The Ghost
of Slumber Mountain
An early
effort by the man who taught King Kong how to roar
This
19-minute silent film is most notable as an example of
Willis O'Brien's early efforts at stop motion animation.
O'Brien, who later went on to animate King Kong and who is
remembered just as much now for mentoring the great Ray
Harryhausen, had to start somewhere, and this film is it.
The story is merely an excuse to put some dinosaurs on
screen. Two bored young boys decide to bug their
world-traveling Uncle Jack to tell them a story. Uncle Jack
responds with a tale about his trip to Slumber Mountain in
the "land of dreams." With a friend, Uncle Jack was looking
for the legendary hermit, "Mad Dick" who, legend says, has
a most unusual telescope. Jack finds the hermit's cabin,
but Mad Dick is now a ghost; nevertheless, he leads Jack to
the telescope through which Uncle Jack watches some
inhabitants of a prehistoric age.
The animation is not all that spectacular, possibly by
design; like real animals in the wild, the dinosaurs
exhibit an economy of motion. These dinosaurs don't move
around just to show they can move; sometimes a dinosaur
just wants to gaze into space while chewing a mouthful of
grass.
If you want to see this, you will probably have to catch it
on Turner Classic Movies, which is where I saw it.