Mesozoic Mind

David Armsby is a Scottish animator. He's done a lot of science fiction wio, but he has quite the affinity for dinosaurs, as evidenced by the triad of animated shorts he has made over the 2010's and into the 2020's.  Small Beginnings (2013) Small Beginings is about a newly-hatched baby T. rex who goes out with her mother only for another one to kill her, leaving him an orphan. Years later when he is an adult, she returns to the cliff where it happened, and goes back to her own nest to continue . As far quality goes, its fine on its own, although it does have a hefty dose of Early Instalment Weirdness to it: the short is made in full CG, one more cartoonish then realistic. The designs have the usual array of JP or Paulian: lipless jaws and tooth slippage and feel a bit too slender. In other words, there's not much in the way of heavy realistic research going on for the creatures within it, instead opting for something on the lighter side of the awesomebro styles. The to...

Hoo boy, strap in... So on Sunday the 13th, Dinosaur - With Stephen Fry  premiered on the british Channel 5. Remember how I said I was interested in it?  That as the first major palaeo-documentary after Prehistoric Planet and had the rare "Human host back in time and interacts with them" format I love and want to see more, I was hyped and eagerly awaited more after its announcement. But then came the trailer , and all that hype pretty much vanished. Once did premiered however, the Palaeosphere literally flipped on it overnight. Why? Stephen Fry's Dinosaur was not very good. At all. It feels like the monkey's fist flipped me and us all off, a cheap cash in on the success of Prehistoric Planet . The basic premise is that Stephen Fry imagines himself going back in time to interact with dinosaurs. The first episode focuses on the Jurassic period and focusing on both Diplodocus and Allosaurus  and a confrontation between them, before Fry watches the Diplos do other stuff...

This series for this month is back, if a bit rushed. I apologise in advance. A Dinosaur Story (2008) Here is a story by  about a baby t. rex who finds an egg and knocks it down the side of the hill its on, but pushes it back up. It hatches into a baby  Brachiosaurus , the implication he has made a friend. The thing I note the most was created by alumni from Sheridan College, which is in my hometown of Mississauga, just down the street from where I live. I do admit I like the Tyrannosaurus model here, in spite of the blatant Jurassic Park influences. Maybe it's how the thin frame and short head evoke the real growth cycle tyrannosaurs had, based off fossil evidence. That said, A Dinosaur Story is another short student film, and there isn't much else to it; the CG don't even leave marks on the live action backgrounds nor has any music, and there aren't even much jokes in it. Its story is so short and simple its basically something you'd tell a toddler. If you watche...

Hello. I came up with this idea just a couple days ago, though I swear my mind created it even earlier. Hopefullt it'll tide you over until the next short review coming soon. Streched Necks and Horns: How the Giraffe got its Neck A would be documentary about the evolution of the giraffe and it's long neck, and the factors that played into it, like sexual selection, fighting, and feeding opprotunities, as well as how evolution in general works and theorires on it, like Lamarck's own theorum oft-represented with giraffes' necks. Species that would appear in potential CG reconstruction sequences are: Prolibytherium Sivatherium Discokeryx , naturally headbutting Palaeotragus Bohlinia I'm surprised there has never been a full documentary on giraffe evolution, even though its one of the most famous scenarios used when explaining how evolution and passing on genetic traits works.

It's February, and with only 28 days in it, why not use the time for short stuff? I declare February Short Month = Short Reviews month, and mostly be about various prehistory-themed short form works this month I can find around the internet or remember, mostly animations, though maybe a book or two will be featured. Let's start off with a handful from the golden age of YouTube that was the 2000's and the time I grew up in, when it actually gave a damn about its users and didn't sellout to other corporations. T. rex in the Atrium (2010) There isn’t much to the Welsh short created by students of the University of South Wales. At a Welsh college campus, students find themselces terrorised by a Tyrannosaurus that bursts in and eats people. Where did it come from? We never find out. It's only 1:34 minutes long. The design for the T. rex seems to be the standard "Jurassic Park clone" design with all that entails, with nothing too different then the rest of them...