Set on the Ivory Coast of Africa, paleontologist Dr. Susan Loomis (Sean Young) and her husband George (William Katt) are working under fellow paleontologist Dr. Eric Kiviat (Patrick McGoohan) at an archeological dig site where Susan has found what appears to be a brontosaurus skull, but according to Eric is only about 80 years old and says it may be a giraffe skull. Unbeknownst to Susan, Eric believes the skull found is evidence of the legendary Mokele-mbembe, a giant creature that supposedly lives in the jungles of Africa that he is driven to find. Prior to departing back to the United States, Susan is contacted by the Red Cross to ask for her assistance in identifying a creature whose meat poisoned a local village and when the skull they bring her matches the supposed "giraffe skull" Eric identified she sets out to follow the lead. The villagers tell Susan and George of a creature that looks like a Brontosaurus and when they set off to the jungle they come across a family of these supposedly extinct beasts with one adult male, one adult female, and one baby female. However Eric and his armed escort eventually find the creatures and kill the male and capture the adult female leaving George and Susan to fend for the baby and try to rescue the mother.
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend is a 1985 fantasy adventure from Walt Disney Pictures' then recently created Touchstone label. Shot on location on the Ivory Coast and using local tribespeople and villagers as extras in the film, the $14 million undertaking was a tumultuous exercise with many cast and crew suffering malaria, coopering with local tribespeople by acquiescing to a sacrificial ceremony of animals performed by a Witch Doctor, or in one case a local driver hired by the production company inadvertently running over two children leading to film emissaries to cool threats of machete violence by paying for the funerals. With such a number of production setbacks, the film missed its planned Christmas 1984 release date by three months and opened in March of 1985 in fifth place with low budget critically panned films Friday the 13th Part V and Porky's Revenge claiming the first and second place respectively. Critical reception tended to be pretty underwhelming with some praise going to the animatronics work, but mostly criticizing the very thin screenplay. Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend has been mostly forgotten, and really that isn't surprising as it's the kind of movie that struggles to make any sort of impression even while you're watching it.
From it's decent sized budget to its wide eyed eponymous baby dinosaur, the film seems like a mashup of Spielberg's two decade and culturally defining films E. T. and Indiana Jones trying to mash the sentimentality and wonder of the former with the exoticism and adventure of the latter and on paper that doesn't seem like a bad idea and the discovery of Dinosaurs who've been dead for millions of years walking the Earth has been a reliable staple of movie going as far back as the silent film era and would eventually be done with that sense of wonder when Spielberg's adaptation of Jurassic Park graced audiences in 1993. While the animatronics are certainly dated in some respect there is a nice sense of scale and weight to create these creatures to the point when they were first brought to the Ivory Coast some natives apparently mistook them for being real. The dinosaurs are well designed and Baby herself is very adorable as she plays or inadvertently gets her head stuck in or on something, but the story surrounding them isn't interesting as we see very flatly defined good guys versus very flatly defined bad guys. Patrick McGoohan is a good actor, but no one can get blood from a stone as McGoohan's characterization is virtually non-existent on the page with the only semblance of anything of substance coming from McGoohan's performance which is trying to fight a losing battle but sticking with it way longer than anyone else would. Sean Young and William Katt are playing complete blanks as characters who are not only bland but pretty stupid too as they lose Baby during the halfway point in the movie to have sex in the middle of the jungle and don't notice her wandering off or they go to places where they don't speak the local language but didn't think to bring a translator or guide with them. Outside of that there's really not much else to comment on because this movie is anorexically thin with no real character or thematic meat and for all intents and purposes you may as well be watching stick figures act out this very basic and bare bones story.
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend clearly wanted to be E. T. with a hint of Indiana Jones but instead it gave us a bland inert mash that didn't resonate with emotion or thrills. While the animatronics are decent for the time and some of the scenes with Baby are kind of cute, it's just such a nothing movie that doesn't have any reason for existing and leaves you with no real impact upon the end of viewing it.
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend is a 1985 fantasy adventure from Walt Disney Pictures' then recently created Touchstone label. Shot on location on the Ivory Coast and using local tribespeople and villagers as extras in the film, the $14 million undertaking was a tumultuous exercise with many cast and crew suffering malaria, coopering with local tribespeople by acquiescing to a sacrificial ceremony of animals performed by a Witch Doctor, or in one case a local driver hired by the production company inadvertently running over two children leading to film emissaries to cool threats of machete violence by paying for the funerals. With such a number of production setbacks, the film missed its planned Christmas 1984 release date by three months and opened in March of 1985 in fifth place with low budget critically panned films Friday the 13th Part V and Porky's Revenge claiming the first and second place respectively. Critical reception tended to be pretty underwhelming with some praise going to the animatronics work, but mostly criticizing the very thin screenplay. Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend has been mostly forgotten, and really that isn't surprising as it's the kind of movie that struggles to make any sort of impression even while you're watching it.
From it's decent sized budget to its wide eyed eponymous baby dinosaur, the film seems like a mashup of Spielberg's two decade and culturally defining films E. T. and Indiana Jones trying to mash the sentimentality and wonder of the former with the exoticism and adventure of the latter and on paper that doesn't seem like a bad idea and the discovery of Dinosaurs who've been dead for millions of years walking the Earth has been a reliable staple of movie going as far back as the silent film era and would eventually be done with that sense of wonder when Spielberg's adaptation of Jurassic Park graced audiences in 1993. While the animatronics are certainly dated in some respect there is a nice sense of scale and weight to create these creatures to the point when they were first brought to the Ivory Coast some natives apparently mistook them for being real. The dinosaurs are well designed and Baby herself is very adorable as she plays or inadvertently gets her head stuck in or on something, but the story surrounding them isn't interesting as we see very flatly defined good guys versus very flatly defined bad guys. Patrick McGoohan is a good actor, but no one can get blood from a stone as McGoohan's characterization is virtually non-existent on the page with the only semblance of anything of substance coming from McGoohan's performance which is trying to fight a losing battle but sticking with it way longer than anyone else would. Sean Young and William Katt are playing complete blanks as characters who are not only bland but pretty stupid too as they lose Baby during the halfway point in the movie to have sex in the middle of the jungle and don't notice her wandering off or they go to places where they don't speak the local language but didn't think to bring a translator or guide with them. Outside of that there's really not much else to comment on because this movie is anorexically thin with no real character or thematic meat and for all intents and purposes you may as well be watching stick figures act out this very basic and bare bones story.
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend clearly wanted to be E. T. with a hint of Indiana Jones but instead it gave us a bland inert mash that didn't resonate with emotion or thrills. While the animatronics are decent for the time and some of the scenes with Baby are kind of cute, it's just such a nothing movie that doesn't have any reason for existing and leaves you with no real impact upon the end of viewing it.