Released in 1993 Prehysteria! was jointly directed by Charles Band, and his father Albert. It’s an enjoyable enough romp with Brand taking Puppetmaster like puppets/ Stop motion creature effect retooling them in much more charming & cute manner with four dinosaurs- taking in dinky Tyrannosaurus rex, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and flying pterodactyl. The film has a bright, rapid pace- fitting the other films released under the Moonbeam banner- sure it’s not as wacky or bizarre as some of the other films the sub-label released, but if you're after 70 minutes of family fantasy fun & light thrills I think you’ll enjoy what we have here.

The film focus in on widowed raisin farmer Frank(Brett Cullen), his pre-teen Elvis loving son(Austin O'Brien), and rebellious teen daughter. During downtime farming, Frank uncovers all manner of fossils- which he takes to antiquities shop to sell. Here works Vick, who Frank is rather keen on, and they start up a relationship. One day Frank brings in a bunch of newly discovered fossils, when his dog accidently picks up (!) the wrong cooler- it turns out inside the cooler are four eggs that Vicki’s rather nasty boss Rico(Stephen Lee) has stolen from the mystical cave of rainforest natives- he’s a great often bumbling baddie who looks a bit like a moustached Lou Costello. Fairly soon the eggs hatch in the families basement with the young son looking on- he, of course, is in awe of the tinny Dinosaurs- naming the mischievous & purring Tyrannosaurus rex Elvis, with the rest of the family meeting the four & falling for them soon too. And as you’d expect the campily nasty Rico turns up to try & get his catch back. Save for slightly plodding, though charming enough early build-up Prehysteria! is a lot of fun when the dinky-osars turn up. The film went onto be followed by two sequels, which I'm sure would be neat to check out too.

Moving onto this duel Blu Ray & DVD release- and the new print looks good & nicely crisp. On the extra front we get a commentary track- it's with Charles Band, and the now all grown-up lead Austin O'Brien- the tracks, as expected chatty & laid back. With the pair moving from talking about on-set memories, the impressive puppet/ Stop animation, the film's popularity back in the video days, and more. All in all, it’s decent enough track. The other extra we get is a twenty-one minute making from the1990’s- with a blend of cast interviews, on set shots, and effects shots.

It’s cool to see this charming slice of 1990’s family fantasy get a duel reissue- and let us hope there are plans afoot at some point to reissue the two sequels, and of course other Moonbeam fare. Head over to full moon to hook up a copy of this direct here.