Michael Crichton created a monster when he released his novel Jurassic Park in 1990. The best-seller was followed by an equally popular movie of the same name in 1993 and the novel’s sequel, The Lost World in 1995. Since then, Universal Pictures has produced seven Jurassic films with the latest, Jurassic World Rebirth released on the 4th of July weekend of this year. Before it came out, there was speculation if it would do well. How much further could this franchise take things? The movie made $91,500,000 domestically during the first three-day weekend according to Comscore.
Suffice it to say, we love our dinosaurs and they’ve never really gone out of style. They are a huge part of pop culture. Beyond Jurassic Park, here are some favorites and perhaps a few that you’re not familiar with:
1905: Prehistoric Peeps
Based off Edward Tennyson Reed’s comic strip series of the same name, this silent “caveman comedy” was the first film to feature dinosaurs ever. (Image: Wikimedia)
1914: Gertie the Dinosaur
Although often mistaken as being the first animated film, it was definitely the first to feature a dinosaur. Created by animator Winsor McCay, Gertie the Dinosaur was used in McCay’s interactive vaudeville act. During the show, Gertie would seemingly perform various tricks at her master’s command. The show served to inspire upcoming animators including Walt Disney and Walter Lantz. (Image: Wikimedia)
1925: The Lost World
This silent MGM film was the first U.S. film to include stop-motion animation (a sewer behind the studios stood in for a river). It was also the first feature film to center around dinosaurs. Set in modern times, the story involves a professor sent to Brazil to rescue Maple White, an explorer who believes that dinosaurs still walk the Earth. Spoiler alert: They do. Michael Crichton used the same title for his novel as a homage to Harry O. Hoyt’s movie. (Image: Wikimedia)
1940: One Million B.C.
Victor Mature plays Tumak a young caveman who impresses his father when his wrestles a small Triceratops to death. Later, he stives to unite his own uncivilized Rock Tribe with the peaceful and perhaps more advanced Shell Tribe all while avoiding being eaten by other nefarious beasts. (Image: Wikimedia)
1956: Godzilla
Godzilla has been described as a prehistoric reptilian or dinosaurian monster who can usually be found in the ocean. He first appeared on theater screens in 1954 in the self-titled movie. A total of 33 Japanese movies has been made featuring the “King of Monsters”. In America, we’ve made five movies based on the fire-breathing character. Godzilla was given his own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 1996. (Image: Wikimedia)
1960: The Flintstones
Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures were featured heavily on Hanna-Barbera’s hit show, but the one who gets the most attention is Dino, the pet of Fred and Wilma. Although he was a dinosaur, he acted more like an overgrown dog that yapped liked a chihuahua. Dino also appeared in the series’ spin-offs, live action movies and shorts like 1995’s Dino: Stay Out! and 1997’s Dino: The Great Egg-Scape and two seasons of Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs. (Image: Hanna-Barbera/Warner Bros. Animation)
1964: The Munsters
This one may not count. The Munsters’s pet, Spot is never fully seen on the show. He’s mostly shown poking his head out from under the stairs or his tail going out the door. Although referenced as being a dragon, the creature was re-used from a dinosaur prop from the Universal Studios movie, The Land Unknown and he most definitely looked more like a dino than a dragon. (Image: Universal Television)
1966: One Million Years B.C.
Hammer Film Productions produced this remake of One Million B.C. The movie starred a fur bikini-wearing Raquel Welch and John Richardson. Ray Harryhausen oversaw all of the stop-motion animation. When challenged that dinosaurs and humans did not exist in the same time frame, he said that he didn’t make the film for “professors…who probably don’t go to see these kinds of movies anyway.” (Image: TVDB)
1974: Land of the Lost
Will and Holly Marshall spent a good amount of time on this show running from dinosaurs, but the star dino of this former Saturday morning show was the Tyrannosaurus rex, Grumpy. Land of the Lost was rebooted with a new cast in 1991 and Will Ferrell starred in the notoriously bad 2009 movie. (It was nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards.) In June of 2025, Deadline reported that the legendary Sid and Marty Krofft are working with Legendary TV to produce a reboot of their iconic show for Netflix. (Image: TVDB)
1981: Caveman
This mostly forgotten low budget and silly movie is set in “One Zillion B.C.” and is sort of a tribute to the earlier “cavegirl movies” complete with stop-motion animation. Almost all of the lines were spoken in a made-up caveman language. It starred Ringo Starr, Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long and Barbara Bach.
1985: Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
This was Disney’s first try getting into the dino business. The story involves a paleontologist who goes on the hunt for “monsters” with her husband in Central Africa. As it turns out, it was a family of brontosauruses. They named the “infant” Baby. Despite the fact that some critics made note that Disney was able to make a Brontosaurus “cute”, the movie received mostly negative reviews. (Image: TVDB/Disney)
1988: The Land Before Time
Created by Don Bluth, Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss, the original The Land Before Time film followed the friendships between Littlefoot (an Apatosaurus), Cera (a Triceratops), Ducky (a Saurolophus), Petrie (a Pteranodon) and Spike (a Stegosaurus). Originally planned as a single animated movie, the franchise has sported 13 additional direct-to-video sequels as well as a TV series for Cartoon Network. (Image: TVDB)
1991: Dorothy the Dinosaur
Dorothy, a “rososaurus”, was the first costumed character to be added to The Wiggles crew. She is a yellow-spotted, green herbivore who enjoys eating roses. Carolyn Ferrie, who provided the dino’s voice for years, has described Dorothy as a mother figure for children even though the character is meant to be only five years of age. (Image: TVDB)
1991: Dinosaurs
Jim Henson Television and Walt Disney Television joined forces to create this comedy-drama series. Set in 60,000,000 BC in Pangaea, the show centered around the Sinclair family of dinosaurs: Earl the father (a Megalosaurus), Fran the mother (an Allosaurus), son Robbie (a Hypsilophodon), daughter Charlene (a Protoceratops) and Baby Sinclair (another Megalosaurus) who often told Earl that he was “Not the mama!”. The fictional family’s name came from the real Sinclair Oil Corporation. The series ended with a depressing ending after four seasons – they all died during the Ice Age. (Image: TVDB)
1992: Barney & Friends
With Dino being the first, the more famous purple dinosaur to appear on TV was of course, Barney. His show appeared on PBS for 12 years starring the anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex. The show also introduced Baby Bop (a green Triceratops) in 1991, BJ (a yellow Protoceratops) in 1993 and Riff (an orange Hadrosaur) in 2006. Although loved by kids, Barney was hated by many of their parents. TV Guide even ranked it the #50 worst TV show of all time in 2002.
1995: Toy Story:
Pixar’s first computer animated movie about the adventures of a group of toys, included the easily frightened Tyrannosaurus, Rex voiced by Wallace Shawn. Rex has been featured in every Toy Story movie since and in 2014 had a larger role for the Christmas TV special, Toy Story That Time Forgot. (Image: TVDB)
1996: Theodore Rex
Whoopie Goldberg starred in this odd buddy cop movie. Set in the future when humans and dinosaurs co-exist, Detective Katie Coltrane (Goldberg) was paired with Tyrannosaurus Theodore Rex (voiced by George Newbern) to find a killer of dinos. Goldberg reportedly wanted to back out of the film but was taken to court over the matter. Fortunately for her, not too many people actually saw this thing as it skipped the theaters and became a direct-to-video release. (Image: TVDB)
2000: Dinosaur
Disney’s second attempt at creating a dino-themed movie center on Aladar, an orphaned Iguanodon, which was adopted by family of lemurs. The computer animated film was praised for its striking visuals, but overall, critics thought that the storyline was rather dull. Despite the film’s heavy marketing, the film failed to break even, and it is largely forgotten that it even existed. (Image: TVDB/Disney)
2002: Ice Age
The first film in the Ice Age series of movies was basically 3 Men and a Baby in creature form including Manny (a woolly mammoth voiced by Ray Romano), Sid (a ground sloth voiced by John Leguizamo) and Diego (a Smilodon voiced by Denis Leary). Five movies in the series have been made including 2022’s spin-off, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. Whether we want it or not, Ice Age 6 is expected to open in theaters in December 2026. (Image: TVDB)
2006: Night at the Museum
This one may not count either. Based on Milan Trenc’s children’s book of the same name, this movie franchise features a great gag involving a Tyrannosaurus skeleton coming to life only wanting to play catch with Ben Stiller.
2015: The Good Dinosaur
Perhaps dinosaurs are just not Disney’s thing. Disney/Pixar produced this film about an Apatosaurus family focusing on the adventures of youngest member, Alro. After a series of “failures”, the timid dino fails to “make his mark” like his older siblings. Then while protecting the family’s silo, Arlo finds a caveboy and chases him away, inadvertently beginning a new adventure together. Arlo even attempts to adopt the caveboy, naming him, Spot. Despite its’ themes of loss and friendship, this underappreciated film became Pixar’s first flop. (Image: Disney/Pixar)
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