Reviews (31)

A Classic
One Million Years B.C., is awesome. It has minimum dialogue and creatures a plenty. The musical score that accompanies the dramatic and well shot scenes gives the film a strong sense of emotion, and the viewer gets a feeling of what it would be like to live in the cruel world that is the movie's setting. Best of all, we get to see the lovely Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.

Of couse, this film is a little scientifically inaccurate, but it's still great. Most of the prehistoric creatures were animated using stop-motion techniques, by none other than the great Ray Harryhausen (Mighty Joe Young, It Came From Venus). The special affects are great. A giant lizard and a brief shot of a giant turantula eating some smaller (but still oversized) insect adds to the monstrous mayhem. Watch and enjoy.

Superb Harryhausen effects, and the rest ain't bad either!
Although Fox uses the famous picture of Raquel Welch in her fur bikini on the cover of this DVD, the reason most people will want to watch and this 1966 movie today is because of the dinosaur stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film, a remake of a very clunky 1940 movie, "One Million B.C.," starring Victor Mature and Carol Landis, combined Harryhausen's terrific dinosaur effects with a caveman plot heavy with sexual titillation. The combination made the film a big worldwide hit (and without any dialogue in any intelligible language, it translated easily to other countries), but today the sex elements seem tame and often a bit silly. The dinosaurs still amaze; Harryhausen's effects have a sense of wonder to them that never ages. Even away from the animated effects sequences, the film still works remarkably well due to effective performances from the cast and the filmmakers' attempts to keep the story simple but serious (when possible).

"One Million Years B.C." was the brainchild of Michael Carreras, son of James Carreras, the head of Hammer Film Productions in England. Hammer had made its name with its Technicolor gothic horror films, but Michael Carreras wanted the studio to stretch in different directions, and "One Million Years B.C." was one of his most successful experiments. He asked Harryhausen to provide the effects, and the effects man was loaned from his own production company, Morningside, to do the movie. This makes it one of the few films from the period that Harryhausen worked on where he was not one of the producers or involved in developing the project.

The movie was shot on the Canary Islands, a perfect setting for a prehistoric wilderness. In a fictional time where men and dinosaurs lived side-by-side (even six-year-olds know this is ridiculous), Tumak of the primitive Rock Tribe (John Richardson) is exiled from the tribe after a conflict with his brother. He travels through the wastelands until his finds the peaceful (and beautiful and blonde) Shell Tribe by the ocean. He romances the alluring Loana the Fair One (Raquel Welch, in the role that made her star), who eventually leaves with him when the Shell Tribe exiles him as well.

The story is quite simple, following our heroes across the wastes and encountering multiple deadly animals, ape men, plus getting involved in fights and tribal warfare and facing natural disasters like a volcano. There is no intelligible dialogue, only a simplistic, guttural language. A narrator at the beginning lays out the situation, then vanishes, leaving us with the pantomime story. (Strangely, the DVD is dubbed in Spanish, with a subtitle option! Since this only covers the first five minutes, you have to wonder why they bothered.) Welch and Richardson are both very good at the difficult roles, which require heavily physical acting and facial expressions. Also excellent are Robert Brown as Tumak's violent father (the same actor who played M in the 1980s James Bond movies!) and the sexy Martine Beswick (who also appeared in two James Bond films) as Tumak's first love. Yes Raquel and Martine do get into a girl fight -- the filmmakers were not going to turn THAT opportunity down.

Plenty goes on in the human scenes, with many battles and tussles, and Raquel Welch does light up the screen. Mario Nascimbene's bizarre music contributes to the drama. But when the dinosaurs are on the screen is when the film really shines.

Oddly, the first monster we see isn't a stop-motion effect at all, but blown-up footage of an iguana. Harryhausen admits this was his choice, and that it was a mistake. That said, the iguana is well matted into the footage of John Richardson. A giant spider shows up briefly, but the rest of the animals are all stop-motion: an archelon (giant sea-turtle), a briefly sited brontosaurus (originally meant to take part in a full sequence), a juvenile allosaurus that attacks the Shell People camp, a triceratops and a ceratosaurus battling each other, a pteranodon and a pteradactyl and the pteranodon's babies. All the sequences are great, but the allosaurus fights especially stands out. The nine-foot tall dinosaur moves quickly and interacts seamlessly with the human actors, and the result is an incredibly dynamic and exciting scene; the finale is a great stand up and cheer moment.

The DVD is an adequate presentation. The film has been carefully restored from poor sources (the negative is lost), so it looks fairly good, but with noticeable flaws in places. The sound is an adequate stereo. There are barely any extras: the trailers, and a brief split screen comparison of the film before and after the restoration. Considering that the DVDs of Harryhausen films released by Columbia feature interviews with him, the lack of any other special features is disappointing but sadly fairly typical of the way Fox releases its back-catalog films on DVD.

Despite some of those DVD problems, I still recommend "One Millions Years B.C." to any effects and fantasy film fan. It has aged much better than you would think based on those old cheesecake Raquel Welch posters. Raquel looks good, the story holds together, and man those dinosaurs will still make they day of kids of all ages, from six to one million!

This is why Welch was never taken seriously....
With due respect to Ms. Welch, it was taking movie roles like this which caused film makers to typecast her in these rather substanceless pictures where the looks and not the story was the name of the movie. This was a Hammer Production, and to have Ray do the effects work just did not work. Ray was a master of creature effects and his work at Colombia Pictures turned out so much better then this one time deal with Hammer films which always did their movies quickly and on very shoe string budgets. The budget for this movie was so low that they actually have a cheap lizard appear as the first prehistoric monster before Ray's Dinosaur effects take over. I think more people watched this movie because Raquel was in it and Ray's effects work took a back seat. That's too bad, because he desereved to work on better productions then this piece of celliod trash.

These lazy DVDs of grand classics need to end!
I vote everyone who is a big fan of this movie give it the lowest rating imaginable. Hopefully Fox will get the message, take it off the market, and give us the edition it truly deserves. If we all voice together, we can SURELY make a difference!!

I cannot believe that Fox did this to us!!
No special features, no commentary by Raquel or Ray Harryhausen, her biggest film ever! And then they have released the short version of this film. WTF!! I have been waiting years for Fox to release this on DVD and this is what we get! They are in big trouble and need to apologize and redo this DVD right. Who ever are making these kinds of decisions are really OUT! BOO TO FOX! You let us down with this one. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Fasten your seabelts for 'Mr. Toad's Wild Ride'!
'Mr. Toad's Wild Ride' is definitely one of the most charming children's movies that I've ever seen. Based loosely on the classic 'Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Grahame, the film is set in the English countryside and follows the adventures (and misadventures) of Mr. Toad (Terry Jones of Monty Python!), Ratty (Eric Idle of the same), Mole(Steve Coogan), and Badger(Nicol Williamson) as they battle with the evil, greedy weasels over the rights to Toad Hall. The special effects are minimal but very well done, and the quaint period costumes and animal make-up creates the perfect woodland atmosphere. The songs are short but cute; you'll find yourself humming the tunes before you know it. All in all, children will find the characters delightful and funny, while the darker images of the dangers of industrialization and progress will keep the attention of adults. I'd say my rating is four and a half stars, as opposed to just four. 'Mr. Toad's Wils Ride' is a definite must to any video collection!

Grab It While You Can!
I was totally unprepared for how much I liked this movie. It is an interesting hybrid of Kenneth Grahame and Monty Python which probably works against it for a lot of people who expect one or the other and that is really too bad because the film has so much to offer. Although released by Disney (they own the film rights for the book in America thanks to their 1949 animated film ADVENTURES OF MR TOAD), the film was not made by them which accounts for the lackluster treatment it was given in this country. It went directly to video, was retitled in the process (it was originally THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS like the book), and has already been withdrawn from circulation. So much for it's rather sad history. The good news is that there are still plenty of copies to be had and at very good prices too but probably not for long so grab it while you can. While director-writer-star Terry Jones does take several liberties with the book, he remains true to the spirit of Grahame's work and that is the important thing. The performances from Jones, Eric Idle, Nicol Williamson, and especially Steve Coogan in the principal parts are truly extraordinary. Antony Sher as the Chief Weasel is an absolute delight and the cameos by former Python members and well known British television performers only add to the fun. The production design is stunning from the quirky costumes to the underground homes of Badger and Mole and the period motor cars that Toad dispatches are a wonder to behold. The BRAZIL like subplot concerning the dog food factory has bothered some people but it is in keeping with Grahame's views on rural destruction and urban blight and it also happens to be highly effective. The brief musical numbers scattered throughout the film add a touch of the surreal with The Weasel's Song (a wickedly funny parody of CATS) as delightful as it is unexpected. MR TOAD'S WILD RIDE is not a great movie but it is a highly creative one. It leaves you with a surprising number of sequences that will have you returning to it without really knowing why. Shame on Disney for treating it so shabbily. Let's hope that they will release it on DVD as that is the least that it deserves. An ideal movie for adults and children, it is as Mr Toad would say, "Glorious, simply glorious!"

Mr. Toad's Great DVD
Starts a little slow but is strong throughout, very entertaining - aimed at kids, but parents won't be bored!

My favourite film in the world
I love this film because it is funny it has alot of the monty python stars in it and also that the actors are amazing. The first time that I ever saw this film was when I borrowed it off a friend and ever since that I had fallen in love wwith it.

Great overlooked gem
This movie was barely released in theaters. Great adaptation of the Wind in the Willows stories, with excellent characterizations. Funny and very well-done--not just for kids. ... Read more

Description

A naive schoolteacher becomes both a walking experiment and a marked target, when he is injected with a secret enzyme developed by a multi-national pharmaceutical company. ... Read more