Dinosaur Attack!: A Review of a Very Obscure Documentary

Hoo boy, this is gonna be a toughie to sit through. Today, we are reviewing a very forgotten dinosaur documentary, a work not to be confused with a certain trading card series, generically named Dinosaur Attack. This is a very obscure doc, as while it itself has been uploaded online, albeit under a very dumb clickbait title*, there's next to nothing about it online. It's so obscure for the longest time I couldn't find even the date it was released, though eventually I did and apparently its 1999 (but even then I have my doubts). I gladly appreciate if anyone has more info.

The basic premise of the documentary is about the Paluxy River trackway in Texas, which for those not in the know, dates back to the Early Cretaceous and preserves both sauropod and theropod tracks, each possibly made by the respective sauropod and theropod genera Sauroposeidon and Acrocanthosaurus. The neat thing is that based off the way each are arranged, it seems it preserves a hunt in progress, which is quite rare to find. To my knowledge, no other if not very few fossil event has been found like it (there was the Lark Quarry in Queensland, Australia, but as of Romilio et al. 2011 its not understood as single species herd crossing a river). It follows a team's effort to recreate the fossil trackway by creating a computer simulation of it.

We start off with the documentary setting up it's premise: that while palaeontologists work with fossils as the primary source of info for dinosaurs, they can't tell us all that much about how they lived, an interesting point to start out on. But it's all while getting some glimpses of some... less then stellar CG dinosaurs. We then cut to a road as country music plays and we see this glorious sight of theropod dinosaur ass being hauled down a road.

This truck is being driven by Indiana-Perdue palaeontologist Jim Farlow and Dave Thomas, a sculptor and palaeoartist. They and the narrator explain their goal of creating an accurate simulation of the trackway.

We then are then introduced to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas and its discoverer Roland T. Bird, though not before a cheesy scene where tourists run in fright from the park's T. rex statue. The gist is that Bird, a protégé of the famous Barnum Brown, would travel around the US to find fossils and send them to the American Museum of Natural History, and rediscovered it in 1937.  Interestingly, it brings in a person who actually witnessed his digs, town museum curator Jeanne Mack as the doc plays a montage of dinosaurs on Glen Rose signs, as well as his own relative Robert in a nice wholesome sequence.

As the doc tells us how Bird found a (relatively) smaller set of tracks next to the sauropod's, we learn that he proposed this was a chase in action; scientists of the time dismissed it, as this was a time when people thought dinosaurs were too sluggish and tail-dragging and they fought face-to-face, or alternatively they were made at separate times as sad music plays. But nevertheless even as his health failed, he pressed on, even making tracks around his house to solve the mystery.

Back in the present, Jim & Dave are at Dinosaur Valley, bringing the acrocanthosaurus model to it, where they hope to see if the footprints and its dimensions match. It is also here we are introduced to the likely trackmakers of the trackway: both Acrocanthosaurus itself (and making to my knowledge its debut in visual media) courtesy of North Carolina, and the sauropod at the Texas Memorial Museum, which is given the now invalid name Pleurocoelus (meaning smooth-sided hollow)*, the latter's gait of the feet being discussed in a neat bit I like. Their upright gait of both of them is then discussed, using an elephant an example, used to show how big dinosaurs could not attain high speeds. It is here we see the CG models for both dinosaurs to be featured in the simulation. 

We'll get to them later. They're not exactly David Krentz quality.

In the meantime, we cut to a montage of what Prehistoric Texas looked like, using both B-Roll stock footage and original CG sequence along a shoreline, where we see both bad plesiosaurs doing a nessie impression and a flock of small long-necked dinosaurs. These are presumably meant to be ornithomimosaurs, and sure enough one genus is known from roughly the same time and place, Arkansaurus (guess where it was found?). They're too far away and undetailed to comment further on.

In the meantime, the doc heads to the Cape Feare river of North Carolina to give an idea of what the place would have felt like. The brown tint to it is presumably to give an alien, primordial feel, not helped by Dale Russell's talking head segment, where he goes on about how the period would be hard to support us, and how sauropods wouldn't have been able to each much because of their size, so they would have been cold blooded like li- WHAT!? Okay, that's a major faux pas for a late 90's documentary to make, more expected of something from the 50's and 60's, not helped by saying sauropods needed to bathe in water to cool off. Doesn't help we get glimpses of the CG Pleuroceolus throughout it, which is full of inaccuracies.

Meanwhile, Jim and Dave start looking at Bird's long sketches of the tracks to get an idea of the sequences of events the chase had, observing patterns in it, and Dave gets poetic about the rhythm and patterns of predator and prey during chases. Its cool in my book. They discuss a missing theropod footprint and how it likely indicates the acro leapt off its feet onto the sauropod, though Farlow feels there isn't enough signs of it. Doesn't help computer tests can't compare it in the most hilarious way possible. The solution is in how real predators build up speed first, suggesting acro wasn't dragged up, but leapt. A following segment discusses determining its vision by looking at skull bones and bincular vision via Kent Stevens of University of Oregon, using acro's relative Allosaurus as an example. With that out of the way, the CG simulation is ready, apparently done in a Colorado bike shop.

The simulation for the event starts off with the chase already in play, and we see the Acrocanthosaurus leap up and bite, grabbing the tail, but as the sauropod turns its forced to let go as it rakes claws along tail... and then it ends, as we don't know how the outcome in real life occurred. However, the show and Dale thinks the Acro successfully felled the Pleurocoelus due to its deadly serrated teeth, and even bacteria in the serrations aiding (oh now it's joining T. rex in that regards apparently?). Doesn't help because sauropods were cold-blooded, as night feel the sauropod would grow weak. It ends with narrator saying dinosaur fights would not have been slugouts of monster movies, but they would have lacked elegance and patterns modern mammals have when they hunt, if Russell is anything to go by.

The show ends with the same Acrocanthosaurus statue featured earlier being lowered into Dinosaur Valley National Park for public display. However, its not there anymore, which is a shame, as it would have been wonderful to compare the old dinosaurs with the relatively modern, up to date ones.

So with that done, how does Dinosaur Attack! fare?

Short answer: Not too well.

The script, while competent, isn't always engaging. I struggled during many parts to watch it and avoid skipping ahead or just leaving it. I personally feel the first half is the better part of it.

The designs for the dinosaurs are quite bad even by early 2000's/late 1990's standards. You have all the problems: the Acrocanthosaurus has pronated limbs, overly thin, has a misshapen head, and most egregiously lacks the trademark spines that form the signature hump of it (the physical model has it at least). Meanwhile the Pleurocoelus has elephantine skin, only having a single nostril on top, and its feet are elephantine circles and so contradict the tracks Jim and Dave showed us way earlier. There isn't much texture to them either, and they move overly lightly without bulk.

Speaking of, the CG for the sequences are very bad to say the least. I suppose bad late 90's/early 2000's CG has a certain nostalgic charm to it, but still. The movements are stiff and inconsistent, like how feet don't go downwards when lifted on the Acrocanthosaurus to give one example. The only good thing is that the CG sequences don't appear often so it won't stay long to burn into your retinas.

There are quite a few inaccuracies in the work, as we have seen. Most notably, Dale Russell states that because Acro had a narrow body, they couldn't move and breathe at the same time, instead relying on anaerobic metabolism, like reptiles do. WHAT!? Even back then, it was doubted that dinosaurs had the cold-blooded reptile metabolism that this means. Heck, I'm certain this isn't thought to be true for modern reptiles either.

Even worse, Dinosaur Attack would have you believe that sauropods were cold-blooded, vulnerable to lowering temperatures, and needed to live near water to cool off. What the Hell is this!? This kind of thing was disproven in the age it came out for decades, and we now know sauropods were either endothermic and able to make own heat like avian dinosaurs and mammals do, or at least mesothermic, a term which is mid way between hot and cold-bloodedness. Hell, even if cold blooded, the sheer size of sauropods meant any movement could generate much heat regardless, and its not out of question sauropods able to cool off with the sheer length of necks and the air sacs within their chest.

Also, the idea that sauropods would run away from an attacking theropod, no matter how specialised they are, is utterly laughable, seeing how damn huge and muscular they are (see this for the sheer size disparity between Acro and Sauroposeidon. Yeesh). More likely, this was was either juvenile or an old, sick one in the trackway proper.

On a more technical note, there is a bit of an annoying trend of the narrator talking over people talking, thus turning the doc into an amorphous, incomprehensible blob of noise.

Probably my biggest issue against it is that at times Dinosaur Attack caries some very outdated views on dinosaur behaviour like something out of the pre-dinosaur renaissance, between the cold-blooded dinosaurs and the idea dinosaurs were inelegant brutes unlike mammals courtesy of Dale Russell. It's pretty annoying and egregious to see such attitudes in a turn of millennium palaeo-documentary, even if he was fairly old enough at the time this was made to be from when this was the norm.

As for what is good about Dinosaur Attack, there is still quite a bit to like in it. Examples include:

• The narration is good and does its job, and the voice of Simon Vigar makes for a soothing one.
• I suppose the music by Justin Nicholls is good, as it has a lot of country music as befits the Texan location.
• I do like the Acrocanthosaurus' colour scheme.
• I do like the concept of recreating a specific fossil find or creature (often using modern animals as inspiration) and going into detail and history of it and lead up to the final sequence. This investigation style of palaeo-documentary would be used quite often in the future, most notably most of National Geographic Channel's palaeo-output, Smithsonian Channel's Titanoboa, and episodes of PBS' Nova. If I'm missing any, let me know.

If I were making this, I honestly would have given it a more creative title then just Dinosaur Attack, like Race of the Titans. And I most certainly would not have the cold-blooded, no moving and breathing crap Dale has; if anything I'd place focus on how dinosaurs have gone from being misunderstood as sluggish and slow creatures to correctly understood as fast and active ones, even bringing in the airsacs both theropods and sauropods share and how they lightened the load and allowed for better breathing and movement (assuming this was known at the time of release). I'd also lengthen the computer simulation as far as tech of the time will allow. Overall place more focus on palaeoichnology, the study of fossil tracks.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 4/10
• Presentation - 6/10
• Visuals - 4/10
• Music - 6/10
• Storytelling -5/10
• Rewatchability - 5/10

Overall, this is a pretty substandard documentary. While there are some flashes of brilliant ideas or things to focus on and overall gives Roland T. Bird his due, it's let down by a dull script, glaring inaccuracies, mediocre visuals, and a bit of an overly short climax. I'm just glad the Paluxy River Trackway got its due in a documentary, but I don't really recommend Dinosaur Attack! to all but diehard completionists.

Well then, bye for now! Stay safe!

Sources, Notes, and Further Reading

• * While still interesting, I wouldn't say the Paluxy River Trackway is the greatest dinosaur find ever found. There are a lot of other candidate for that.
• * Pleurocoelus in the context here is now an invalid name more or less, and more likely it's either Sauroposeidon or  Astrophocaudia.
• Bird, Roland T. (May 1939). Thunder in his Footsteps. Natural History Magazine.
• Black, Riley (March 12, 2012). Excavating the River of Giants. Smithsonian Magazine.
• Romilio, Anthony; Tucker, Ryan T.; Salisbury, Steven W. (1 January 2013). "Reevaluation of the Lark Quarry dinosaur Tracksite (late Albian–Cenomanian Winton Formation, central-western Queensland, Australia): no longer a stampede?". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (1): 102–120. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.694591. ISSN 0272-4634.
• Thomas, Mark (December 17, 2015). "ROLAND T. BIRD - PALEONTOLOGIST". Mark Thomas - Geology Blog.
• https://www.amazon.com/Dino-Ataque-Dinosaur-Attack/dp/B002J9V8PQ