S egment Two opens with shots of the expedition’s trek downriver, and concludes just prior to the beginning of their climb up the pla­ teau. This sequence runs 4m 35s in GT, 5m 40s in LCIMI, and 6m 19s in IMG, boasting never-be- fore-seen animation footage. Note that the green tint throughout the jungle
sequence is subtler than the brighter, truer green of LUMI, and that the title cards are somewhat sharper in IMG. The revisions and additions in IMG include: There are a couple more live-action animal shots inserted into this sequence: an introduc­ tory shot of the jaguar, panting astride a log, and a shot of its prey, a small deer, on the river bank.
The second insert shot of the mother sloth
with her baby clinging to her belly is a different shot altogether than in any previous version, showcasing d ifferent takes photographed for the “ international ver­ sion” negative. The night sequence
fails to note that the creature is actually a Pteranodon. New animation footage! A second closeup
of the Pteranodon feeding on the still-breathing small mammal is added. The startled Pteranodon is now seen dropping its prey, then cleaning its long beak on the soil with a side-to-side wip­ ing motion. This is just the sort of behavioral detail O’Brien used to infuse his creatures with
convincing life, setting his animation work beyond that of any other stop-motion animators prior to Ray Harryhausen.
egment Three chronicles the expedition’s
first eventful day on the plateau, beginning with the shot of the sun rising over the jungle before the climb, and concluding with the fade-out as the brooding Apeman washes his bullet-wound alongside a marsh. This sequence runs exactly 10m in GT; LUMI
is tinted blue instead of
purple. Furthermore, the night tint in LCIMI flares dramatically into orange when the boulder flung down by the Apeman hits the camp fire; no such enhancement appears in IMG. The sequence in which the Apeman peers
down from the plateau to the expedition encamp­ ment below is enhanced with two additional closeups of Bull Montana’s fearsome Apeman, and the shot of the Apeman and his chimpanzee com­ panion now appears before the comedic sequence in which Paula and Roxton watch the Spectacle bears fight in an empty food crate. The dramatic shot of the Pteranodon soaring
to the edge of the plateau—the first dinosaur seen f*
ky the expedition, or by audiences, in all extant versions of the film— is notably crisper and cleaner than that of any other print, thanks to digital restoration of stained film elements
common to all others. Note that O’Brien sub­
stituted the Pterodactyl of the novel with the more visually-striking Pteranodon, with its prominent protruding crest; in his commentary for IMG, Roy Pilot comments on this point, but
34
fleshes it out to 12m 4s, and IMG beefs it up fur­ ther to an exciting 17m 59s. Above all, this se­ quence proves IMG a superior restoration to that of GEH, retaining as its does a vivid animation sequence that was inexplicably omitted from GEH. Key revisions and additions in this passage of
IMG include: Note that the framing of all the early sequences
herein involving the plateau is crucial, and differs slightly from version to version. GT and most public domain prints are framed such that all the action at the top of the plateau in the predomi­ nant long-shot (a striking glass painting by Ralph Hammeras) is barely, if at all, visible. This crucial action includes the activities of Challenger and his party atop the pinnacle, the felling of the tree, their perilous walk across the abyss to the main plateau, and the Bron­ tosaurus' subsequent destruction of the tree- bridge which strands them in the Lost World. None of this action is visible in GT, and I re­ call many 8mm and 16mm suffering in this
regard as well. The restoration for LCIMI reframes all these
shots for ideal visibility of this action, as does IMG; the theatrical presentation of GEH also clearly
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