Dinosaur Valley Girls: Collector's Edition – Visual Vengeance (Blu-ray)

Release Date: USA, 1996
Director: Donald F. Glut
Writer: Donald F. Glut
Cast: Jeff Rector, William Marshall, Griffin Drew, Forrest J. Ackerman, Denise Ames, Karen Black, Ed Fury

Release Date: February 25th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 22 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"Chain-smoking Hollywood action movie star Tony Markham is zapped back in time via a magic artifact to a prehistoric world of flesh-hungry dinosaurs, angry cavemen, and a tribe of exotic, love-starved cavegirls. He must use his modern-day machismo and best karate moves to survive the onslaught of Jurassic terrors while wooing the literal cavegirl of his dreams, Hea-Thor." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 2.5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "Remastered, director-supervised SD master from original tape elements".

Dinosaur Valley Girls comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.9 GB

Feature: 21.6 GB

This transfer looks as good as one would expect from a SD tape source. Flesh tones and colors look correct, the image generally looks crisp, and black levels are serviceable.

Audio: 3/5

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English with removable English SDH. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise this audio track is serviceable.

Extras:

Extras for this release include Dinosaur Valley Girls Visual Vengeance trailer (1 minute 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles),Storyboards, Image Galleries; Production Stills, Paleo Scenes, The Tribe, Cutting-Cave Floor, Localities, Reconstructing Dinosaurs, Site Visitors, Written in Stone, In the Lab, Character References, Dinosaur Valley Scrapbook and In Theaters, Mu Wang in Danse Prehistoric (3 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo), Mu Wang in Mu-Seum (3 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo), Dinosaur Valley Girls - Music and Lyrics (4 minutes 47 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English), Jurassic Punk - Music and Lyrics (3 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English), Dinosaur Tracks - Music Video Reel (27 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Actress Auditions Reel (24 minutes 51 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), deleted and alternate scenes (7 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival making of featurette titled The Making of Dinosaur Valley Girls (23 minutes 49 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Don Glut: The Collection - A look inside Don’s legendary dinosaur home museum (8 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with director Don Glut (54 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival Commentary with Don Glut and C. Courtney Joyner, a new audio commentary with Don Glut and C. Courtney Joyner, original promotional trailer for Dinosaur Valley Girls (4 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), Dinosaur Valley Girls PG-13 version (94 minutes 23 seconds, 1.33:1 aspect ratio, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), reversible cover art featuring original home video art, 'Stick your own' VHS sticker set, a folded mini-poster, a 2-Sided Insert, Dinosaur Valley Girls logo sticker (first pressing only) , and a limited-edition slipcase (first pressing only).

Other extras are Visual Vengeance trailers for Vampire Time Travelers, Saurians, and Fungicide.

Summary:

An action movie star is having dreams/visions of dinosaurs. Trying to make sense of what’s happening, he goes to a dinosaur museum and is transported back to prehistoric times when he touches an amulet.

There are films where those involved are in over their heads, and then there are films that are imagination over resources. Case in point, Dinosaur Valley Girls is a low-budget action-adventure film that fits firmly into the latter.

Though limited in its resources, it is always entertaining to watch stop-motion animation sequences. That said, as well-executed as the stop motion is, unfortunately the dinosaurs have a limited amount of screen time. Another thing related to the dinosaurs that is disappointing is that they are never menacing.

When it comes to performances, I would give them an A for enthusiasm. Notable cast members are William Marshall (Blacula), who portrays a doctor who works at the dinosaur museum; Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces), who portrays Ro-Kell, the leader of the prehistoric women's tribe; and Ed Fury (Ursus), who portrays one of the prehistoric men. Karen Black’s character's name and attire appear to be a nod to Raquel Welch's character from One Million Years B.C..

Though the opening setup does a great job building up the protagonist, an action movie star named Tony Markham, dialogue becomes sparse once the narrative moves to prehistoric times. The bulk of the narrative takes place during prehistoric times, where characters speak gibberish, and nothing more than mundane things happen. And at 94 minutes in length, things are slow-moving. That said, even some topless nudity and the song Wild Thing are not enough to liven things up. Ultimately, after watching Dinosaur Valley Girls, it is difficult to say what audience the filmmakers were targeting.

Whenever discussing Visual Vengeance, you can always say that they deliver when it comes to extras and packaging. That said, Dinosaur Valley Girls is another solid release from Visual Vengeance that comes with a wealth of extras and presents the film in its best possible audio/video presentation.

Written by Michael Den Boer