[.ca] Valley Of Gwangi

From Amazon.com:
The stop-motion magic of legendary special effects creator Ray Harryhausen is the highlight of this sporadically exciting fantasy-adventure, which pits cowboys against dinosaurs in the Mexican desert. James Franciscus and Richard Carlson star as members of a struggling Wild West show who discover their newest attraction in Mexico--a tiny prehistoric horse. Exploration into a nearby valley uncovers living dinosaurs, including the fearsome "Gwangi"-an allosaur that the circus folk capture for exhibition. But as every creature connoisseur knows, monsters in cages always break free, and soon enough, the beast is on a rampage. Originally developed by Harryhausen's mentor Willis O'Brien in 1942, The Valley of Gwangi feels like a retread of his previous titles, especially 20 Million Miles to Earth, but Harryhausen's effects are spectacular as always (especially the miniature horse), and will please monster fans. Warner Bros' widescreen anamorphic DVD includes a short featurette, "Return to the Valley," in which Industrial Light and Magic animators pay tribute to Harryhausen's influence. --Paul Gaita

South of the border - down Mexico way:
It was the turn of the 20 th century. Champ Connors (Richard Carlson) was putting on a rodeo show. Returning to make a horse deal and to see the girl (Gila Golan) that he did not realize he love was Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus.) Looks like more than one man loved her. However she had a "show must go on" attitude. Can anyone win her heart? Meanwhile down in the valley, the valley so low, in an environment that was untouched for millennium Gwangi waits. Gypsies warn us not to go there. We get a good history lesson as many people do not realize that the horse originated in the Americas and migrated to Asia. There are some staking similarities between this cowboy love story and King Kong. The only major difference is Gwangi (Ray Harryhausen creation) would eat anything or anybody.

Right down there with Sinbad & Eye of Tiger:
The film is a total letdown. The blue coloring of Gwangi`s hide, the fake looking oversize props like Gwangi`s head, the rubbery pterasaur, the dwarf that becomes wider & taller when Gwangi snaps him up. How about the annoying trumpeting of the elephant? It is so obviously a human doing a bad, very bad imitation of an elephant. And finally poor Gwangi trapped inside the burning church roaring in pain. This is one film where I wanted the monster to win.

One day he will learn to obey the law of Gwangi...:
The Valley of Gwangi, aka Gwangi, aka The Lost Valley, aka The Valley Time Forgot, aka The Valley Where Time Stood Still, (whew!) stars James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space) and while they were decent, the real star of this movie is special effects creator and legend Ray Harryhausen. Franciscus plays Tuck Kirby, a cowboy looking to make a quick buck by brokering a deal for the sale of a horse that's being used in his ex-girlfriend's Wild West circus show that is located 'just south of the Rio Grande'. Gila Golan plays T.J. Breckenridge, owner of the circus, with Carlson as Champ Connors, the protective fatherly figure/manager of the circus. Anyway, a discovery is made of some sort of prehistoric animal, a wee little horse, and we soon find out the animal came from an area called the 'forbidden valley'...or at least that's what it is called by the gypsy-like tribe that seems to live near it, which, by the way, are inclined to believe that the rather wee horse needs to be returned to the valley whence it came of dire consequences involving a curse or some such hooey will follow. Now, getting off on a slight tangent, if I were these gypsies and I wanted to keep people out of the valley, I would have probably called it something else, like valley of the happy flowers, or valley of the nothing to see here, as the forbidden valley just sounds too tempting to strangers and such to not be explored. The gypsies also refer to it at times as the valley of the Gwangi, but they never really get specific as to the exact nature of the Gwangi. So these gypsies end up stealing the wee, small horse and returning it to the 'forbidden' valley, with members of the Wild West circus in hot pursuit. Also along for the ride is some elderly anthropologist who happens to be in the area studying fossils and various junk who seems to just get in the way more than anything else. This pursuit ultimately leads the group into the forbidden valley, where they encounter various prehistoric creatures, including a voracious and persistent tyrannosaurus rex. We are now about an hour into the movie, so if it's dinosaurs ye be looking for, keep this in mind, as you will probably be bored silly with the movie leading up to this point. Cowboys and dinosaurs? Sounds pretty cool...and it is. Harryhausen really outdid himself in this movie not only bringing these various creatures to life, but managing to instill personality into them, and adding all kinds of nuances to the stop motion animation. Keep in mind there were no high tech hoity toity computer gizmatronics back when this movie was made, so special effects creators had to be, well, creative. Harryhausen, shows in this film why he's considered one of the greatest effects artists in motion pictures. The man must have truly loved his work as it shows here. So what happens next? Well, the cowboys manage to capture one of the bigger, wily, creatures (hint, it's a real big one with sharp, pointy teeth) and bring it back to put in the Wild West show but things go badly as the creature escapes and wreaks havoc in a heavily populated area. Think of Godzilla attacking Tokyo except instead of Godzilla it's a prehistoric beast, instead of Tokyo it's Mexico City and instead of frightened Japanese people fleeing in terror, it's frightened Mexican people in sombreros fleeing in terror. Oh the carnage...who lives? Who dies? Who get horribly ate up? Well, you'll just have to see the movie. The picture provided on this disc is wide screen anamorphic, and special features include an eight minute tribute to Ray Harryhausen entitled 'Return to the Valley' where contemporary special effects artists gush over Harryhausen and tell how he influenced them and the various films they've worked on, most notably Jurassic Park. There is also like four or five trailers for other films Harryhausen worked on, including The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. I thoroughly enjoy The Valley of the Gwangi, even though I understand others have thought the movie to be bit slow, in the beginning, at least. I understand this, as the really cool dinosaurs don't appear until about halfway into this 95-minute feature. Fans of Ray Harryhausen will not be disappointed, but others may find themselves looking for the chapter stop where the dinosaurs are...all in all a nifty western adventure with a good helping of thrilling science fiction provided by a true pioneer of special effects. By the way, where did they find this actress who played the love interest to James Franciscus? She was somewhat attractive, but her wooden acting skills certainly made me root for a big, hungry, salivating primal beastie to gobble her up quickly. Cookieman108

Get in touch with your inner forbidden valley.:
The Valley of Gwangi is not a good "A" grade movie. It's not even a good "B" grade movie. But it is a fantastic "C" grade movie (the cinematic province of directors such as Ed Wood). Come to it with the right expectations and you'll not be dissappointed in this tale of Cowboys battling Dinosaurs in a turn of the century Mexico crawling with Spanish, Flamenco playing Gypsies (How did the Gypsies get here? Originally the story was supposed to be located in Spain, and they survived the rewrites that relocated it to Mexico.) The film is also significant in that it forms part of special-effects wizard Ray Harryhousen's body of stop-motion animated features.

An under-rated classic looking better than ever.:
When Ray Harryhausen was looking for new ideas, he came across an old script - intended for a never-made film - written by Willis O'Brien (creator and animator of RKO's 'King Kong'). Wth a little re-writing, this film came into being. I remember seeing this film as a kid. Personally, I think it's still as good now as it was then. Ray Harryhausen's special effects are, as always, first-rate. The story is both interesting and exciting, contains barely a dull moment. Scenes of the cowboys riding into the forbidden valley, the little horse in its miniature stable, and the roping of the titular allosaur had stuck in my mind since I first saw this film. Combining a western with a dinosaur movie was certainly a master-stroke. The human characters are interesting, as are the dinosaurs - you really do feel sympathy for Gwangi at the finale. The soundtrack is excellent, and the backgrounds are atmospheric and dramatic. Besides this film, now looking better than ever, this DVD also contains an interesting look at the making of Gwangi, including interviews with Ray Harryhausen himself. This is recommended whether you're a fan of dinosaurs or monster movies in general.