The Animal World
Directed by	Irwin Allen
Produced by	Irwin Allen
Written by	Irwin Allen
Starring	Theodore Von Eltz (narrator)
Music by	Paul Sawtell
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	1956
Running time	82 minutes

The Animal World is a 1956 documentary film that was produced, written and directed by Irwin Allen. The film includes live-action footage of animals throughout the world, along with a ten-minute stop motion animated sequence about dinosaurs.

Irwin's intention was to show the progression of life over time, although he told The New York Times, "We don't use the word 'evolution.' We hope to walk a very thin line. On one hand we want the scientists to say this film is right and accurate, and yet we don't want to have the church picketing the film."^[1]

[edit] Dinosaur sequence

The special effects in the film's dinosaur sequence were produced by Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien. Irwin originally planned to film the scenes as a series of static dioramas with plastic models, but Harryhausen suggested that the scenes would be more memorable if they were animated. The dinosaurs that appear include an Allosaurus, a Stegosaurus, a pair of Ceratosaurs, a Triceratops, a Tyrannosaurus, and a family of Brontosaurs. ^[2]

For many years, still shots from the segment were included in View-Master slide show reels.^[3] Some of the footage was reused for portions of the Night Gallery Season 2 episode, "The Painted Mirror," as well as in the 1970 film Trog, ^[4] and the entire sequence was released as an extra on the 2003 DVD release of The Black Scorpion.^[5]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• The Animal World at the Internet Movie Database

This documentary film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e