Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

I *adored* this movie. Haven't seen it since I was a little kid, but I remember thinking, "Oh my god, that was SUCH a good movie!" ...and it really stuck with me. I only remember the plot vaguely; but I know that I cried so hard when the mother dinosaur found the baby again I thought my lungs would explode (I was about six or seven years old at the time).

I also remember the dinosaur effects being really cool, and I was sure if I watched it now I'd be like, what the heck is with the clay dinosaurs? You know how these things never compare with our memories. But some people on here have said it still isn't that bad. Now I'm definitely going to have to rent it and watch it again.

PS: what is it with Sean Young? She's in like every 80's movie ever MADE!

Let me confess at the start that: 1) I'm definitely fond of dinosaurs and paleontology in general. This interest LONG predates "Jurassic Park". If a paleontology major had been available in my college, in the early 60's, that would have been my choice. 2) I've also ALWAYS been a big fan of animation and related effects, such as the dinosaurs. This movie had by far the best dinosaur effects of any prior to "Jurassic Park", even better than in "The Valley of Gwangi". The baby brontosaurus (actually apatosaurus) was perhaps a little too cutsey with its blinking eyes but otherwise the film captured details of movement, including musculature and skin, very well. This was at its best when the mother dinosaur was chasing the bad guys in their vehicle. Needless to say I was very sympathetic with the efforts of the paleontologists to rescue the dinosaurs. I also enjoyed some of the people "antics" such as the natives spitting out the granola bars (hippy food) from the sides of their mouths while pretending to like it. An enjoyable movie if a little saccharine.

The paleontologist Susan Matthews-Loomis (Sean Young) moves with her husband, the unemployed journalist George Loomis (William Katt), to the Ivory Coast to work with her former professor, Doctor Eric Kiviat (Patrick McGoohan), and his assistant Nigel Jenkins (Julian Fellowes) in an archaeological site. When George is invited to work in a newspaper in the United States, Susan discovers a bone that she believes is from a dinosaur; but Eric tells that she is wrong. However he knows that Susan has made an important discovery and wants the credits. George packs their stuff to travel but Susan wants to check her discovery and leaves a note to him telling that she will investigate further in the forest. George hires an airplane to follow her and he succeeds to find his wife. Soon they find befriend the native Cephu (Kyalo Mativo) and his tribe. When they find a family of brontosaurus in the middle of the forest, they feed the animals and become close to their baby. Meanwhile, Eric hires mercenaries to help him to capture the brontosaurus and the militia kills the male and catch the female. Susan and George help the Baby to survive, but soon Eric finds that there is a baby and wants to catch the little animal for him. Will Baby survive?

"Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend" is a film with a highly entertaining adventure. The story of a paleontologist that discovers a family of brontosaurus but sacrifices her discovery to save the animal is pleasant and with moral values. The special effects are excellent for a 1985 film. However the film is too violent for kids and maybe silly for grown-ups. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Baby, O Segredo da Lenda Perdida" ("Baby, The Secret of the Lost Legend")

The folks at Disney must have realized somewhere down the road that the title "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend" was dumb, because when the movie aired on TV, the title was changed to "Dinosaur: Secret of the Lost Legend". However, a change in the title is not enough to save the movie. It's a pretty slow-moving movie, with significant padding here and there. While the movie was shot in Africa, a lot of the movie still looks like it was filmed on a Hollywood back lot. And while the dinosaurs look passable when seen at a distance, they look very phony when photographed close to the camera. (In fairness to director Bill L. Norton, he didn't think the special effects were ready, but Disney threatened to pull the plug on the project if filming didn't star promptly.) It's possible kids (YOUNG kids) might find this okay, but anyone older should be wary.

This early Touchstone release from 1985 would probably serve as minor script source material for the later unbelievably bad film "Jurassic Park." This mostly obscure film is only mildly better. Still, it's not something that I would recommend and even though Touchstone is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Pictures, don't think that this is a perfectly appropriate family oriented film (despite its childish plot) as there are some scenes of violence and animal peril.