second assistant director the next time. So, you know, he's just tormented by this. So I just sat there and he would come over and talk about, you know, could ET happen or stuff, you know, hydroponics on Mars, anything that interested him. And he was a very nice guy and amazing to watch because obviously he knows what he's doing. And at this point, there was 100 people on the set working Yeah.

He's got electricians who are lighting the desert in daytime that he has to bark orders to. He's got actors he has to coddle. He's got kid actors who he's really genuinely nice to because he had young kids. He's running the camera himself because he wanted shots. I guess they don't advertise that.

And then he's controlling, too, all the PR who has access to take pictures of the dinosaurs. If you come on the wrong day, he told Good Morning America they have to get lost because they came a day early. So, I mean... he's directing everything and, and being at the same time, having to deal with the studio and be tough with them. So it was, it was quite impressive. And he's not a guy with a lot of formal schooling.

Um, and I said, you know, trying in my own way to suck up, actually, um, I'll name a dinosaur after you because I know lots of scientists, you know, I thought that would appeal to him, but he did not egotistical that way. He said, nah, I don't think so. But what he did say was, uh, you know, we have a rap party at the end where, The actors usually get a car or something. They don't need cars. Let's name a dinosaur after them, and we'll give money to the scientist, and we'll give them a bronze plaque instead.

It was like, eh. And so we named an armored dinosaur from China, Gerasosaurus. And then the species name, like T. rex, was Nettigoa perforcumorum. Rolls off your tongue because N-E for Sam Neill, D-E for Laura Dern, G-O for Goldblum, A for Hattinborough. Anyway, down the list.

So that mouthful. So they all came to the party. I wasn't there. Instead of getting in their cars, they got a bronze plaque. I'm sure they were pissed as hell.

But I thought that was very cool that he did that. There should definitely be a Jeff Goblum-asaurus out there. And he was wonderful. He was exactly, as you would think, insane and very nice. And all the suck-ups were mad at me because I was talking to the director.

So they said, you know, after this movie's over, you're not going to see Steven again. Yeah, I don't think so. Not normally how it happens, really. And they were wrong because when they were doing the ride, I worked on the ride too for Jurassic Park. So he came to the opening of the ride and I was at the urinal and he pulls up right next to me.

So we renewed our acquaintance. So yes, we've kept up. That was it. Well then, I mean, again, that became certainly such a franchise. Did they approach you for any of the sequels or now the Jurassic World and all of that stuff?

Or was it just kind of that first one and you were kind of done? The first one was kind of done because I was a little bit tied to Crichton. He worked on the second one. I worked on promoting it and on the toy line. That was kind of interesting.

But I didn't get along with the screenwriter. And I really don't think they're very well-written movies, even the first one. I mean, it's great special effects. I had great appreciation of dinosaurs. At one point, I went to one of the producers, Patrick Crowley, and he's still producing the latest one.

And he was the rudest human being I ever met in my life. So, a friend of mine who's a director had arranged the meeting. I go over to his office and he said, what do you want? I said, well, we arranged to meet. What are you so hostile for?

He said, I'm busy. I said, well, I came all this way. He said, what do you want? So I said, well, could you infuse this shitty sequels? I didn't say that, but the sequels with some of the appreciation, the reverence for dinosaurs, instead of just making them into be monsters, he said, get out of my office.

Nice. Nice. So I had, I had, I had a lot of sets of props still from the movie, And I had a head of a velociraptor and I brought it with me to give him as present. And I left it there. And then I got a call later from Kathy Kennedy, who was Spielberg's friend, who was a direct producer and worked on ET and stuff.

She said, you know, the head that you left in his office was infested with wasps and all the wasps escaped into his office. I said, yes. Your trap worked. My evil plan. So no, no connection to them.

I worked on the Disney dinosaur movie and that's really it for Hollywood until lately. About three years ago, two years ago, a guy calls me and says, I was in your daughter's fourth grade class. That's how the real connections are made. I'm 42 years old or whatever. He said, you helped me with my dinosaur paper.

And I said, well, yeah, a little late. He said, no, I worked for Spielberg and we're making a dinosaur movie, all dinosaurs. And I know you were frustrated because you came along. It's too late in the day to really influence the dinosaurs, which are so inaccurate. why don't you work on this one? And it's just starting.

I said, oh, what's the story? He said, we don't have one. Why don't you work with the writer? And the writer is the guy who wrote A Jungle Book, the movie, and he wrote Top Gun and Shogun, so big cheese writer. So I worked with him.

We had some phone calls and I contributed maybe 1% to the story. He wrote and got it in just before the writer's strike. And it was a really good script, but because It was Universal, and Universal does Spielberg's ambulance films. They tabled it in favor of all these Jurassic Park sequels. And unfortunately, the new movie made a lot of money.

They did make a lot of money. They're going to make Jurassic Park 57. And I hope this thing doesn't stay on the shelf all the time because it's a really good story just with dinosaurs. It would have really cool animation, very accurate dinosaurs. But that would be a Spielberg-produced movie but not directed by him.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and then I know you've, like you said, you've had some issues with inaccuracies and stuff. So how does that factor into, I guess, even just watching other things? Because that's what I was thinking. I've loved so many cheesy dinosaur movies over the years that I'm like, can you watch those?

Or are there certain ones that you know are so wrong, but you still kind of enjoy them for the fun of it? Oh, yeah. I mean, I love Valley of the Gwangi, which was like an iguana dressed as a dinosaur. I love those. I mean, it's a riot.

And I'm not such a stickler, but. When you could do it right, I see no reason not to. Especially now when you have budgets like these. Yeah. And so when I worked on the Disney cartoon movie, they had dinosaurs from all different time periods.

I said, why don't you put them all, just take a group of dinosaurs that live at the same time. He said, no, we're Disney. I said, and do you have to kill off the mother in the beginning of the movie like you do every single one of your movies? We're Disney. He said, yes, we're Disney.

Exactly. This is what we do. We traumatize children. So they just went ahead and did whatever they wanted. But, you know, if you made an accurate movie about dinosaurs, a really accurate movie, it'd be the most boring thing in the world.

T-Rex would miss nine times out of ten. The other guys would be going to the bathroom all the time. It just would be terrible. So I understand. But, yes, if they're depicting them in any way, this is more a case when you do kids' books or, you know, there's some scientific article.

Then you want to get the illustration right. Yeah. I mean, just why teach people wrong? If it's just entertainment purposes, it's a little different. But yeah, especially kids' books like that.

You would want to get it right. So I'd written this grown-up book, and then I looked around at the kids' books, and they were so bad then because it was written by a librarian who read the book that was in the library. So it was like three sets of books, which was wrong 20 years before that. So I wrote this thing in the New York Times book review section about what's wrong with this, you know, up on a soapbox. And of course, nobody could care.

So then I realized, I'm talking to myself. So then I started writing kids' books on what was really happening with the science and using good illustrators and stuff. So that was fun for a while to do that. But, you know, I realized that I hate to be on a soapbox, but that, you know, we find as grown-ups, I think, that there's still pretty interesting dinosaurs, but If you're three days, this is the most important thing in your life. As it should be.

Yeah, as it should be. And I envy them how much they can immerse themselves in it. So this is the way we complain about how they're not interested in science. They're interested in science. So use the dinosaurs as the gateway to making kids science literate.

So I kind of feel like that's the most important thing to do in this field. That is one of those things that, especially as I've gotten older, it is amazing that it just never changes. I remember having those same little plastic bag of dinosaurs. They're still selling the same mold and everything. I'm just like little kids 50 years later doing the exact same thing.

It's crazy. We think of it as grown-ups. We think everything has to be a fad. Oh, there's another dinosaur fad. No, you're right.

It's constant. We just didn't supply them the product. At one point when toy companies used to buy television. They could buy a half hour. I forgot what they were called.

They were dinosaur men. They were up on dinosaurs. Yeah. I definitely remember this. They were like ant men or something.

I think I have some version of them in a box somewhere now. Yeah. So like Mattel made the toy. Nobody watched the show. Nobody bought the toys.

So they got rid of the ant men and they just sold the dinosaurs. They got Smithsonian to get a license to use them. And they're still selling them as dinosaurs. Yeah. I mean, again, it never goes out of style.

Dinosaurs, they're always cool. Yeah. And so, I mean, they really do something. You know, I try to think about why this is. And people have written articles about different theories about it.

But it's so special what they can do. Because if you're three years old in a world of fantasy, you can have Barney. You're eight years old and you collect things. You can collect all the names of dinosaurs. If you're digging things, you can dig dinosaurs.

If you want to say the names of the dinosaurs. and have your parents tell you how awesome you are, because you could say stegosaurus. It does that. If you want monsters, but you know they're dead, so they're not under the bed, you're not scared. You want something bigger than your parents. I mean, they can do all that.

So it's an amazing thing. And again, just sort of moving forward, the actual accurate representations of it, like just outside, I was walking around looking at them, and it is kind of a different thing to put them in scale. and have them actually sort of be an actual version of what would be standing there if you were in Jurassic Park. So, yeah, I mean, I guess at what point did it occur to you that was what you wanted to do? It was November 22nd. I was in China six years ago, I think, because I always wanted to go to this quarry that I'd read about long before.

In the 1960s, a gas company had excavated in this town, a little town in Sichuan, and they found the best, Remains of dinosaurs. It just looked like a museum had been toppled. I mean, seriously, they had the tails, which you rarely find. They had complete skulls of giant dinosaurs, of which there are only 20 in the world. So I always wanted to go to this place.

I went. And while I was there, the guide said, you know, this is the town where we make all the robots. Do you want to go see them? I said, no. They suck.

They look like they have Parkinson's, and they're not accurate, and they're half the size. And he said, well, what else have you got to do? Go anyway. So I went. And it turned out there's no mold.

I assumed it was like a toy, like a giant toy. And they just kept making the same shit. Well, they make different shit each time. And it was little old ladies with X-Acto knives and couch cushions carving the foam, seriously, over a metal armature with windshield wiper motors to power these things. And I thought, geez, if I get a scientist and maybe an engineer and an artist, we can make full-size dinosaurs.

And I'm still not excited about the limited movement of robots. But you're right. To be able to create... full size. You can't even get that in a movie. And so that's part of the, how magnificent they are that there's could be a living thing, a hundred feet long walking on the earth.

And so, okay, I can recreate that. So that was pretty cool. And there weren't that many. I remember the only thing I had seen, um, Indianapolis children's museum had like a couple of them, like, again, this was decades ago, but like, That was the only thing I remember seeing as a kid, and nowhere else had anything even close to the real thing. So getting the scale out there and just kind of standing next to it is sort of amazing, just to kind of get a feel for what you would have been dealing with right before you got eaten.

If people were around with dinosaurs, which, depending on who you talk to, there's a. Lot of confusion there. In Kentucky, they were around. Exactly. Let's not go down that road.

It was cool, too, for me, because I could recreate any dinosaur. I mean, you want to do the favorites because kids love them, but I had excavated Argentinosaurus, which is probably the biggest. And so I thought, oh, what the hell? I could make this. I did it twice.

I'll never do it again because it's four containers, 40 foot containers to make, to put the one dinosaur and then have to put it together and then move it again. So, but to be able to remake the things that I've been working on or the dinosaur here, they have this named after me that I can actually make them. So it's kind of, I'm like, oh, I can build these toys. How long does the assembly take when you get to a new city? It's not me.

It's people who know what they're doing. Thankfully. I can show up when it's done. But we have these cruises. They're like roadies, you know.

And they love traveling, thank God, because what a life. So we do about 20 exhibits a year. And we have five different crews. It takes them between a week and two weeks to put them together. And half of the work is the sewing.

Because the big things, bigger than 20 feet, are in sections. And each time you sew it, you want to cover over the stitches so it doesn't look like he's been seen. Frankenstein dinosaur. Right. And so that takes a little effort.

And these guys are really good. So two weeks to install, maybe a little less to de-install. So we have a lot of guys going all the time around the world doing this. That's amazing. Well, that's where I was originally going to go, but then I knew it was a different question for you, because now everybody is like, what's your favorite dinosaur?

When you have your own dinosaur, I feel like that's an unfair question, dude. It's not my favorite. Well, I guess tell people how you got your own dinosaur, and then you can tell us what your favorite is. I went to Kmart, aisle six. No, you can't name a dinosaur after yourself.

And I'm not the lead scientist or a scientist dealing with this, so it's not kosher for me to do it. a scientist in Argentina who was finding a lot of dinosaurs and was kind of an opportunist guy. He thought, Oh, that's some guy must have a lot of money because he's doing these exhibits. I'll name a dinosaur after him and then he'll give me money. Funding. That's all about funding.

It's absolutely all about, he named another dinosaur after an Italian publisher because he thought he'd get some money. I think he got money out of that guy, but he was absolutely wrong about me too late. So I'm sitting home one day and a paper arrives on the porch, you know, a magazine from Argentina and, And I'm looking at it, and, you know, a scientific article has a little Precy in English, then the rest is in Spanish in this case. But it says, you know, named after philanthropist Don Lessam. And I said, holy shit.

I'm a philanthropist. I'm a philanthropist, and I have a dinosaur. And, you know, half of all the dinosaurs named are inaccurate and are thrown out. So my first worry was I'm going to be invalidated. But then he found three complete skeletons and it turned out to be actually a fairly significant transitional animal between the early four and two-legged giant plant eaters and the really big four-legged guys.

So I'm going to survive as a dinosaur. But he's kind of dopey, and it doesn't have much going for him. Big stomach, little brain. So my favorite is. That's the way to be.

It's accurate. It doesn't have a mustache. But the Troodon is my favorite. It's a little meat-eater, feathered guy, who was, at the end of dinosaur time, smartest dinosaur of all. He's smaller than us, but he had a brain the size of an avocado pit, which is pretty big.

Bigger than mammals, our ancestors of that time. So I just like the idea that there's a smart little dinosaur. And that's how he survived, probably. Just outsmart the big dumb ones. Yeah.

Yeah, I think he was actually, he had big eyes. Maybe he was a twilight hunter or something. Yeah. Well, I guess what is the best way for people to track down your dinosaurs and see them? You say you're touring around.

Is there just an overall site where they kind of map out where they're going? No, they should buy one for their living room. Funding. It's all about funding. Well, you know, I went on Shark Tank.

I did see that. As a result, we did get some crackpot people wanting one for their living room. But that's not common. So you can go see on our website where to find the dinosaurs. There are about 20 zoos now and a couple of museums in Europe and the U.S.

And because you don't want to show dinosaurs every year at a zoo, so next year they won't be here. Every three years, there's a new generation of fanatics. Kids, you know, they keep having kids. They keep rolling in here with them. So many little kids here.

It's great. And so we do now Ice Age animals, exhibits of those, pollinator insects, giant sized, and dragons, which basically are dinosaurs. Pretty much, yeah. And so we have all these other animals. And I once made a Dino Don, a 15-foot high version of me.

It's really frightening. Everyone thinks it's like a Mexican restaurant advertisement Like a taco salesman. It should be. I know. Maybe it will be because nobody wants it.

I want to go there and get a burrito. I've got little. Dinosaurs hanging off me. So one day, he can go on display someplace. And all the sick dinosaurs, after they go on tour, end up in my yard.

That's even cooler. That's cool. Yes, it's cool. I can have dinosaurs at home. Well, and since you brought it up, what's Mark Cuban like to work with?

I don't know about. Well. I wouldn't say we work with him. He likes to make it seem like that on the show. Oh, yeah.

And he did a good pitch on the show about how he's going to help us, and I believed it. We knew he was going to be the one, which is why we printed on the back of our shirts, Mark Cuban, to do it. And on the show, it appears that we are doing this for 25% of the company for $ 500, 000. In reality, he lent us $ 500, 000 at 7%. And a lot of restrictive covenants.

And Disney had a whole bunch. And ABC had a whole bunch. By the way, ABC has the rights to my life story and has the right to disparage me in any media. I had to sign on to that. I don't know why they want to do that.

That's why you have to create the giant Mexican restaurant version of you and tell your real story, the unofficial version of you. As told to. As told through the Mexican restaurant. On the back of a menu, I'll tell you my story. So Cuban, what he wants is the publicity.

This is chump change for him. It's lunch money. But he does not want you to fail. I would reflect poorly on it. So I like to do different things, like I'm doing VR now.

And he would not approve of that. And so he had the right to say no. So most of my conversations with him, I would email him. He would respond instantly. Any hour of the day, I don't know what he's doing.

Nothing, it sounds like. And the answer was always no. so as soon as we could we paid him back and he's gone but he didn't have any contacts to give us at least in the world at one point we thought we were going to build a dinosaur city because he owns a ghost town in Texas of course he does that was actually a very nice thing he did this guy who owned this derelict town where somebody had been murdered and there was like three strip clubs and they all burned down anyway the guy was dying and needed the money and so Cuba nicely bought the town And so he thought he would make it into Dinosaur City, which was a really cool idea. Then somehow he changed his mind and it never happened. Now it's just met in the middle of Dinosaur Strippers, which is kind of a good idea if you ask me, but I have different tastes than most people.

No, you are like most people, actually. I have a friend who's a documentary producer and he's telling me about how the quality of documentaries goes down all the time and he does a lot of stuff for Discovery Channel, whatever. And so he had to pitch stupider and stupider ideas. And finally, just as a joke, he said, how about fire-breathing strippers explaining physics? And they said yes, and it got made.

Yeah, that's what you kind of need at this point, yeah. So maybe I can get fire-breathing stripper dinosaur exhibit. Hanging out in the Mexican restaurant. I like how this is all coming together. All right, well, yep, definitely go out and find your dinosaurs and go see them, and then buy one for your yard.

But thank you for talking with me. My pleasure. On the whole face of the earth today, there is no place more terrifying than the Valley of Gwangi. In Technicolor. Alright, so thank you to Don, and as we ease our way into our decision, I also had a, um, hey, what have you been watching, only a lot of times it's creepy for us.

This, you know, there's a lot of spookiness going on in this in their own weird way, but it also was dino-related, because I just in the last day watched The Lost World, colon, Jurassic Park. When was the last time you've seen that one? Cause that's the thing. That was kind of my reason is like, I think the last time I saw it was the theater. I.

You know, I, I will fully admit I've only seen two or three of the Jurassic. I've seen all of them. And that's the thing that first one, like I just know by heart at this point, like it is just, I've seen it so many times. I've had it on in the background back in the day at work on a loop. Like I just, I've heard it so many times.

I know the dialogue. I know the dinosaurs, some of them by name. So yeah, it's like, I'm so used to that first one that like, and then I hadn't seen three like for at all when it came out because at that point everybody was like, eh, who cares? We're all over it now. And then I, I just in the last, I don't know, six or eight years finally got around to watching three and that was the only one that was like missing.

But then the more I thought about it, I was like, I don't think I've even rewatched that. Not that it's, So which one is that in the series? It's the second one. It is, oddly enough, based on... It's so weird.

So the first one is based on the book by Michael Crichton. The second one, he didn't want to do a sequel. So he set it up in his contract. You can only make a second movie if I write the book. And I don't want to write another book, so you guys are screwed.

And then they convinced him to write another book. So it's then a version of a sequel to the book, but the book was different than the movie. So it's kind of a sequel to the movie in novel form, which is then going to be taken by a screenwriter and turned into a movie. It's the weirdest thing. It's very strange.

And then did someone come back afterwards and make a novelization of the movie? Probably. And if it was Alan Dean Foster, you're welcome. Because that man, he's an artist. But.

Yeah, I rewatched it and it was, I guess, as good as I remembered. And that's maybe, I don't know that that's a slam. Right. But even at the time, I remember before I heard any other behind the scenes stuff, I was like, yeah, it's just not really full on, not only as a movie as a whole, but also it's not full on Spielberg either. Like, it's weird that it's so.

Seemingly uncommitted. Well, did he direct it? He directed it, technically. Now, that's another one of those weird things. The screenwriter that came on board was David Koepp, and David Koepp had it in his contract that he would write the screenplay, got a huge amount of money for doing an adaptation, but would do it only if he then was the second unit director.

But... unbeknownst to him, what was coming up was Spielberg was not really into this. Like he was so into the first one and had so much fun. And after the fact, I think even he said like, I kind of came in too cocky and was like, he didn't want to storyboard stuff. He's like, I just want to make a movie and it'll be fun. And like, he just kind of came in and as he got in there, he wasn't all that committed.

He also, this is that transition where you've got like 70 Spielberg where like, who cares about kids and family? It's all about your dad went off and left you and you're raising yourself. And, you know, so like the 70s version of him is a very different, but we're getting to like 90s. And by then he's a dad. So you also get father mode kicking in.

So he also had real world things going on. Like the story I heard, and I haven't gone back to double check and make sure this is a real thing. But who cares? It matches everything else I've heard. At one point, this is also, we saw the technology in that first one of, like, how we can make dinosaurs.

Well, this is also the technology of, like, being able to beam yourself back and forth via, you know, 90s-wise. It is funny watching it. They're satellite phones like a freaking suitcase. Oh, sure. So you forget how quickly those things changed.

But that was also, like, the beginning of you being able to, like, get on a FaceTime type of thing and talk to somebody across the country. So he started doing that. And then he had stuff come up with the kids and it was like his kid's birthday. And he's like, well, I want to be there for my kid's birthday. So the story I heard was he went to wherever versus where they were shooting to be with his kid's birthday and like directed via the zoom version at the time, like whatever thing they were using, he was like beaming in and going, Oh, Yeah, okay, now shoot that over there.

Yeah, okay, cool. We're going to go do Hick. Bye. So, like, if ever there was a phoning it in, literally, like, he was phoning in the directing job on this. And then there were several other times that they were like, because David Koepp was the second assistant director or, like, the second, he was supposed to be doing, like, second unit stuff when Spielberg took off and decided he was, you know, bored with this.

He got moved up a notch and had to do the actual directing. So they said there's like a good eight days where he's just not there. So he's just full on directing. And then basically, normally, you're still shooting the key scenes if you're the director. But in this case, if the leads weren't in the scene, he was shooting.

So the whole cold open that has other people, that's all David Depp. It's just. It ends up being like 30% of the movie is not Spielberg. So that's kind of a big thing, especially for somebody like Spielberg, who is as talented and committed as he normally is. So watching it, yeah, I see it.

Like it's there. But it is interesting because it's one of those that's both because he's so damn good. Like you'll get to a section, not even like a full scene sometimes. It's just like, oh, this scene's just kind of dragging on, whatever. And then there's a visual that kick in.

Oh, like, oh, oh, he planned that. Like, that's Spielberg. Like, that is a visual that only he came up with. He planned that ahead of time and showed up enough to make sure that happened. And then went, all right, now go shoot that stuff over there with the dinosaur wandering around or whatever.

So there's just moments that kick in. You're like, oh, there he is. He was there that day. So there's still these really good sequences. There's a super tense sequence.

Again, we already had weird stuff going on with the T-Rex in that first one. This one, they like shove an RV, caravan type RV off of a cliff and we're like hanging there. It's super tense. I mean, that one is very effective. So like there's definite stuff that's really well done.

And the wrap up is the most fun thing ever. So I won't go into that, but that wasn't even in the screenplay originally. It's just something he wanted to do. And again, he's winging it. So he's just like, I think that's the difference.

If anybody else did that, this would just be garbage. But when, when Spielberg half asses a movie, it's still so much better than most people out there that it's, yeah, it's, it's a different experience. So it's, it's fine. That's my takeaway. It's fine.

It's fine. It's also interesting. I forgot how long ago it was because everybody's like freaking kid. I'm like, I totally forgot. Vince Vaughn is in this thing.

Is it really? But it, It's like Swingers Vaughn. Because I thought maybe it was because of that. Swingers wasn't even out yet. He'd shot it, but got this as a regular gig and just happened to become the biggest thing in the world when Swingers took off.

And then luckily was already booked in the next giant moneymaker coming out. So that was interesting. Watching a not turned into Vince Vaughn yet, Vince Vaughn. He's a weird character in that. Because you're not really sure what to do with him.

Yeah, Julianne Moore. She was sort of a thing. Still like nine months, I guess, is like her biggest thing at that point. So not quite action star that you would expect, but weird and possible weight. Again, he's pulling people out of like art scene stuff.

Yeah. That was good. At that point, I was like, oh, the guy from Romeo plus Juliet. Cool. Or like technically he's an alien three, but you know, any random bald headed dude was an alien three.

So that doesn't mean that much. And then Peter Stormare, do you know him by name? Cause every time I see him, I'm like, Oh yeah, that guy from Fargo. So the big guy, not the funny looking guy. He's in there and he's just an ass.

Like he just sucks. And I'm like, that's just kind of what you cast him for. You need somebody to come in and be a cad. And yeah. He does pretty good.

But it is, again, coming out of Fargo and then going to this big, goofy blockbuster with dinosaurs and whatnot. Yeah, yeah. It was interesting. I enjoyed it as much as I thought I was going to. At least you weren't disappointed.

No, no. Again, for as long as it had been since I'd seen it, I kind of remembered how I felt about it last time, and that was pretty much the same, so. Now I just know the backstory of how much he didn't really care about doing that movie. So it makes a little more sense now, because otherwise you'd be like, what the hell's going on with Spielberg? Well, now you know.

Sounds like no one was really committed to it, you know? Not really. I mean, I guess Cap was like, here's my chance. I get to direct the biggest movie in the world. And we all know him as the biggest director now.

Oh, no, wait, not really, so. Didn't really work out for him. Totally. But I guess he got a good paycheck out of it. I hope so.

How many Jurassic Park movies are there now? 94. Yeah. There's a trilogy. Especially in like the last three years.

I feel like they've put out 10. Well, they got to keep that franchise going. Yeah. It is weird the gap we had though. Yeah.

Because there's a trilogy and then a reboot trilogy. And then they acted like, okay, and we're done. Except no, we're not. Yeah. Yeah.

Can we get Scarlet? Okay, we're back. Yeah. And again. And even that one, I went and saw it because it's a freaking Jurassic Park dinosaur movie.

I want to see it in the theater. So I went and saw it. It's actually probably one of the more entertaining ones. Now, plot wise, whatever. I mean, it's so like, it's almost video game-esque of like, quest fetch.

Here's this case and we have to get samples of dinosaurs. So this is your mission to get this first dinosaur and fill the case. Then move on to the second dinosaur. Like it's so specific in those things. Yeah.

And then you've just got, I mean, just sort of paper thin side characters. And even the two or three that are main characters, like even Scarlet, we don't really know anything about her, which is, It's weird, because that's one of the things on that first movie that is so good. It's like the structure as a whole is perfect. It's kind of your go-to. If you need a modern era blockbuster type of movie that holds up, it is just structurally perfect.

And so this one, you know... But it also, as much as it made a caricature of the basic people, it also then gave the actors room to like, okay, now you guys... develop the hell out of this so like those handful of actors in that first movie like you really feel like you get to know them and you know without them spelling out the backstory they fill in just enough that you know why they're there and what their motivation is and yeah this one i'm just like scarlet wants to shoot a dinosaur with that tranquilizer again like just yeah everybody there you're just like i know who they are i kind of know what they're doing and I don't even know that dude's name and he's going to die in a minute. Yeah.

There's ones that I'm like, you might as well just put a red shirt on, dude, because you ain't going to be, you are not long for this fake world. So to answer your question, there are seven Jurassic Park movies. Yeah, trilogy, trilogy, and a one. Wow. Yeah, but according to this, Jurassic World Rebirth is intended to kick off a new trilogy.

It made a fortune. That's the thing. For something that people didn't seem to care about, at the same time they were like, dinosaurs on the movie screen, let's go back. So people all ran back and it made a fortune. So why would they not make more dinosaur movies?

So yes. And also, side section, there's at least one, maybe I think two... There's at least a running series of animated stuff. Camp Cretaceous. Since the Jurassic World era, they started this like offshoot that's sort of for kids, but also from what I've heard, kind of scary.

Like, so it's an animated show that takes place in the Jurassic Park setting and has some of the same characters and has some of the same dinosaur characters. And so, yeah, it's another, that's how huge this universe is. It's a lot of stuff going on there. yeah so we'll start with the main question i don't know if you want to go into non-related to movies do you want to pick a favorite dinosaur or just go with our movies and then it'll probably be the same thing mine's kind of the same thing i don't think i have any movies What the hell are you thinking? I know. I've seen the first Jurassic Park.

It was good. I just mean dinosaurs in the movies. We were coming up with our favorite dinosaurs and then favorite dinosaurs from movies. So, do you have an outside of this favorite dinosaur that you sit around and play with your plastic dinosaurs on a daily basis? And you're like, this is my favorite one.

Roar! And you attack the cats with it. Why are you saying that like it's supposed to be a joke? I know, that's why. I assume that's what the two of us are doing every day.

I only then assume you want to torment your cats with dinosaurs. Well, do like saber-toothed tigers count as dinosaurs? I think that's a mammal. That's a totally different period of time. I don't know.

I'm not a dinosaur person. Now you're in the ice age for it. So all your movies are going to be Ice Age characters. Oh, I don't like those either. I don't know.

Pass. I don't think I've watched any of them. I pass. Go, Phillip. Okay.

Well, after doing much consideration, I was able to pare this down to three with an honorable mention. As we threw out the... Because, again, I was like, I wanted to separate... So we'll throw that out, too. I wanted to separate out the Jurassic because...

Like your go-to's are all going to be Jurassic Park if that's what you do. So I'm just like, there's so many characters that are also dinosaurs that I'm like, okay, let's do that as a whole separate thing. So if you take out Jurassic Park, what are your favorite dinosaurs from movies became the question. And then I didn't make it a like top 10 list because I'm like, Nora will die. She's going to be like, I don't know what the hell you idiots are talking about.

So I was like, let's just come up with three. So from that. I will start with the worst of the bunch, but it's still awesome in its own right. It's Tammy and the T-Rex. See, I came up with a few silly ones because, you know, why wouldn't I?

And most of the Jurassic Park ones are very serious. My number one on this list is very silly. There were a few that I wrote down that I was like, this might be on my list. I can't even believe there are some of these that I haven't seen. So I'll let you finish so I don't steal anything.

No, you're good. But one of them written here is Tammy and the T-Rex, which I haven't seen. Oh, my God, Brian. How is it that I haven't seen starring vehicle for Denise Richards? I'm sure she's so proud.

Tammy and the T-Rex. So that's why it's not on my list. It's a. It's a big hole in my geekery. If you can find the bootleg unedited version, I highly recommend it.

The director's cut. Yes. Criterion edition. Terrible, terrible movie where a young woman's boyfriend has her brain transplanted into a mechanical dinosaur, which is... Yeah, I know how that sounds, but the animatronics.

All of these sound ridiculous as we get into this. The animatronics for the dinosaur for that time were really, really impressive. The rest of the movie is so bad. They don't even find a way to make the dinosaur robot with the living human brain. They don't even find a way to make it talk, which I would have thought would have been.

The whole thing. That was day one. You're like your main push for this if you're trying to convince them that people, dinosaur, you know, like brain switching, whatever. I don't know how the standard cut is because I was really lucky and got to see the director's cut. And I don't feel like I need to watch...

Really lucky. I don't feel like I need to watch this movie ever again in any version. However... The hell yeah. The rest of the special effects are just so bad.

So bad and so stupid. It's worth watching, just to say, I saw that. That was a thing that someone made. Do you want to bounce back and forth with me? Yeah, let's do that.

Are you totally sitting out on this one? Yeah, I'll go take a nap. I gave you a heads up so you could do dinosaur homework if you wanted. How did she even get involved in this show? I mean, I threw it out just as like she'd be like, this is ridiculous.

No, you two get away from me. And you didn't say that. So this is really your own fault. So first I have to start with my, I guess, honorable mention because I have to get it out of the way. Well, I have to get it out of the way because it was my first thought when I came up with this dumb idea.

And immediately I was like, ah, but that's TV. And then kind of it's not. So my first thought of a fun dinosaur that I, from childhood on, have been like, that's awesome. When they have the dream sequence on Gilligan's Island and there's dinosaur, big dinosaur. Yeah.

That is, like, again, my attachment to Gilligan's Island is probably sad. But it's pretty committed. It's worrisome. Yeah, it should be. But it's okay, Marianne's going to come save me.

Yes, she is, Brian. With a coconut cream pie. So what I then found out recently in checking on this, I was like, well, that's obviously a TV show, so that can't count. But even funnier is they stole that footage. So the dinosaur itself is from the movie Dinosaurs.

And I'm saying that with an exclamation point because the title has an exclamation point. From 1960. And if you go and watch it, that same footage of the dinosaur that they very briefly cut to is in Dinosaurs. So technically, but since I've never actually watched Dinosaurs, I couldn't count that one. Yeah.

But that was the one I thought of initially. So my actual number one option, and these aren't, these actually aren't in any order. This is just what I came up with in this ridiculous brain order. Along those same ridiculous lines, the T-Rex from Caveman. Oh, man.

Is that on? Yeah. Well, I came up with alternates, so we can share that. No, you're good. If you don't have alternates.

You're good. Or you can use your honorable mention. I can use my honorable mention. So then we both have something to say about that. First off, I'm not really a fan of the star.

I don't know how you feel about that guy. You don't like Ringo Starr? I really don't. How can you not? I never have.

And as time's going on now, I really don't. Because every time I see footage of him as his old version of himself, he's just being an asshole. And I'm like, I don't like that guy. So, I don't know how you feel about him as a drummer. But as an actor, he's also.

Not that great. Oh, no. I never said he was a good actor. Where are you staying on drummer? Well, drummer, no.

I think he's an amazing drummer. Okay. I've had this debate many times with many people. And I will not. I have nowhere to really gauge it.

I have no authority on that one. But as an actor, I can say I'm not impressed. But it is weird that that's where he went. Like, you're coming off of the career that he was, and he's like, I'm going to make a movie with dinosaurs, and it's going to be really ridiculous. You're also coming out of a band with three of the world's greatest songwriters, and you're not known for your songwriting ability.

And that I will give credit to for the other three, as much as I have issues personally with some of them. One of them is kind of an asshole as well. Well, I'm not denying that. They all can write songs, the other three. Octopus's Garden, on the other hand, well, you know.

That's a great song. I don't care what anybody says. That is a catchy song. Only because you picture an octopus playing drums the whole time, which, that as a visual is pretty awesome. Partly.

Anyway, there's a T-Rex. He's cheesily animated. He's very silly. At one point, he eats special plants. and gets kind of loopy. Oh.

It's a ridiculous movie. Oh, it's a, yeah. Again, if you, assuming you haven't seen it, Nora, if I told you that there was a movie that had Ringo Starr as a caveman wearing loincloths and giant beard and carrying, I'm assuming there's a club he carries around the whole time. I don't know if he does, but I know he's chased. Somebody definitely does.

Because that's how you date. He's chased by Bull Shannon with a club. Well, yeah. Again, the rest of the cat, yeah, that's the thing, that it stars... Ringo Starr, Dennis Quaid, and Shelley Long.

And there are, by the way, almost no actual English words. What? Just gibberish words and grunts and zug-zug and random nonsense words. It's an hour. And a half of ridiculous slapstick comedy.

It is so ridiculous. It is very ridiculous. Yeah, why did Ringo Starr do this? Because someone said, would you like some money to make this movie? It is a very odd choice, though, I have to say.

And there are a couple of English words. There's one character, that's the joke, is he. Well, right. He. He has a few words for us, so we'll put it that way.

But it is a ridiculous movie, and I do like the dinosaur. So that was where I went with that one. What's next on your list? I have not seen it in years, but as a child, I was a huge fan of Baby, Secret of the Lost Legend. See, that was on my, sort of, but that's one of those, I feel like I kind of watched it on cable at the time.

I have not, because I know people are like committed to that movie. Oh, yeah. Like, one recently, and they like freaked out. They were just like, oh, no, it's awesome. They were attached at a level of childhood that I don't think you could have convinced them any different.

This was the best movie ever made. Well, I remember as a child, the special effects were very impressive, and the dinosaur was very believable looking. And now... I feel like I remember the visuals and I'm like I don't know how I'd feel about him if I watched it now I still probably will watch it but I just haven't gotten to it in recent years. I'm going to look up pictures of this and try not to be.

Disappointed I guess at that point I would have said he's a brontosaurus I think now is that one of those there isn't a brontosaurus they're all brachiosaurus and nine other versions of types of animals that aren't a brontosaurus anymore Well, this. Actually, looking at it now, this looks like a dinosaur that they made based on. Oh, he's cute. He is cute. He is cute.

It's very cute. And it's all practical puppetry because this was pre-CG world. So it's a real animal type thing. It's sitting there being manipulated. These pictures of the puppet give it these just dead eyes.

That's not good. There's a picture of Baby with his mommy and it's like. They both look like they're just, there's nothing behind those eyes. Again, that's why it's so impressive when you see, you know, when you get to your Jurassic parks, cause I'm like, it's kind of hard to make that look real when you're not doing, you know, for comedy purposes. Like you can make a Muppet when it looks like, you know, the funniest thing ever and you're going to love it.

But like when you're trying to make it look real and still perform actions, that's a rough, that's a rough job. So yeah. Yeah. I've never heard of that movie it's a classic for a lot of people. It was shown on tv as dinosaur secret of the lost legend for reasons that i'm still not familiar certain.

I think they're just trying to trick people sometimes oh and it's available. On youtube apparently there's a lot of nudity which is odd. Well it's it is set in africa so they are tribes people yeah. Yeah because that's the thing as you said that i was like i don't remember i remember that i remember it being kind of a family feature but. Because that's that's in like the first scene that's your your thanks killing moment baby two seconds in pretty much.

Here they are all right if we're moving on my next one is a very brief one but again i was trying to think of something fun So this also might be one of yours. I kind of have a feeling it is. Now that I think of it. Also dream sequence, the dinosaur that eats Pee Wee's bike. Oh, no.

No, but I did. That was my original honor roll mention. It's very, yeah, it's very minimal. But as I went back to look at it, and it's fun that it almost matches the one they're sitting in. Yeah.

Yeah, I was thinking of that dinosaur that they go up and sit in. But yeah, there's that one. So we've already got two dinosaurs like in the real world. And then he has his horrible dream sequence. And I'm guessing it was all clay animation because of the director.

Right. So yeah, it's kind of so much fun. And he just beats Pee Wee's bike. So yeah, I mean, how do you not love Pee Wee's Big Adventure? I don't know.

I have heard. I have. People that i have seriously considered stop being friends with tell me they don't like it i mean i can't give me a good reason why well. Again i know people have issues with peewee in general so i've heard someone recently and i was like it's almost fighting words at this point i'm like no because what you're saying is wrong because they always have reasons and they're always misinformed about the reasons and i'm like no no and no so yeah i it's best to not talk to those people because it's gonna be a fight But dinosaurs, eating bikes. It's fun for the whole family.

Well, even just the way they have them, the big ones in the movie, the way they have them lit up and the way they shoot them. That's one of the few. I want to go to there. That's the thing. I was going to say, that's one of the few decent things I can think of about the world is as far as I know, they're still there.

I hope so. When, I know at least at the time, I think when he passed away, they painted it where he was wearing a little suit like his. Yes. That was adorable. Yes.

So, yeah, they're still out there and people still love them. So I also like those two. That was a good one. Now, what was my honorable mention, I guess is now my number one on my list for today, is Palm Springs with Andy Samberg. Okay.

It is. Yeah, I heard there is one and then totally forgot about Palm Springs altogether. So I have not seen that. Well, it is a Groundhog Day. they rip off. There are a lot of those.

For lack of a better word, I don't mean it in a bad way. That has become its own sub-genre now. Yeah. But there is, it all involves them being stuck in the time loop, all involves this like cave that they stumble on. But there's one night where Andy Samberg, and unfortunately I can't remember the female lead in that movie, they're camped out around the cave and a parade of dinosaurs walks out.

And it's just really cool. I mean, it's just like, it's just a, four second shot and but it's it's them having this magical moment but they uh you you know you can barely even make out the dinosaurs but the movie overall is quite good that's a cool scene so i want to see dinosaurs walk out of a cave they gave me magical time i mean. That's the thing even the the smaller ones because there were two or three others that i thought of that i was just like well again they're not in it much because i was like i know there's a i know there's a a t-rex i think in my science project and then i went back to find that scene and they're just attacking him with automatic weapons this is just sad i don't want that one to be my list like it's just sad for the dinosaur but i remember that movie being kind of awesome i watched that a lot in the day you didn't so you're done with your honorable mentions now because you didn't neither of us got to the other one that's like the most ridiculous i want to see if you're familiar with this one nora how familiar are you with theodore rex not at all once again if i told you there was a futuristic sci-fi buddy cop movie starring whoopi goldberg and a giant robotic looks like a dinosaur from the tv show dinosaurs t-rex movie Does that seem like a thing that actually exists or I'm making all those things up?

And the sad thing is I'm not making them up. That sounds wild. But this is another one of those. Surprisingly, I haven't watched it. I don't understand why I haven't watched it.

You know, same here. I can say the same things. I've seen just enough of it to go, that looks insane. And who gave you money to do this? Oh.

Exactly. Okay, I was trying to pull it up. Yeah, that is wild. So now you totally want to watch it. But let's hold on for a second because that poster does sum up.

The 90s so well. I mean, it covers all the bases. You know, buddy cops, ridiculously cheesy movies. The world's toughest cop is getting a brand new partner. He's a real blast from the past.

Why? Why? Now also keep in mind this is released five years after she won the Oscar. So whatever the hell went wrong with her career after that? I mean.

Is this before or after Ted Danson? Probably right. I feel like they were coming to a close around that time because they still like Made in America came out about that time and I feel like as that movie was coming out that they co-star in the relationship was coming to a halt. So, I don't know. Ted seems all right.

He made a few bad choices at the time, but we won't go down that road. I didn't know this. Originally intended for theatrical release, the film would direct a video. I think that's why I didn't know about it for the longest time. And then later people would reference it and be like, what the hell is this?

I remember seeing a trailer for... For the movie in front of God only knows what. And I remember seeing. Posters for a while. And then nothing.

All that Theodore Rex money fell out from under him. Theodore Rex was poorly received by critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of five critics are positive with an average rating of 1.7 out of 10. Again, that's another one of those that I was like, just to make sure you're aware that they exist. I had to bring that up.

So that is not, again, hadn't seen it. Couldn't put that on my list. So I actually went somewhat real on the last one. So my official real one was the Redosaurus, which is the beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Which is kind of not a real dinosaur.

But then as you get into these, like half the ones in the next category aren't real dinosaurs. So if it's kind of a dinosaur, like because I couldn't pick the King Kong remake because I love that. I watched that nonstop as a child. Sure. But they went not like the original King Kong had dinosaurs.

The Peter Jackson has dinosaurs. The one in the middle, they just went real world. Yeah. Or giant. Instead, it's just a giant snake.

So he's fighting like a giant boa constrictor, and it's an awesome fight, as my childhood brain tells me. and i love that but it was just a giant snake so and i was re-watching the one from peter jackson and like it's like a tag team like it's like a wrestling match because there's at first i thought it was two then there's like a third t-rex so he's like battling three t-rexes rolling around While hanging on to our faerie, who's Naomi Watts in this one, but they're coming to eat her and he wants to protect her, so he's got her in one hand while fighting off three T-Rexes. I was like, all right, that kind of makes him a badass. What a great day she must have had. Some sort of neck injuries, I would think.

There's a lot of being slung around in his hand as they're fighting, so some sort of whiplash, I would assume. Does Godzilla count as a dinosaur or is he just a big lizard? Well, again, with my loophole, I would probably count him because he's a fake version of a dinosaur. But because that is such a big thing, much like Jurassic Park, I feel like that's its own category. We don't want to open that door.

As far as I know, and I know there are people out there who can either back me up or correct me violently. And they will. As far as I know, he is only ever mentioned as a prehistoric creature brought back to life. But again, I'm sure if you know, please subscribe and let me know how. Angry you are with me.

Leave us a comment. He's got a loophole too because he's more or less created by nuclear issues. So like he's a radioactive creature. America. America.

America screwed everything up. Yeah, that's exactly what Godzilla is. We did it. It's our fault. It is our fault that movie exists.

It's an entire country trying to rationalize what we did. How about a kaiju movie? That'll be something. Then we don't have to think about the real thing we did. So yes, I kind of unofficially would say that, but then you've got 4,000 other characters that he fights with that are also awesome dinosaurs, then You wouldn't get to anything else.

One of them is literally a dragon. Yeah. Which I am all for saying dragons and dinosaurs are the same thing. I mean, Rodan's just kind of a big pterodon, pterodactyl, whatever the hell they are now. Yeah, all of them are just kind of variations of that basic idea, more or less.

Does Mothra count as a dinosaur? How about a prehistoric creature? Yeah. I mean. If moths were that big in prehistory.

That's what I'm saying. Like most of the stuff, I mean, you look at, we're looking at alligators now and that's essentially the same thing. I'm just assuming they were giant based on what the sci-fi movies have told me. It's exactly the same, except they were bigger. So I did see a lot of those that I didn't go to.

I could have been talking about the, there's so many of those. Well, you got, you just got the Megalodon. At least, which again, I'm not a gator. And then, what's the other one? The Velocipastor.

Oh, yeah. Once again, how I have not seen that, I don't know. They're all on the list. I'm getting around to them eventually. There's just only so many.

I can get to. This is a true story. I sat down one day and I said, I have time for one movie. I want it to be as bad as possible. And I had to make a decision.

I had to choose between Velociraptor Or Bigfoot's Wild Weekend. I went with Bigfoot's Wild Weekend, and I don't know if I regret it or not. Yikes. But yes, the Redosaurus is actually Ray Harryhausen. I kind of wanted to get something of this.

Again, he's done many other things that are in that category, or an offshoot version of his monster that he created that's kind of like a dinosaur, so. Well, the dinosaurs in Caveman, I think they wanted to look like it was Harryhausen. I think everyone from that point on wanted to look like Harryhausen. Most couldn't even hold a candle. I wish I looked like I was animated by Harryhausen.

I would prefer at this point to look like a stop-motion dinosaur. But the other ones... Because the giant behemoth is also very cool. And he's another unofficial but looks pretty damn close to a regular dinosaur. And then.

The other crazy one I came up with when I was doing this, looking through the list, the Valley of Gwanga has cowboys riding dinosaurs. So I feel like if you're making a list, put that on there. And we didn't even get into animated. Land Before Time. Obviously, I assumed all of yours were singing along to Land Before Time.

I've never seen that movie. See, the first one I remember I really liked is I was still relatively young when the first one came out. And to me, I was just like, It says, like, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg got together and said, I want to make an animated movie about dinosaurs. I'm like, I'm sold. Yeah.

And then I think Don Bluth came in. He might have been. And, like, everybody was involved. It was super cool. I was just like, okay, I think I want to.

Pizza Hut had cool puppets. Exactly. So, yeah, that first one. And then they did straight-to-video sequels times 1,000. And all of those are musical, and I didn't remember the first one being a musical.

I don't remember. But I haven't rewatched it. That was 35 years ago or some bullshit. I don't know. Yeah.

There's also The Good Dinosaur. That's a recent one that I still haven't watched. I haven't seen that. No, I did see that. It's Pixar-y.

Yeah. So it looked cool. It was okay. But he's a very simple version of a Bronte, Brachio, whatever they're called. It was just nothing exciting.

Yeah. I just thought he and the kid looked pretty cute. And that says a lot for me. Yeah. The kid looked cute.

He's got to be a pretty cute kid because normally I could care less. Okay. So there's our personal non-park related ones. We at least just have to do a rundown since we were discussing Jurassic Park earlier in many different ways. So I feel like you have to start from the top because otherwise we're just going to go to it immediately.

How can you have anything but Rexy? Rexy is our T-Rex. from the first movie and was so cool. They rewrote that ending. Yeah. She wasn't supposed to be there.

Like it's just the velociraptors are coming after them. They're climbing up like one of the big, uh, skeletons and like fall one impales itself. One impales itself on a rib or something like, so they just like die instead. Again, this was on the day Spielberg was like, Oh no, it would be cool. That, that real, we as making it love the T-Rex already.

Like it would be cool if it came back and sort of saved the day. Yeah. So you get the most monumental shot ever of roaring and the banner and like, it's, it's amazing. So yeah, I was just like, as if that wasn't enough, what I thought was interesting was that's the same as we revisit, as we come back to our reboot, I guess, who knows what the timeline of how long they live. So yeah, She's in the next series of movies.

So the next three in that next trilogy, she's still around. So it's that same dinosaur. Most of the other ones, that's not the case. But that's the same T-Rex that comes into play and then becomes kind of the lead. And then, well, lead dinosaur.

And then there's a villain dinosaur. And then she fights him and kicks his ass. With a little help this time. Is that the dinosaur that can turn invisible? Whatever.

Are you on Tammy and the Deer? No, no, I'm up to Jurassic World. The one that's smart enough that knows how to camouflage itself. That's, yeah. That's the, wait, I think that is, I was going over them all is the sad thing.

I think that's Indominus Rex. He is like, again, this is where once you get like the first, maybe, I don't know if the third one gets, the first two definitely are all just real dinosaurs. They went, got some amber DNA, made them. They're more or less regular dinosaurs. I don't know if that third, because the third one was the, what the hell is he?

Spinosaurus, which is kind of a badass. I know some people don't like that one. So the internet says, God forbid people complain about things on the internet. But I don't know if he's official or if he's a mutated one. But as you get further into this, once we get to Jurassic World, they're all just genetically different. messed with they're all throwing things in a blender and like okay sure we as the audience love the t-rex but what if we made the t-rex more awesome so like they start taking other things from other dinosaurs mixing them all together and making their own giant weird dinosaurs well and.

I think part of that which i like this i think part of that was their answer to everyone being like that's not really what we want to wrap. Which is true it's true it's very true as i heard it was like they show the picture and it's just like a big weird bird Yeah. Now there is one that looks like the Ross, but they don't go. Velociraptor sounds way cooler. Yeah.

And they were like, we're just going with that. So again, that's sort of what Don was fighting with was like on the set. They were like, yeah, we're going to do this because it's cool. And he's like, but that's not how dinosaurs work. So that was a good portion of his fight.

And he was out by that first one. So all of the crazy shenanigans that go on in these sequels, he had nothing to do with. So. Then they're free to just be like, eh, we Frankensteined this one, so good luck figuring out what he is. So yeah, I think Indominus Rex was the villain.

It's fun that there's a villain dinosaur as they go on. I mean, if it was just a villain dinosaur, it would be one thing. But it's that they have a villain and a hero dinosaur. A hero that previously tried to eat you and will do so again if given the chance. Which at first I thought I was going to go with the Jurassic World for the next, if we're counting that as the top one.

But I swear going back and thinking, I was like, I almost have to go with the Velociraptors in that first movie. Yeah. Because they're so damn good. And the main one, I think that one doesn't get a name. I think they refer to her as the big one and or clever girl, as you find out, as someone finds out.

So yeah, because they have so much personality for a dinosaur that's about to murder you, that you're still so impressed with them. You're like, well, I'm scared to death of them, but damn, these things are cool. So i want whatever sort of prehistoric creature that kills me to have a personality i feel like that's only fair yeah. So i feel like yeah i've got at least pencil in the big one there as the velociraptor for the next one just because they could have just been a random dinosaur but like again they stole the show and became the villain of the movie even in a scene where like it's like terrifying what's going on with the t-rex but by the end of the movie you're like no man that t-rex is cool so like The T-Rex is the hero of the movie and they become, they claim being the villains in that movie.

And that's amazing that these CG dinosaurs are that damn good. What about the guy who fans out his. Yeah, that kills Newman. Yeah. That is, let's see, diphthosaurus.

That's where I look up those words so I know what words I'm using. The diphthosaurus. So yes, that is the spitting dinosaur that I think is pretty, I think that one is pretty close. There is a one that does that out there. That also I heard referred to as one of the ones that like started crossing that line because before you get to the spitting part with the big hood, it's super cute.

So it's like them already laying the ground where for people that go, oh, I want a dinosaur, which then becomes their bread and butter as time goes on. So yes, I had that one down there, so we can definitely put that one on there. The other one, let's see. That was my next go-to, but I had to bump them for the Velociraptors from the first one. But Blue, if you watch Jurassic World, again, there's like a new batch of Velociraptors.

And the other ones are just kind of regular old Velociraptors. Yeah. Blue is... has a name, has personality, becomes friends with our lead. Like, it becomes, like, the... It's just Lassie at this point.

You know, it's like it's so... You're so attached to it that, like, you're like, oh, God, nothing could happen to Blue. Like, so Blue is, again, kind of the dinosaur hero for those next three, more or less, because it continues on, and then she has a kid by the third one. So it's, yeah, it's a whole... A whole thing.

Let's see. It worked. Blue's adorable. And then she had a kid and of course the kid's adorable. So yeah.

So I figured we had to work blue in there. Um, the other one I thought that I immediately thought of, but again, you have to start jumping to Jurassic world for all these other crazy ones. But the, again, trying to figure out what the actual name there in Xenosaurus. Sure. That's the one from Jurassic world.

That's essentially just like giant Wolverine. Oh, yeah. It has three giant-ass claws on each hand. Oh. So it's got regular back legs and then just huge Wolverine claws on the front.

And, like, was a real dinosaur. And they certainly make use of those claws in that Jurassic World movie. So that one's pretty badass. And it's definitely used good. So, I mean, that's five.

You can pencil in. If you want personality, if you watch that last one, the... Again, it's got a freaking name. Dolores. It's like a.

Aqualops? It looks kind of like a Triceratops, like a little Triceratops. But literally, there's a kid in the new movie, finds it, it's adorable, and then it spends the rest of the movie in her backpack, and she takes it around and names it Dolores. I want a backpack dinosaur. Exactly.

That's how Jurassic Park works. They find the best way to be like, we market this somewhere we're gonna sell a stuffed version of this and 10 000 kids are gonna buy it and philip so yeah there you go dolores is pretty adorable i have to say so yeah they're still doing it i will. Give jurassic park world land whatever credit for not bowing down to the pressure of the paleontologists and sticking feathers on all their dinosaurs. I mean, they still throw out those theories, you know. They at least acknowledge that it's a thing.

Wait, she's so cute. I told you. That's how it works. I'm too lazy to look at her. I know.

Here. Oh. A little backpack. I thought Baby Yoda was cute. I know.

I wanted Dolores. Exactly. Marketing. Yeah, she's just like. That's how it works.

Hanging out. But yeah, I will, and again, for as much as eventually you're just like, are they still making these? That first Jurassic World is pretty successful. Yeah. It's Colin Trevorrow, and like, he just got it.

Like, again, as time went on, I don't even remember if he directed the next two, but the next two, like, lose it. Like, the second one, there's barely, like, a plot. They add new things that barely make sense that then... They keep doing by the third one, but they add 17 new things. The third one is insane.

There's so much going on in that third movie that they really needed to throw out a whole lot of it. There's a lot. But that first one is so successful because it doesn't try to steal the thunder of the first movie, because you're not going to, but it gets what that one was trying to do and then is almost commenting on it. It's almost smart enough to be looking at that one going, okay... You see what they did there?

What if I turn up that to like 11 and like we're really looking at the commercialism aspect of this and like the fact that, yes, we're going to make this a bigger, better, dumber decision. And this time we're going to put a Margaritaville on the island. And it's that level of cheesy. Sell out everything and make money off of dinosaurs. And like, yeah, that's not going to go well.

So I think, yeah, that one is almost... smarter than you know the next two sequels anyway so they still have fun dinosaurs i'll give them that so yeah. You know i remember watching jurassic world thinking i would be safe if this ever became a thing because there's no way in hell i could afford a day ticket to jurassic world. That was the key to the second one as i re-watched it again they're just trying to find a way to make this work they're like well we can't do the same damn thing again although they still How many freaking islands are out there? Every movie now, they're just like, well, there was another island that you didn't know about. But they also were making dinosaurs on there.

So that continues to happen in this series. At some point, it seems like it might be ridiculous. And yet, it does not stop them. So, but yeah, the second one, they were just like, his original, like the Hammond's original idea was going to be to make a park more or less. Well, not even. like a theater, essentially, and so more of a circus almost.

And like, you were going to come see the dinosaur and then that just didn't work. And like, so it, again, I'm sure there's like, you know, legal issues there. So if you put it on an island, it's safe. Nothing bad can happen. So that is why we kind of get the super awesome wrap up to that second one.

Whereas even if you don't care about the rest of the movie, the last like 20 minutes is worth watching. So. But yeah, it's basically he was going to bring dinosaurs here and do more of a King Kong. Look, here's the eighth wonder of the world. That's probably not going to break loose and kill everyone.

So yeah, that does come into play in the second one. But that was why he was just like, bring the dinosaur to the people. That way more, you know, you don't have to be a millionaire to go to Dinosaur Island. You can just go down the street and go to Dinosaur Theater and maybe get eaten. No, keep those over there.

Fine, we're totally gonna build a dinosaur park here in town, but never mind. You don't need to bring them to the people. They can stay in there. I don't know. Do I get to pick a spot?

Can I pick which people I want to go see a show? I want to go see a show. No, you're missing my point. I don't care. You can watch from the back.

That's fine. I'll sit in the back row. You can watch the carnage and then escape at the last minute. That's what I do. Escape the carnage.

All right. Well, we've discussed a couple of dinosaurs along the way. So I feel like we've accomplished a lot today. It's about time. Yeah.

I feel like this had a lot to cover. And we have come up with a lot of things. So I don't know that any of that's definitive. We just sort of picked some things and threw some stuff out there so we could talk about dinosaurs. So that's the most important part.

The dinosaur friends we made. along the way. And Don. So thank you to Don for coming and talking to me about dinosaurs and the crazy life that he's led. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time.

Same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye everybody. This 40 million years ago, I lit a cigarette, picked up a monkey skull to go.

The sun was spitting fire, the sky was blue as ice. I felt a little tight, so I watched Miami Bites. Everybody wants a dinosaur. Open the door, get on the floor. I met you in a cave.

You were painting buffalo. I said I'd be your flame. Follow wherever you go. That night we split a rattlesnake and. Danced beneath the stars.

You fell asleep. I stayed awake and watched the passing car. And walked the dinosaur. Everybody want the dinosaur. Open the door, get on the floor.

Everybody want the dinosaur. Open the door, get on the floor. Everybody want the dinosaur. Open the door, get on the floor. Everybody want the dinosaur.

One night I dreamed. Of New York. You and I roasting, we're parking the statue of liberty. Talk to me. I'm a leopard.

Much too big to be a bird. A screaming, crashing noise. Louder than I've ever heard. It looked like two big silver trees that somehow learned to soar. Suddenly, a summer breeze.

I don't mind a lion roar. It's like a really niche business idea though. Being a dinosaur authority. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Traveling dinosaur authority. Did you say niche or neat? Niche. Both. They are both true.

This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard! This program is a proud member of the Battleship Pretension Fleet.