The Lost World Restoration

[Danvarner@aol.com]

       I received my VHS copy of the newly restored _The Lost World_yesterday 
and it's wonderful to see the newly discovered footage in this relic. There 
are some problems that have been mentioned elsewhere. The footage probably 
should have been letterboxed as sometimes animation disappears off-screen. 
The music is usually all right, but sometimes there's a theramin(sp?) or a 
musical saw that will have you going for the mute button at warp speed. Some 
things can't be avoided, like some of the dinosaur sequences that are 
intercut with tight close-ups of the heroine (played by Bessie Love) mugging 
horrendously with her eyeballs rolling around in their sockets.
       But the treat's in the dinosaurs. I think some footage has been added 
to the stampede during the volcanic eruption. There are a lot more 
brachiosaurs than I remember. The out-takes at the end of the tape are very 
interesting. On some of the shots, animators (one with a very odd haircut) 
appear then disappear magically. Someone evidently accidentally tripped the 
shutter. Very nice was a closeup head and neck of the brontosaur from a model 
that I don't think was in the final movie (maybe Ed can correct me). Very 
nice, slow and life-like animation. The idea of a dewlap was very nicely 
incorporated into the beast also. Fine model work by Marcel Delgado, as is 
the superb Agathaumas model seen here in a scene with a Stegosaurus in a 
sequence apparently just prior to the attack of the allosaurus, "that vicious 
pest of the ancient world". Agathaumas is the most elegant of dinosaurs, 
decked out in all sorts of victorian armour and plumbing. I wish it existed. 
Delgado's model is even better than Knight's original version and it's nice 
to see even more of it. On the flip side, there's a Trachodon with very odd 
buck teeth--kind of a Trachodon blind date from a Tex Avery cartoon.
       At any rate, it's lots of fun like it's supposed to be and you ought 
to have a copy--or wait for the Library of Congress restoration. Signed, Bull 
Montana
PS I used the word "nice" almost as much as Ned Colbert!