GERTIE THE DINOSAUR (1915)
Article 5272 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-15-2016
Directed by John Randolph Bray
Featuring John Randolph Bray
Country: USA
What it is: Dinosaur antics

Gertie the Dinosaur… but not THAT Gertie the Dinosaur… has adventures in prehistoric times.

Winsor McCay’s GERTIE THE DINOSAUR must have been a sensation in its day to inspire an imitation like this. Apparently, during the seventies, Blackhawk Films distributed this one on 16mm as the McCay original, and truth to tell, if you’d never seen that one, it would be an easy mistake to make. Furthermore, much of this Gertie’s action is very similar to to that in the McCay film. What this film lacks is the sense that Gertie is a real character; Bray may bring his creation to life, but it isn’t imbued with the same sense of personality that comes shining through in McCay’s version. That being said, it’s animated well enough, and entertaining in its own right. It does lack the subtitles of the McCay version as well as the surrounding non-animated footage about the making of the film; I suspect, like the original, it was meant to be shown with a narrator.