So, I was scrolling today through Terrifying Tyrannosaur page on TV Tropes today when I came across this weird title that can be translated to Age of the Great Dinosaurs. Having nothing better to do, I watched it.
The film released in 1979 under the direction of Shoutarou Ishinomori, a guy that worked on multiple installments of Cyborg 009 and... SHERLOCK HOLMES 1996 ANIME SERIES. Haven't watched either.
What is supposed to be the plot:
It tells a story about "effeminate guy" known as Jun, who likes flowers and is sad that humans are contaminating the environment (usual stuff). He is bullied at school for reading poetry books (I can relate to his bullies), and his mother complains about his education. That thread is brushed aside immediately, because (WARNING: This is gonna be cringe) UFO CONTRACTS HIM!
It tells him to go on a beach, where he meets his love interest Remi. Unfortunately, this is where my least favourite character in the film joins: Chobi. Chobi is annoying little brat and younger brother of Remi, who stalks her all the way to the beach and mocks for having a boyfriend, as if that was something unnatural.
After pointing out that she just meet Jun, UFO teleports all three away and tells a story how humans lost their empathy, because they terraform the planet. Then it teleports them to cretaceous period for them to learn a lesson they already know. Chobi assaults some dino with stick and cuts his tail off, then discovers a bunch of eggs, from which Triceratops breed hatches. Tyrannosaurus the Immortal arrives and eats all but one trikes, then gets its eye gouged out. TTI then kills a Pachycephalosaurus female that two males have been fighting over and Chobi complains about their cowardice.
As usual, volcano explodes and all the dinos perish. The only ones left alive are Tyrannosaurus and "Toppy" (a hyper-grown Triceratops that survived earlier). Undying Tyranno kills Toppy and we go fast-forward to THE ICE AGE.
"What killed the dinosaurs? THE ICE AGE!"
After some montage of mammoths trampling Smilodons and humans killing mammoths (yeah, empathy never existed to begin with), T-Rex, who is somehow still alive, steals the killed mammoth from humans. Cavemen then make a sacrifice to Tyrannosaurus, offering some girl and singing. The song calms T-Rex down, only for Chobi to butt in and piss off T-Rex. Getting fire in their white eyes, cavemen insert infinite ammo cheat code and throw 1,000,000,000 spears onto T-Rex, killing it. Then UFO arrives and teleports kids back to present, saying that they will welcome mankind with open arms when they learn compassion. Movie ends.
Review:
Truly a terrible movie. Go on MyAnimeList.net and you'll find exactly NO ONE recommending this film.
-Characters are all shallow and have zero character, besides little brat with flaming eyes that I hate. It is insane that Tyrannosaurus, generic super persistent movie predator, makes more expressions than two other main characters in the whole runtime. Remi and Jun have as much personality as Ford Brody from Gareth Edwards' Godzilla (to hell with that movie), always having blank look on their faces and never reacting to A. N. Y. T. H. I. N. G.
-Plot is entirely stupid and makes no sense whatsoever. What exactly is UFO's point? Mankind is shown killing more than just some roadside flowers in prehistory, and "empathy" never existed to begin with. Why are they throwing three insignificant children into past? How did the Tyrannosaurus survive getting stabbed in the scrotum by Triceratops?How did the T-Rex, cold-blooded naked reptile, survive in ice age for millions of years?
-Animation is also bad. Frames are constantly reused and characters go off-model at least once. They switch between animating rain to using some generic filter over and over.
-What I can't put my finger on is how bizarre mood is in this film. Take Pachycephalosaurus scene for example: one moment you have shell falling from Ankylosaurus in goofy fashion and back fins falling off of Stegosaurus, the next moment Tyrannosaurus comes in and kills female Terra Formars-style. The film can't seem to decide whatever deaths are too brutal to show onscreen or just show them to the audience. Bizarre mood whiplash.
Final rating: 2/10.
Aftermath:
-Was Godzilla's roar protected by copyright at the time? Because T-Rex uses it ALL THE TIME in this movie. Either that or Gamera's roar. I guess filmmakers must have been lucky and Toho just didn't realize this movie's existence.