Prehysteria trilogy

Prehysteria! is a series of three family monster comedy films made in the early to mid-1990s about the adventures of five miniature baby dinosaurs named after famous pop musicians. The dinosaurs were Elvis, a male Tyrannosaurus, Paula, a female Brachiosaurus, Jagger, a male Stegosaurus, Hammer, a male Chasmosaurus, and Madonna, a female Geosternbergia (despite having the crest of a male, and despite the fact that Geosternbergia was a genus of pterosaur rather than a dinosaur). The films were made by Moonbeam Entertainment, the family-oriented sub-brand of B-movie producer Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment. Richard Band, Michael Bishop, and Fuzzbee Morse composed the music for the films. Development In the early 1990s, Charles Band was working on a new label from Full Moon Entertainment, called Moonbeam Entertainment. Moonbeam Entertainment was created specifically for family, science fiction and fantasy films created for children and adults with no "hard edge" to them. Around the same time, storyboard artist Peter von Sholly, approached Band with a concept about creating a movie about miniature dinosaurs. Band, intrigued with the idea, thought that it was perfect to be the first Moonbeam film. David Allen Productions and Mark Rappaport created the special effects for all of the films. The first Prehysteria! was co-directed by Charles and Albert Band and it was released in 1993. The film was a huge success, gaining over $100,000,000 in rental sales. Due to its outcome, a sequel, Prehysteria! 2, was quickly developed and released in 1994. No character from the first film returned, but Albert Band returned to direct. In 1995, Moonbeam developed a second sequel entitled Prehysteria! 3. David DeCoteau directed the film. The only returning character was Owen Bush from the second film. All of the films were released by Paramount Home Video. Besides the dinosaurs, Mr. Cranston (Owen Bush) is the only returning character in the series. The Stegosaurus, Jagger, never appeared on the first three film posters. Prehysteria! was Austin O'Brien's first lead role. The Tyrannosaurus, Elvis, and Brachiosaurus, Paula, have appeared on all of the film posters. The dinosaurs in the first three films were realized by traditional stop motion animation and rod puppets. Prehysteria! 2 and Prehysteria! 3 were both aimed at younger audiences.