Dinosaurs in popular culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
By human standards, dinosaurs were creatures of fantastic appearance and often enormous size. As such, they have captured people's imagination and become an enduring part of popular culture. Dinosaur exhibitions, parks and museum exhibits around the world both cater to and reinforce the public's interest. The popular preoccupation with dinosaurs is also reflected in a broad array of fictional and non-fictional works.
Notable examples of older fictional works featuring dinosaurs include Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World; the 1933 film King Kong; and Godzilla. The depiction of humans and dinosaurs living together has been a recurring theme in fiction. Films which famously portrayed this idea include The Valley of Gwangi (1969) and One Million Years B.C. (1966). Ray Harryhausen brought the dinosaurs to life in both films using models and stop motion animation. Older films and literature generally depict dinosaurs as sluggish, unintelligent, lizard-like creatures.
More recently, the portrayal of dinosaurs in works intended for popular consumption has tended to better reflect a more nuanced modern scientific understanding of the animals. In particular, the development and refinement of computer-generated imagery has led to a revolution in the depiction of dinosaurs on film. Perhaps the most prominent example of CGI dinosaurs remains the film Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring special effects by ILM. The success of Jurassic Park and its two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, demonstrates the continued popularity of dinosaurs. The falling cost of computer-generated effects has also recently allowed the production of documentaries for television; the award-winning 1999 BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs is a notable example.
Dinosaurs are often anthropomorphized in fiction. In works intended for young children, they are imbued with friendly, even loving personalities. Examples of this trend include the 1960s cartoon The Flintstones, the 1970s show Land of the Lost, the 1980s' Dino-Riders and Denver, the Last Dinosaur, and the 1990s' Dinosaurs and Barney & Friends, along with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and one of its reincarnations, Power Rangers: Dino Thunder; these are live action.
Cartoons, comic books and comic strips also regularly depict dinosaurs. The cartoon The Flintstones showcased a stone age family living with dinosaurs (though in reality humans did not appear until tens of millions of years after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs). Comic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side often featured dinosaur-oriented content. The comics entitled Dinosaurs for Hire portrayed anthropomorphic dinosaurs in a very unusual way; the comic's trio of gun-toting, trigger-happy dinos were notable for their "Who's Extinct?" t-shirts and their love of "Kojak". Dinosaur Comics is another comic that uses dinosaur exclusively as characters. There is also a comic book just for dinosaurs, titled Age of Reptiles.
Many computer and console games have also featured dinosaurs as characters. The Jurassic Park films inspired multiple computer games (see Jurassic Park video games). Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Ape Escape, the Turok series, the Super Mario series with Yoshi, and even Zoo Tycoon have involved dinosaurs in their storylines.
Because dinosaurs were a highly successful, imposing group of creatures that abruptly and completely became extinct, they are often evoked in metaphor. In order to explain the sudden disappearance of the creatures when they were first discovered, religious scientists in the 1800s took the view that they were made extinct by God because of their imperfection; This led to the derisive use of "dinosaur" to mean people, styles and ideas that are perceived to be out of date and on the wane. For example, members of the punk movement derided the "progressive" bands that preceded them as "dinosaur groups".
The TV series Family Guy claims the dinosaurs died out because you touch yourself at night.
