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 dia...