Valley Of The Dinosaurs!

In a truly strange coincidence Valley of the Dinosaurs from Hanna-Barbera debuted in 1974, the same year that Sid and Marty Kroft brought out the live-action Land of the Lost. Both of these Saturday morning TV shows featured a family who had accidently been transported to a lost territory in which dinosaurs still thrived. In the case of the Land of the Lost the territory was a pocket universe, but in the case of the animated Valley of the Dinosaurs we had a lost valley similar to that in which Turok Son of Stone was lost in for so many years. One of the most striking aspects of the two shows was the introductions which had the families find their ways into their respective lost worlds by means of a rafting trip which takes them over a treacherous waterfall. One can only wonder if one show was copying the other, but given their production and arrival on the small screen at the same I have to say it was a mere coincidence. 

The family in Valley of the Dinosaurs is the Butlers and is made up of Jim the father, Kim the mother, and teenager Katie and more youthful Gregg. There's also in the Hanna-Barbera tradition an annoying family dog named "Digger". The voice of Race Bannon, Mike Road supplies John's voice and future Rorschach Jackie Earle Haley does the same for the mischievous Gregg. The Butlers live and are helped by a Neanderthal family made up of father Gorok, mother Gara, teenage boy  Lok, and a very young girl named Tana. They too have a pet, a baby Stegosaurus named appropriately Glump. 

The two families work and live together in Gorok's family's cave. For the most part in the stories the two dads team up and the moms work together. That leaves Gregg and Tana to pal around often with the pets while Katie and Lok seem usually to find themselves partnered on adventures. The valley is teeming with dinosaurs as advertised and living alongside these often dangerous creatures is a bit part of what the show is about. But there are just as often acts of nature such as storms, floods, and droughts which need both groups to work in harmony. The Butlers are able build many machines that help them in times of crisis and some of these get pretty elaborate and reminded me frankly of the wild creations of the Professor on Gilligan's Island. 

Watching the shows again after so many years I was taken by the quality of the animation. It's not on par with Jonny Quest but it's not far away. There are a lot of characters to account for in these adventures and that probably takes away from potential quality. But I was struck time and again by the incredibly atmospheric backgrounds which add a great deal of tension to the stories. 

The late 60's and early 70's saw what is commonly referred to as a "Dinosaur Renaissance", a time when interest in the giant beasts form Earth's distant past was front and center in much of popular culture as seen by more than a few films attempting to showcase these ancient times. Valley of the Dinosaurs seems like Land of the Lost to have been inspired by this burgeoning interest. 

Below is a cover gallery for eleven issues of a comic book adaptation from Charlton Comics which ran nearly for two years after the show had been cancelled. The artwork in all the issues is by Fred Himes who was an associate of Pat Boyette, who at that same time was working Korg:70,000 B.C. for Charlton. In all likelihood Boyette had a hand in these stories as well. To read many of these issues take look at this link. 

Valley of the Dinosaurs was a terrific cartoon and a pretty good comic book as well. One of the best to come from the Charlton and Hanna-Barbera partnership. 

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