A Duo of Stop-Motion Aussie Dino Docs

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today we will be looking at two very similar documentaries: they are both about the prehistoric life of Australia, both have the same release date of 1995, are roughly 23 minutes long, and most crucially both use stop-motion to portray their creatures, a time-honoured tradition going back to the earliest years of 20th century dinosaur media.

Also, do be aware I had a cold in the latter stages of writing this, hence why it feels rushed at points.

Once Upon Australia

Once Upon Australia is a general overview of Australia in deep time, with an emphasis on the Cretaceous period and Cenozoic era, created by noted stop-motion animator of the continent Nick Hilligoss. After some CG and live action footage which represents most of the time before the Devonian era, the stop-motion begins with a march representing the evolution of tetrapods. Eventually the creatures split off down different paths - literally. To represent the split of synapsids and diapsids, a signpost at a fork in the paths labelling the paths leading to dinosaurs and mammals in a humourous touch. Lizard-like early reptiles are shown evolving into a theropod and a small mammal respectively.

The dinosaur is presumably meant to be a generic everysaur that isn't , but it bears an uncanny resemblence to Deinonychus, specifically the Dinosaur Rennasance one with the squarish head.

A short montage repesentig the formation of Gondwana later, and we're off to the famous Dinosaur Cove, where we follow a mother dinosaur as she cares for her clutch, including hunting food and scaring off an intruding Timimus (here an ornithomimid as was once believed it was). Did I mention the dinosaur is mentioned as an Allosaurus? Y'know, the dinosaur that was only native to Jurassic North America? Its an odd choice probably based off the "Allosaurus robustus" from Victoria. Its a shame, as the design is quite solid for the 90's. Next comes a green, frog-eyed Koolasuchus (and oddly small, seemingly smaller then the Tinimus) and the small mammal Steropodon laying an egg in its den, signalling the rise of mammals in time (although its more accurate to say continued given what we know of their evolution).

The latter seuges into the inevitable extinction as non-avian dinosaurs (demonstrated by a guest appearence by a Parasaurolophus right as the narrator says the dinosaues "trumpeting their last [breath]"), and as most documentaries are wont to do, show small mammals scurrying among the corpses, poised to rule the Cenozoic.... but not before a segment on neighbouring Antarctica's glaciation as it breaks off from the continent, as a mammal freezes solid. Don't worry, it's cartoonish and not disturbing (complete with icicles and tail going stiff).

We then get glimpses of Australia's initial wet and tropical era before rgoing to more dry ones and the fauna evolving wth it, with one in particular being about the giant trunked marsupial Palorchestes as it frightens off some other mammals in a segment that showcases just how alien it was.

Next comes the Pleistocene, and with it some of the most famous extinct aussies among the famous savannah. Naturally the first is the giant wombat relative Diprotodon, only to get ambushed by a carnivorous Thylacoleo. For a closeup to demonstrate the unique dentition, that one is not stop-motion, but a hand puppet.

Unfortunately, the Thylacoleo is interrupted by the awakening of the giant lizard Megalania, which easily frightens it off. I must comment on the spotted pattern it bears much like other varanids, rather then the drab green like a Komodo Dragon.

Next we see giant bird Genyornis walks with its chicks as they babies trip over one another, and the horned turtle Meiolania giving a Thylacine a whacking when it tries to eat it, both moments of comedy.

However, as the millions of years go by as Austgralia drifts near to the Indoneasian archeopelago, two creatures reach the continent: the first are rodents, but the second one are more important: humans, and they;re about to cause a mass extinction. First come the Australian Aboriginal tribes, as they use what's known as fire stick farming to dry the continent out, leading to thge extinction of the megafauna in a haunting mass death scene. 

Then come the bog-erm, the White British people, who in their greed and imperialism, start really doing it bad. The scene where a helpess rat in a tree getting will pull on your heartstrings.

Aside from one shadow, humans actually make no physical appearance however. Only seen are our effects and creations as we start ruining the environment by burning and cutting down the forests. Actually, the former depicted by traditional aboriginal rock art in a nice touch, as pictured above.

Eventually, Once Upon Australia ends with a glimpse of Australia's future and wehat it might hold, as a rat looks at a human skull.

Australia under *Insert Political party you don't like here*

You can't discuss Once Upon Australia without the stop motion, and its pretty good (if not as fluid as others). It bears the jerky charm stop motion bears.

I enjoy many other things about OUA, among them:

• The use of small mammals as the reccuring anchor point for the documentary, whivh gives a continuity. On a semirelated note, its probably why the Paleozoic is pretty much skipped over here, as synapsids didn't evolve until the end of that era.
• Sandy Gore's narration, as its soft and pleasant.
• The moments of cartoonish humor in the short taking advantage of the stop motion medium, which help give the short an identity of it's own. 
• The music by Philip Judd has a whimisical yet majestic feel.

Overall, Once Upon Australia is a pleasant watch that acts as a nice overview of the continent's history. Personally I feel the cenozoic segments are more stronger then the relatively brief mesozoic one.

Muttaburrasaurus - Life in Gondwana

Muttaburrasaurus - Life in Gondwana meanwhile focuses on just one time and location: Early to Mid-Cretaceous Queensland, and primarily features talking head interviews. We're not gonna focus too much on them though, but the stop-motion segments. This might not be well-known, but the main focus is on the ornithopod Muttaburrasaurus, back then the hot topic in Ausrtalian Palaeontology for being one of the best-preserved on the continent. The stop-motion sequences follow a young one as he strays from the herd and meets other denizens of Mid-Cretaceous Queensland, and are done by the doc's directors Norman Yeend and Graham Binding.

The first are a flock of nesting pterosaurs who don't take kindly to his precense. Having been only recently discovered at the time they go unnamed, but as of 2008 they go by the name Mythunga camara. Notice the head isn't quite right, being too slender and generic-looking. Others are seen scavenging a beached ichthyosaur (as pictured above).

He then encounters a plesiosaur that has come onto land to lay eggs before it ventures back into the sea, known as the Eromanga (its an Australian Aborigine word, not that kind!). Obviously, the fact its laying eggs and crawling on land is the biggest issue, as we now know plesiosaurs couldn't walk on land or even lay eggs. At least its imposing.

As the baby heads inland back into the forest, he witnesses some smaller ornithopods running about. They're on the run from... Carnotaurus!? You know, the hoened dinosaur from Sputh America? Granted they're is a large overlap beyween Aussie and South American texa thanks to Gondwana, but they weren't 1:1 copies. Actually it's Rapator, an obscure as heck genus from the same time, and while still unkmown, its more likely a megaraptoran like the famous Australovenator was, which resembled a typical long-snouted theropod. Can't fault the doc though, as Megraptorans weren't even known at the time, but Abelisaurs were.

That aside, the theropod's scene is nice, especially how roars heard first before it appears and the zoomig in tracking shot. However, the way it ust stops for literally a minute or so to roar and thrash its head about seems rather odd, and if it weren't for its prey being so slow to escape they would have gotten away. The design is still pretty good though, even with oversized arms.

The documentary's stop-motion sequences end at dusk, with other dinosaurs gathered to drink (as aussies past and present do), from a sauropod, Timimus (or is it the equally scrappy taxon Kakuru?), to I don't even know what this is. Anyhow, the baby reunites with his herd in a heartwarming moment.

So how does Muttaburrasarus fare in my book?

The stop motion is more fluid then Once Upon Australia's, and the tone is more serious, without gags to set it apart. However, I do feel that the the rather episodic nature of the segments as sandwiched between do mean it doesn't leave the same impact. That's the problem with Talking Head documentaries In My humble Opinion.

On one hand Life in Gondwana is well put together, but it does have an underlying feeling of just not doing enough to be memorable in my book, as I do need to rewatch it just to remember the finer details. It doesn't help how short it is. If I were Norman I'd have added a few more, perhaps one about a sauropod like Austrosaurus, mammals, and the famous pliosaur Kronosaurus.

Both documentaries show their age in their rather limited depiction of mesozoic Australia. Today, Early Cretaceous Australia has a wide variety of incredible taxa discovered over the last 20 years, from giant sauropods to hook-clawed megaraptoran Australovenator, to of course crocodiles, and elsewhen the Devonian Gogo Formation and the Ediacaran also has revealed much wonders about life's evolution; but back in the 90's? It was either the cold-dwelling Dinosaur Cove and Muttaburrasaurus the public , but little else of note. Still, the docs do each of deep time as well as they can.

If I had to choose between these two, I'd say I prefer Once Upon Australia for the greater scope and atmosphere, as well as the lack of talking head interviews to detract from the scenes. However, both Once Upon Australia and Muttaburrasaurus are charming little palaeo-documentaries that represent a contient's prehistory well and are worth checking out, both for that and some lovely stop-motion effects.

Thaks for reading!

See Also/References

• Banjo and Swift review
• O'Keefe, F.R.; Chiappe, L.M. (2011). "Viviparity and K-Selected Life History in a Mesozoic Marine Plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia)". Science. 333 (6044): 870–873. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..870O. doi:10.1126/science.1205689. PMID 21836013. S2CID 36165835.