 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2015) |
Dinamation International Corporation was a robotics effects company based in San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, and Tustin, California, United States.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2015) |
Dinamation International Corporation was a robotics effects company based in San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, and Tustin, California, United States.
It was founded in 1982 by former airline pilot Chris Mays and some neighbors and dropped in March 2001. (A 2001 Wall Street Journal article [1] [2] describes the rise and fall and disappearance of its founder, Chris Mays.) Originally begun as a way to lease handmade, one-of-a-kind, Japanese-produced robot dinosaurs to North American shopping malls, in time Dinamation defied its original mandate and came to produce its own production-line models for exhibit in science museums and zoos worldwide. Dinamation was an example of an American company following, improving upon, and then outpacing its Japanese rivals.
Dinamation started out with a dozen movie special effects technicians, sculptors, painters, and engineers housed in third-tier industrial spaces in Santa Ana, California, where municipal, safety and corporate oversight was minimal and creative freedom maximal. Given vague guidelines and a selection of consumer-grade dinosaur books for reference, they produced one "beta" show (which was sold, not leased) for a museum in Boston and also sold a display to the Mesa Southwest Museum in Grand Junction, CO, US (D.I.C. creatures are still on active exhibit there). Techniques improved (and so did scientific fidelity, up to a point, under the guidance of paleontologists Dr.s Robert Bakker and George Callison and given the contributions made by many skilled engineers, inventor/sculptors such as public artists Raymond Persinger and Marianne O'Barr, [3] movie effects artists Steve Koch [4] (also designed paint schemes), Brian Sipe [5] and Matt Croteau. [6] By 1988, Dinamation had grown to 150 employees embedded in a complex corporate structure and operating out of a 39,000-square-foot (3,600 m2) facility in Tustin, California.
Museum attendances soared with every visit by the "Dinosaurs Alive!" shows and remained fairly high afterwards, boosting the revenues (and often the survival) of almost every venue. Dinamation was for a time quite successful, with exhibits around the world in important museums including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the National Geographic Museum, and the British Museum of Natural History.
At the end, under a cloud of financial mystery, over 700 American-made 'creatures' were left in limbo, scattered in science museums, trucks, and shipping containers across the United States and abroad. Some of the orphaned robots have become permanent parts of the displays in the museums that had shows running when the company folded. Other dinos were sold, lost, disassembled, disposed of, or recycled as spare parts for other dinos in better shape. Other final vestiges of Dinamation can be seen as ubiquitous uncredited photographs of the dinosaur robots and preproduction art, scattered in children's books, toy art, video backgrounds, and recycled magazine illustrations, as well as appearances in cinema, for example, Woody Allen's film, Alice. Images of the sculptures in process and in completed sculptures in museum displays are available online. [7]
However, by far the largest collection of Dinamation creatures ended up as the possessions of Wonder Works USA, in Abilene, TX. WonderWorks is now owned by Jack Hull, who has been leasing out this collection since 2001 (with the, now former, partner of Hull, John Thomas).
This huge collection has been kept in service by WonderWorks with the reliance upon two former Dinamation technicians, Ken Diggs and Mike Short, that formed Creature Craft in Nebraska.
Some examples of Dinamation's sculptures can still be seen at the Otway Fly in Victoria, Australia. They can also be viewed at the Museum of Western Colorado's Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, Colorado. [8] These include a Dilophosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Utahraptor, and Apatosaurus robots, along with Tyrannosaurus sculptures.
A (very) partial list of the Dinamation robot creatures:
and various neotenous 'baby' dinosaurs, including hatching eggs and a pteranadon feeding a fish to youths in a rocky "nest". Others included prehistoric mammals, whales, a great white shark, an 8-limbed Archeteuthis, or "giant squid," giant insects, and versions of some animals from Dougal Dixon's book After Man: A Zoology Of The Future.
Nanosaur is a science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Pangea Software and published by Ideas From the Deep for Mac OS 9 and Microsoft Windows. The player takes on the form of a Nanosaur, a genetically engineered intelligent dinosaur from the future, sent back in time just prior to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Extreme Dinosaurs is an American animated series produced by DIC Productions, L.P. and Bohbot Entertainment in 1997 based on a 1996 toy line from Mattel. This show is a spin-off of Street Sharks.
Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs is a series of children's books written and drawn by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds. The series is about a five-year-old boy named Harry, who has a bucket full of six dinosaurs named Taury, Trike, Patsy, Pterence, Sid, and Steggy. In the books the dinosaurs talk to Harry but seem to be toys to the other characters. The other main characters are Mum, Nana, Harry's best friend Charlie and Harry's sister Sam.
Tyrannosaurus rex is unique among dinosaurs in its place in modern culture; paleontologist Robert Bakker has called it "the most popular dinosaur among people of all ages, all cultures, and all nationalities". Paleontologists Mark Norell and Lowell Dingus have likewise called it “the most famous dinosaur of all times.” Paleoartist Gregory S. Paul has called it “the theropod. […] This is the public’s favorite dinosaur […] Even the formations it is found in have fantastic names like Hell Creek and Lance.” Other paleontologists agree with that and note that whenever a museum erects a new skeleton or bring in an animatronic model, visitor numbers go up. “Jurassic Park and King Kong would not have been the same without it.” In the public mind, T. rex sets the standard of what a dinosaur should be.
When Dinosaurs Roamed America is a two-hour American television program that first aired on the Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001. The show features the reign of the dinosaurs in America over the course of more than 160 million years, through five different segments, each with their own variety of flora and fauna.
The Carnegie Collection was a series of authentic replicas based on dinosaurs and other extinct prehistoric creatures, using fossils featured at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History as references. They were produced by Florida-based company Safari Ltd., known for their hand-painted replicas, from 1988 to 2015, and became known as "the world’s premier line of scale model dinosaur figures."
Stegosaurus is one of the most recognizable types among cultural depictions of dinosaurs. It has been depicted on film, in cartoons, comics, as children's toys, as sculpture, and even was declared the state dinosaur of Colorado in 1982. Stegosaurus is a subject for inclusion in dinosaur toy and scale model lines, such as the Carnegie Collection.
Dinosaur Park is a tourist attraction in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States. Dedicated on May 22, 1936, it contains seven dinosaur sculptures on a hill overlooking the city, created to capitalize on the tourists coming to the Black Hills to see Mount Rushmore. Constructed by the city of Rapid City and the Works Progress Administration, WPA Project #960's dinosaurs were designed by Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan also designed the Apatosaurus at Wall Drug nearby in Wall, South Dakota, the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and the dinosaurs at the now closed Dinosaur World in Beaver, Arkansas.
National Geographic Dinosaurs is a nonfiction reference book on dinosaurs, written by Paul Barrett, with illustrations by Raúl Martín, and an introduction by Kevin Padian. It was published in 2001 by National Geographic.
Dinosaur Train is a computer-animated musical children's television series created by Craig Bartlett, who created Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!. The series features a curious young Tyrannosaurus rex named Buddy who, together with his adopted Pteranodon family, takes the Dinosaur Train to explore his time period, and have adventures with a variety of dinosaurs. It is co-produced by The Jim Henson Company in association with the Info-communications Media Development Authority, Sparky Animation, FableVision, Snee-Oosh, Inc., Reel FX, and Sea to Sky Entertainment. As of September 2018, PBS Kids had ordered 11 more episodes, taking the total number of episodes to 100. A film based on the series from Universal Pictures and Universal 1440 Entertainment titled, Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island premiered on April 12, 2021.
The Dinosaurs! is an American television miniseries produced by WHYY-TV for PBS in 1992, featuring some of the then-modern theories about dinosaurs and how they lived. It aired four episodes from November 22 to November 25, 1992.
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a 1987 children's book drawn and written by Hudson Talbott, and published by Crown. A Tyrannosaurus Rex named Rex is the main character and narrator. Other dinosaurs included in the book are a Triceratops, a Parasaurolophus, an Apatosaurus, a Stegosaurus, and a Velociraptor, with the only exception being the Pteranodon, a pterosaur.
Jurassic Forest is a seasonal tourist attraction located on Highway 28 just north of Gibbons, Alberta, just minutes away from Edmonton, Alberta by vehicle. The facility is situated in a mature boreal forest setting and features more than 40 animatronic dinosaurs in their natural habitat. The dinosaurs can be easily viewed from wooden trails that lead through the forest. The trail system consists of two separate loops, the South Discovery trail and the North Discovery trail, each about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long. The trails are wheelchair friendly and are accessible in all types of weather conditions.
Field Station: Dinosaurs is an outdoor prehistoric theme park with two locations in the United States. The park is designed for families with children between the ages of three and eleven. The parks both feature a walking tour with full-size, scientifically accurate animatronic dinosaurs along with interactive exhibits and live shows designed to educate children about dinosaurs within the context of the local ecosystem. The Executive Producer and Expedition Commander is Guy Gsell, a lifelong dinosaur enthusiast.
Louis Paul Jonas was an American sculptor of wildlife, taxidermist, and natural history exhibit designer.
Jurassic Park Arcade is a 2015 light gun arcade game developed by Raw Thrills. The game is based on the first three films of the Jurassic Park series.
Dinosaur suits are a type of costumed character or creature suit resembling a dinosaur. Dinosaur suits are also called dinosaur costumes. Such costumes were used in film and television and as mascots for decades, reflecting dinosaurs' prominence in the arts and entertainment. Usually operators use two cable-pulled handle to control the motions. Realistic dinosaur suits also gained popularity for live shows following the success of Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular. An experienced performer can make lifelike movements with a dinosaur suit. They are also used in theme parks and in an educational context at various museums. Inflatable dinosaur suits have been used for pranks, gags, and protests.
Jurassic Park, later known as Jurassic World, is an American science fiction adventure media franchise. It focuses on the cloning of dinosaurs through ancient DNA, extracted from mosquitoes that have been fossilized in amber. The franchise explores the ethics of cloning and genetic engineering, and the morals behind de-extinction.
The Jurassic League is an American comic book published by DC Comics. The six-issue limited series, co-written by Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedeon and illustrated by Gedeon, began publication on May 10, 2022.