Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana - Full movie

Here, finally, is the full version of Muttaburrasaurus, which my friend Graham and I made back in 1993. It includes the live-action, documentary footage, which was interspersed with the stop-motion animated dinosaurs.

[@weeklywatching932]

I love how timeless stop-motion animation is

[@Dalekzilla54]

I remember renting this on a VHS some odd twenty years ago, when I was 8 years old. I never thought I would see this again.

[@kibskibs498]

Holy same, I can’t believe it. A lost memory

[@insideleosmind4313]

That is impressive to see a stop motion animated carnotaur long before Disney's Dinosaur (2000)!

[@alezot6141]

It's meant to be Rapator, a theropod that remains enigmatic

[@guillaumebabey4484]

While dated in some aspects, because there was still so much to learn about extinct reptiles from Australia, this documentary is still more honest and engaging than most modern documentaries. All my admiration and congratulations for your work!

[@gnawman62]

Thanks very much, William. I really appreciate that. We tried to do the best we could, given what was available at the time. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@nashkian6353]

I guess I am pretty randomly asking but do anybody know of a good site to stream newly released series online ?

[@keanukason5185]

@Nash Kian i use Flixzone. Just google for it =)

[@zaneturner6495]

@Keanu Kason Yup, been using FlixZone for since march myself :D

[@nashkian6353]

@Keanu Kason thanks, I signed up and it seems like a nice service :) I appreciate it!

[@adrianbernasol1744]

What a beautiful animation and the design of the dinosaur

[@TheGroundedAviator]

While we've come a long way in science, we've fallen back in down to earth documentaries. Great job!

[@gnawman62]

Thank you. I'm glad you like it. We did the best we could, given the available information and technology at the time. 🙂

[@TheGroundedAviator]

@@gnawman62 The honesty and integrity of the doco made up for the dated science. Today so many focus more on drama and sensationalisation over telling the story and describing something. And boy was that bloke who discovered it a fun dude!

[@gnawman62]

​@@TheGroundedAviator Thank you! I know what you mean about sensationalism, etc. Even though it's a fairly simple story, we tried to make the story telling an integral part. We tried to be accurate, but we also tried give the little dinosaur a bit of a personality so that you felt for his predicament. And yeah, Doug Langdon was a really nice guy - a real character.

[@TheGroundedAviator]

@@gnawman62 Today its wild animations, crazy music and action movie cinemaphotography. They are more interested in thrills and excitement over science. He's such a classic type you always find in paleontology.

[@adventureisoutthere4222]

Finally a movie where the main dinosaur is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE DINOSAUR the mighty muttaburrasaurus thankyou soooooooooooooooooooo much for this liked shared saved and subcibed

[@gnawman62]

Excellent! So glad you like it. :)

[@madceratophryid]

"The survival of dinosaurs was dependent on much more than their ability to attack or defend... feeding strategies themselves were just another aspect of dinosaurs' adaptation to the total environment, on which the survival of whole species depended." Beautifully said. A lot of dinosaur media reduces their ecology to constant deathmatching between large predators, but that line along with the scene of the abelisaurid being satisfied with the small ornithopod and not wasting energy on the juvenile Muttaburrasaurus really help to sell these creatures as animals!

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

Incredible animation and composition! I thoroughly enjoyed the hard work you both put into it. :)

[@yan7314]

its you o.o

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

@@yan7314 It sure is!

[@MonstersByMax]

Fantastic! The dinosaurs are wonderful, but the environments are also really impressive, you created a really strong sense of scale and atmosphere.

[@gnawman62]

Thank you very much! It was all shot in my friend, Graham's, garage. 🙂

[@Luixmai]

I find the last part very relaxing...as if it were summer and i were enjoying the dusk.

[@fabioduquemartinez9130]

Excelent. Documentary.....

[@tobiwalker7145]

Such beautiful dinosaurs. Thank you.

[@clavicleofcernunnos]

Love this! Reminds me of Phil Tippet's animations for the Christopher Reeves hosted "Dinosaurs" special.

[@parkerpshebnisky1051]

A great dinosaur documentary! and the stop motion reminded me of when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

[@aliencicada2985]

Love the dinosaur model work. It’s gorgeous and so detailed.

[@t.z2359]

That baby Muttaburrasaurus is adorable.

[@IndigoMuffin]

Muttaburrasaurus is my new favourite dinosaur thank you Mr Steve Newman for showing us this

[@clayharris7740]

I really liked it when the young muttabarasaurus was reunited with her parents and her herd it was really sweet

[@gnawman62]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. ☺️

[@Ozraptor4]

Loved this as a kid and wore out my VHS copy. Do any of these stop-motion puppets still exist? I recall seeing a publicity photo with all the models, shame the head of the giant Austrosaurus only gets a few seconds of screen time given the entire animal was modelled.

[@normanyeend7360]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a real labour of love. In answer to your question, I still have several of the dinosaur models. They've survived remarkably well, considering they're well over 25 years old by now. I think the publicity photo you mentioned may be the one shown on the back of the book that accompanied the film. As for the Austrosaurus, more animation of it was filmed but, because of the way I'd constructed him, his skin tended to ripple during handling while being animated, giving an odd appearance.

[@BeyondBeliever]

What was that carnotaur like one

[@Ozraptor4]

@@BeyondBeliever Rapator ornitholestoides, back when it was speculated to be an abelisaurid.

[@Rhinogradentian]

This was a big part of my childhood, thanks for sharing.

[@gnawman62]

I'm glad it made an impression. It makes it all worthwhile. Thanks for letting me know.

[@Rhinogradentian]

@@gnawman62 Thanks for responding, I still love this documentary and animation, it stands up really well today too.

[@MultiGuyx]

Norman, you did an excellent job with the animation.

[@gnawman62]

Thank you, sir. The animation was done by me and my friend Graham. It was all shot in his small garage at home.

[@StingForest]

nice pals...i like dinosaurs. also stop motion..that was best part before CGI 80s. thanks for sharing...

[@willjsoden]

seems like every great stop motion artist must have a passion project involving dinosaurs

[@tonyantonellis9983]

the animation in this nice documentary makes me wish we can make an accurate and CGI remake based on our current knowledge about Muttuburasaurus

[@heitorsantos7046]

So much nostalogia

[@jewlztreasch6617]

Mate. Your video gives Phil Tippet's Prehistoric Beast a run for his money!!

[@danielau7365]

Hi Norman I am loving this documentary!

[@gnawman62]

HI Daniel. That's great to hear! I'm glad you're enjoying it! :)

[@CooperHudgins]

All the prehistoric inaccuracies I could find. (This list is not made to bash this video, so don’t get mad at me. I understand that this video is about 30 years old, so inaccuracies are bound to happen.) 0:50 I think this might be Timimus, but I’m not sure. Anyways, it’s hands are facing forwards instead of with the palms facing inwards, and it should definitely have some type of fluffly feathering and a more parallel tail. 8:23 I’m not sure what pterosaur this is exactly, but it might be Aussiedraco or Mythunga. The wings should be folding backwards, not sideways, and it should probably be covered in fluff. 14:11 I dont think any plesiosaur, even Woolungasaurus, would be able to crawl up on shore and lay eggs, thanks to their huge size. Most marine reptiles at that time evolved to give birth to live young, so the idea of eggs is a little far fetched. 18:24 I think this might be Leaellynasaura, but I’m not sure. In any regard, it should have inward facing hands and (probably) fluffy feathers. 18:49 I’m 100% certain that Rapator did NOT look like a Carnotaurus with weirdly long arms and forward facing hands. I’m also pretty sure that all dinosaurs, including the theropods, could not roar.

[@IceCarno]

Dude.. gotta remember this was made in 1993 so ofc its gonna have inaccuracies

[@MattGodzilla2000]

awesome dinos, was the Carnotaurus from a different project? like just used as a stand in for the dinosaur its supposed to represent?

[@guancho9142]

Wow, simply wow. Amazing work!! I have always been fascinated by stop motion and I would love to try to shoot something but then I see things like these and I can't help thinking I could never do it lol. Just curious, how did you make the dinosaurs and the sets?

[@adventureisoutthere4222]

I hope he doesn't get eaten or I'm going to cry

[@gnawman62]

Uhoh... I hope it doesn't upset you too much. :(

[@Shagamaw-100]

Great documentary the animation so so lifelike and smooth. : )

[@voronOsphere]

Great documentary and stop-motion animation!

[@murmanza7595]

❤😊

[@Iggywiggywoo]

Is this Johnson and Friends?

[@BeyondBeliever]

Too bad they never did stop-motions set in other countries

[@hunterspencer4164]

Who here watches this just for the stop-motion?

[@Cheesefiddlehorn]

What is the carnivore dinosaur’s name

[@gnawman62]

It's name is Rapator. Little was known about it at the time, so the palaeontologist we were consulting with suggested we could even give it horns, and he wouldn't object.

[@insideleosmind4313]

Looks a lot like carnotaurus.

[@violet-kittychick]

So like.. where is the predator to match this creature??

[@jennywyatt7221]

The narrator sounds like Dot, doesn't it?

[@XaeeD]

There's no way to know that those fossilized tracks represent a stampede. One specific track that's present there could've been made on one day, and then another track the day after that, and a third a week thereafter, and so on. In fact, what looks like tons of footprints of the same small species and which could be interpreted as a herd or flock of animals, might just as well all be from one, two or three of the same individual animals, coming and going; crossing this point multiple times over the course of a couple of days. Why even assume it's all from the exact same moment in time? The way she describes the scene is as if all of those tracks were laid there simultaneously, during the same singular event, in a very short span of time, and then at the end of the day, the water covered the tracks and they became fossilized. Seems like pure assumption, and seems unlikely. Seems more likely, to me, without having actual access to study the tracks up close, that they were created over several days, before the water flooded the area, or it dried up and solidified. When the large theropod moved through there, it could've just as well been completely alone on the beach. There's really no indication that this represents a large theropod hunting a group of smaller dinosaurs.

[@StingForest]

actually dinosaur not move like that...because they are so heavy. there move slow and steady...they not shack they tail like dog.

[@Saberrex1]

I see you haven't kept up with news regarding dinosaurs. First off, not all dinosaurs were slow and steady. Many were quick and agile. The tail shaking in this film is a bit much for some of the dinosaurs shown here, but many of them did have quite flexible tails that could move side-to-side like that. Velociraptor was one example that had both these traits; a flexible tail side-to-side and it was a fast, agile animal. Furthermore, so was Tyrannosaurus rex itself. Carnotaurus, shown here in this documentary, was even faster. Though it couldn't move its tail very much side to side, that was due to the thick muscles in its tail powering its hind legs. As a result, Carnotaurus could outrun T. rex by a long shot; T. rex may have only been able to run 17 mph maximum. Carnotaurus however, could run at up to 35 mph, making it the cheetah of large predatory dinosaurs. Most of the dinosaurs known were quite capable of impressive running abilities, save for sauropods like Brachiosaurus (likely only as fast as an elephant at best), and armored dinosaurs like Ankylosaurus and Minmi, made pretty slow thanks to their heavy armor. Also, unlike what they show here, plesiosaurs did not lay eggs or come up onto beaches. Fossils of pregnant plesiosaurs show that they gave live birth to only one large baby at a time and cared for their young. Furthermore, plesiosaurs, like whales, would not be able to support their weight on land; they were so heavy that their own weight would crush their lungs and kill them. They lived completely in water their entire lives.

[@StingForest]

Jeremy Herz ok pals for the sharing...they are wonderful creature. our childhood watch dinosaur movie...i can emagine that time was so silent and dark place in the dark. you only can hear dinosaur raw at night..in the same time it make us fear in forest. 😉