Three cavemen court Miss Araminta Rockface. She favors the one who apparently slew the Missing Link ... but a dinosaur did the deed.Three cavemen court Miss Araminta Rockface. She favors the one who apparently slew the Missing Link ... but a dinosaur did the deed.Three cavemen court Miss Araminta Rockface. She favors the one who apparently slew the Missing Link ... but a dinosaur did the deed.
- Director
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSan Francisco producer and exhibitor Herman Wobbler advanced Willis H. O'Brien $5000 to make the film.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Troldspejlet: Episode #3.7 (1990)
Featured review
Before we met The Flintstones.
Whenever we think of modern stone-age humor, we think of THE FLINTSTONES, but before we them let us scroll back to 1915 and see where it really all began. In this claymation short (yes they had claymation back in the silent era), we see a primeval love triangle between The Duke and Stonejaw Steve. They want to marry the girl, but along comes the youngster Theophilis Ivoryhead, and you know where this is going. You are asking, "Hey, where is the dinosaur and where is the missing link? The Missing Link is the villain in the picture and his name is Wild Willie. This Australopithecus (the missing link between man and ape), looks more like a gorilla-chimp hybrid. In fact, Willis O'Brien, who made this short, called him "King Kong's Ancestor." After Wild Willie sneaks in to steal their lunch, which happens to be snakes. (Were you expecting spaghetti? Just go with it.) A flightless prehistoric bird called the Dinornis (referred to as the desert quail), makes an appearance not only to dodge Stonejaw Steve's arrow (which hit's The Duke's rump), but scares the antagonist away. Theophilis Ivoryhead goes fishing and sees the battle between the dinosaur, a Brontosaurus (being the deus ex machina), and Wild Willie. After gang returns, all the youngster says that he fought him, leading him to win the girl's heart.
This was Willis O'Brien's first film before the original THE LOST WORLD, before the original KING KONG, and before the original MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. This battle between those hairy and the scaly would pop-up again in 1933 with KING KONG, 1948 with UNKNOWN ISLAND (done with men in costumes), Toho's KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, 1976's QUEEN KONG (read my comment), Dino Delaurentiis' 1976 remake (done with a snake), Peter Jackson's 2005 remake (done with three T-Rexes), KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017) and RAMPAGE (2018).
Wild Willie paved way to many stop-motion animated apes. The gorillas in THE GORILLA HUNT (1926), KING KONG and SON OF KONG (1933), MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), Taurus from EQUINOX (1970) KING DONG (1984) and the yeti from THE PRIMEVALS (which never got made until November 2017 when Charles Band announced that it is coming out sometime in 2018).
This short never got remade, until 90 years later. It was remade my me and it came out in the time of Peter Jackson's KING KONG remake and it is up on YouTube and the link is down there.
Give it a watch and it is pure family fun. Not rated, but a "G" would be nice.
helpful•11
- ultramatt2000-1
- Jun 1, 2018
Details
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Dinosaur and the Baboon
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $5,000 (estimated)
- Runtime5 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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