ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: Other that using a better model of the T-Rex and getting a skilled animator to provide the stop motion, how could we fix this poor movie?

~ My Theory: I think the premise of this move, which includes the period and the location, has a great deal of potential.

Admittedly it's harder to explain the existence of a single surviving prehistoric beast, 65 million years after all his relatives are dead and fossilized, than a "Lost World" with a complete ecosystem with lots of unfossilized inhabitants who keep the place well supplied with the pitter-patter of little reptilian feet.

But The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms offered one (unconvincing) way to resurrect a critter from the dim past, and it was just good enough to seem sorta-kinda possible.





With that in mind, what sorta-kinda possible way could we concoct fer this here mangy tee-ranysaurus to survive, just south of the boarder, down Mexico way?

Amazingly enough, the very title of the movie solves the problem for us! Think about it; the T-Rex is, in fact, The Beast of HOLLOW Mountain!

Like . . . duh!

We even get a scene in which the characters hide from the dinosaur in a cave. So, why not have our T-Rex survive by being preserved inside a vast cavern which contains a rare gas, one that puts him into a state of (wait for it . . . ) suspended animation.

Brother, if THAT ain't irony, I don't know what is!

An earthquake opens up the cavern and revives the T-Rex. After awakening, he comes lumber out while desperately trying to rub his sleepy eyes with little arms that won't even reach his chin! Then he sets out to rustle up his first breakfast in 65,000 millennium.

And that's just what he does. He rustle up breakfast.





Since we've come up with a way to preserve a T-Rex in Mexico, why not stick a few smaller dinosaurs in that cave and have them all come galloping out — with the T-Rex in hot pursuit!

In other words, the T-Rex's exit from the cave is his grand entrance into the story! (More irony. Ya gotta love it!)

Fortunately for our purposes, the movie also includes scenes in a swamp near Hollow Mountain. So, our collection of newly revived denizens from the past would immediately turn the swamp into a "mini Lost World", with the medium-sized dinosaurs gobbling up the snakes and frogs while they clash with the alligators.

Ya-hoo! Animation scenes galore!

And since we've got a T-Rex rustling cattle —

_Dinosaur Eats A Cow — The Beast Of Hollow Mountain


__________

— let's sic the local gauchos on this hombre and include a great roping scene!







Remember, Willis O'Brien was originally told he could do the animation — but them low-down varmints, the Nassours brothers, plum cheated him out of it!

Obviously what I'm doing here is fixing The Beast of Hollow Mountain by also fixing The Valley of Gwangi, which has plenty of animation, but (in my opinion) needs a much better story!

So, this would sort of combine the two and make "Gwangi" unnecessary, because Willis and Ray could work together on it.

Shucks, it's a damn shame this here real fine idee 'a mine couldn't be real.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)