526. The Valley of Gwangi on National Dinosaur Day!

                 I love this movie unabashedly.  Go figure.  Had the coloring book by age four, and saw the movie some four years later.

Gwangi... on National Dinosaur Day 2025

 It is tomorrow, so guess what we will be reviewing?

Coloring books from beyond beyond

When I was quite young I had a lot of coloring books.  Some of these have been documented in issues of Xenorama, such as Space Ghost,  Moby Dick,  Samson and Goliath and even The Valley of Gwangi.  Some of these were essentially film books or extended episodes of the cartoons, though I barely remember the "plots" that were in Samson or Space Ghost.  A lot of times pictures got torn out to be stuck on fridges or somewhere else, and at that young age I rarely finished a page I had started.

Gwangi vs. Styracosaurus

I've never cared much for this battle in the movie, it's just lacking something. the styracosaurus is not one of my favorite dinosaurs and the fight is so short. and the cowboys take out the vegetarian to help Gwangi? that's not so smart.

Valley of Gwangi

yes, another redux, but this one has also disappeared from last year's post. as I said there, this is probably my second favorite Harryhausen film. both involve dinosaurs, go figure.

T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood (TV 2005)

picked this fun little doc up at Target for $5, and it's about worth that price. 

it's definitely not a serious documentary, but there's some good stuff on it, and they talk to both Donald F. Glut and Ray Harryhausen which means they had an idea about getting good information out there.


it's a look at the discovery of tyrannosaurus rex at Hell Creek MT in 1905 to his "stardom" in the movies.  he's sort of treated like a real actor, which is an interesting take.  however, there are some serious stretches of the imagination to make some of the cinematic theropods into t rex, the most egregious of them in calling Gwangi (of The Valley of Gwangi (1969) a t rex. 
Don and Ray both speak of the movie, and I know that they know better than to call an allosaurus a completely different animal.  I've never heard of Gwangi being a t rex, but it seems to be what some people think these days.  of course, some people think the t rex in King Kong (1933) was an allosaurus as well. so go figure.

and Bob Bakker misnames the movie (common mistake, "The Valley of THE Gwangi") and he should also know better.

anyway, it's a fun for what it is, and there is some stop-motion shown.  that alone almost makes up for leaving out Godzilla...

Gwangi Comic book

I love the movie "The Valley Of Gwangi" as I may have mentioned before.  owned the coloring book for many years, have the DVD.

always thought I wanted the comic book.  but thanks to this excellent blog (and Dan Ross as well!) I think I can pass on it.  I do really like the cover, but that's because it's an adaption of the awesome movie poster.  can't go wrong with that, for the most part.

but the inside... you can tell Jack Sparling had nothing but b/w stills to work with.  and even then, not one of the prehistoric critters matches up with the ones in the movies.  except maybe the eohippus (now Hyracotherium).

so as a curiosity it proves again that Ray Harryhausen's movies usually got the short shrift with comic book adaptions.

more Gwangi

once again, Colossa comes up with another great Gwangi item.

though obviously NOT Gwangi on the cover (it's a tyrannosaurus rex as we all can tell) I would love to have read this magazine.   heck, I'd STILL love to read it!

more magazines should have covers like this.

The Valley Of Gwangi

possibly my second favorite Harryhausen movie.



as documented here I have discussed Gwangi a few times. for the longest time it was the movie that had the most minutes of stop-motion animation in it of all of Ray's films.  there's a lot more to this movie than a lot of people think.  but watch it yourself and see!

"tastes like chicken"

the Coloring Book of Gwangi

I love the movie "The Valley Of Gwangi" (1969) for a variety of reasons, but I think what started me on the path was this:

just an awesome painting

yep, a coloring book for the movie.  it had the entire story, right down to the burning of Gwangi (if I remember correctly).  I don't remember buying it, or having it given to me.  I just always remember having it for a long time (until I gave it to an owner who would love it more than me, even).  I colored in lots of pages, removed some, I am sure, and who knows what else.

all this prepped me very well for my first actual viewing of the movie, sometime in late '73 or early 74 on the late show. even though I knew the plot and what dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals would show up, I was still awed by the experience.

I'd love to find a copy of this again, but it seems pretty rare.

here's a fun viewing experience that was on prime time tv  at one point.  I think the best part was that Colin actually knew the (almost) proper name of the movie!