About Dilophosaurus size...

edited November 2011 in Jurassic Park
Asking the TellTale guys, were you told to keep Dilophosaurus small or was it a design choice? I'm just wondering because during the movie, when they go by the Dilo paddock area, you hear distant roaring that, frankly, is too loud and too deep to be made by a small animal.

Comments

  • edited April 2011
    Yeah, even in the movie Nedry comments that he's glad he wasn't one of his big brothers...
  • edited April 2011
    But that comment is ambiguous. We don't know if me means larger Dilos specifically or just larger, and therefore seemingly more dangerous dinosaurs in general. The comment can be interpreted both ways.
  • edited April 2011
    Woodsyblue wrote: »
    But that comment is ambiguous. We don't know if me means larger Dilos specifically or just larger, and therefore seemingly more dangerous dinosaurs in general. The comment can be interpreted both ways.
    Exactly, and I dont think Nedry had that much knowledge of dinosaurs anyways
  • bubbledncrbubbledncr Telltale Alumni
    edited April 2011
    We're generally going with the movie portrayal of the dinosaurs, since the game is based off the movie. It would be too much of a disconnect if the dilos were as big as everyone now knows they are, and if raptors were small and feathered.

    That said, I do believe our dilos are slightly bigger than the ones in the movies, tho that line of Nedry's has been argued about amongst team members, as well.
  • edited April 2011
    bubbledncr wrote: »
    We're generally going with the movie portrayal of the dinosaurs, since the game is based off the movie. It would be too much of a disconnect if the dilos were as big as everyone now knows they are, and if raptors were small and feathered.

    That said, I do believe our dilos are slightly bigger than the ones in the movies, tho that line of Nedry's has been argued about amongst team members, as well.
    Good, because if it had been different you would have been guaranteed some negativity for a lack of following source material.
  • edited April 2011
    I would assume Nedry working at the park for a year or so had access to the security camera's and probably saw the full grown Dilophosaurus. Which probably explains why he was still scared when he saw the little one. Trust me Nedry probably knew every dinosaur on that island because he was probably the one who programed the counting software and would have to of had measurements, weights and so on to do the calibrations to get it right.
  • edited April 2011
    bubbledncr wrote: »
    We're generally going with the movie portrayal of the dinosaurs, since the game is based off the movie. It would be too much of a disconnect if the dilos were as big as everyone now knows they are, and if raptors were small and feathered.

    That said, I do believe our dilos are slightly bigger than the ones in the movies, tho that line of Nedry's has been argued about amongst team members, as well.

    Well, my point isn't that we "now" know how big they are. We've always known how big they were. And my point is mostly that when they drove by the paddock on the tour, you hear roars in the distance, and they're far too deep and obviously loud for small animals.
  • edited April 2011
    They still could have gotten away with being more accurate in size in this case. It would simply have been a matter of first introducing the film's dilophosaurus and then immediately following that up with its big brothers. But what is, is.
  • edited April 2011
    It has been discussed back at JPLegacy some time ago, and they found some interesting info: http://www.jplegacy.org/index2.php?load=encyc/dinoprof.shtml (scroll down to Dilophosaurus)

    Some people also have claimed that Spielberg said in an interview back in '93 that the Spitter in the movie was a juvenile... But nobody can find it, sadly.
  • edited April 2011
    I heard that the Dilos were made smaller so they wouldn;t be mistaken for Raptors.
  • edited April 2011
    I heard that the Dilos were made smaller so they wouldn;t be mistaken for Raptors.

    right, THAT was actually said in the making-of book by Don Shay & Jody Duncan.
    But I can hardly follow that argument because even for people who do not know anything about dinosaurs the Dilophosaurus would look completely different to Velociraptor. I mean, if the Dilophosaurus was at least 20ft long it would have been bigger than the raptors plus with the V-shaped bone crest and the thrill it looks totally different.
    For me it's actually a good element of suspense because we have seen the T-Rex attack just minutes before Nedry's demise and people are expecting a rather huge threat again.... BUT then a small Dilo jumps out of the jungle. Small and somehow cute looking. And you don't know if it just wants to play and is wondering. Finally it turns out to be a real deadly confrontation.
    The scene is done really well.

    Of course the Dilophosaurus shown in the movie is a juvenile. Simply because of its size. I do not get the point why people say it is an incorrect appearance when it comes to the size of the body. Who said that every animal we see has to portray an adult one?
  • edited April 2011
    tope1983 wrote: »
    right, THAT was actually said in the making-of book by Don Shay & Jody Duncan.
    But I can hardly follow that argument because even for people who do not know anything about dinosaurs the Dilophosaurus would look completely different to Velociraptor. I mean, if the Dilophosaurus was at least 20ft long it would have been bigger than the raptors plus with the V-shaped bone crest and the thrill it looks totally different.
    For me it's actually a good element of suspense because we have seen the T-Rex attack just minutes before Nedry's demise and people are expecting a rather huge threat again.... BUT then a small Dilo jumps out of the jungle. Small and somehow cute looking. And you don't know if it just wants to play and is wondering. Finally it turns out to be a real deadly confrontation.
    The scene is done really well.

    Of course the Dilophosaurus shown in the movie is a juvenile. Simply because of its size. I do not get the point why people say it is an incorrect appearance when it comes to the size of the body. Who said that every animal we see has to portray an adult one?

    On the other hand think of exspensise as well...
    another giant robot dinosaur would have been a lot more money, and at the time a larger CGI dinosaur probably would of been even moree money. Mabye i's size was cut down due to that as well.
  • edited April 2011
    As far as I can tell, it was never the intent of the writers/director/etc for the 4-ft Dilophosaurus to be anything other than a full grown adult of what just happens to be a small species. (Of course, that could be ammended in future movies or other canon.) But I do like to think it was a juvenile and that there are larger dilos stalking around. :)
    Or that the particular dilos created by InGen are a separete, smaller species not known from the fossil record. This would also explain the frill and venom, which known dilophosaurs did not possess.
  • edited April 2011
    We all have our opinions about the Dilo, but the movie just doesn't give enough information about that particular animal, so guess the safest thing for Telltale to do is maintain what was established. It must be tough when all you have to go on is a vague quote, the depth of a distant roar, and maybe the height of a fence.
  • edited October 2011
    I think Telltale can take some creative licence and get away with bigger Dilos without significant fan backlash. Anyone who's read the books or knows their stuff about dinosaurs know they are bigger anyway. There are a lot of people begging for bigger ones and very few, if any, demanding that they stay small.
  • edited October 2011
    Or that the particular dilos created by InGen are a separete, smaller species not known from the fossil record. This would also explain the frill and venom, which known dilophosaurs did not possess.
    Michael Crichton's original point was that real dinosaurs would inevitably have characteristics that couldn't be deduced from fossils. What's lost in the movie is the tacit admission that the venom was a fictional creation to demonstrate this.
  • edited October 2011
    I'd certainly like to see a fully grown Dilo on Isla Sorna. Maybe with a smaller one like we say on Nublar, maybe with a larger one defending it's young.
  • edited October 2011
    Woohoo! Dilophosaurus confirmed for juvenile by Telltale's interactive map tour:
    Dilophosaurus, (early Jurassic period, about 193 million years ago) is a recent addition to the park and is our most surprising specimen to date. Still juvenile, our “Dilos” measure in at 6 feet in length, with an adult expectancy of nearly 20 feet!
  • edited October 2011
    Imagine how terrifying a FULL sized JP dilo would be... Thing would spit large buckets at you.
  • edited October 2011
    Well, they already made up the fictional spitting of Dilos, might as well change it's size.
  • edited October 2011
    haha I honestly was in disbelief when the map stated dilos grew to 20 feet long. always assumed they were littler guys. I cant picture a jp dilo being that large anyway
  • edited October 2011
    The yellow silhoutte of the adult shows it larger than it really is. but they do grow to about 20 ft.
  • edited November 2011
    Yeah, adult Dilos are fairly big carnivores. And since they're juvies, the inexplicably oversized crest and the lack of the "notch" in the upper jaw can be attributed to not having developed yet.
  • edited November 2011
    Sorry if this has been mentioned, but the size thing is stated on the Park Tour website as them being juveniles. For other stuff, I think the amphibian DNA thing is a cool way to explain why certain JP dinosaurs aren't the way we know them today. When you think about it, all JP dinos are are genetically mutated. Most seem to have turned out normal but things like venom or no feathers could be attributed to it.
  • edited November 2011
    If you wanted to nitpick, you could say the Lost World movie had already confirmed the dilo seen in JP is not fully grown: The slideshow of dinosaur images playing on the computer monitor in the research trailer shows a dilo, with the info under it describing it as "20 feet long."

    JP Legacy has a pic of the screen here, and a shot of the image in action in the movie here.
  • edited November 2011
    I'd like to help out here; there still seems to be some confusion about the size of the Dilophosaurus:

    First of all, let's establish that the real animals indeed grew up to a size close to 20 feet in length. The animal portrayed in the film would, in the real world, not be considered an adult.

    In the Jurassic Park film universe (that is: in the first film) the Dilophosaurus is presented as an adult. We have some evidence for this: the size of the fence surrounding the paddock. Perfectly fit for the animal we see later in the film attacking Dennis Nedry, but terribly small for a real adult Dilophosaurus; it would simply hop over the fence without much effort.

    The roar heard in the distance could be coming from another part of the park. Isla Nublar is by no means a large island and sounds might carry far, especially produced by big animals.

    It's true that both The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the official merchandise (all size comparison charts for the first film show an adult dinosaur, when compared to a human figure) contradict what is seen in the film. But going by the set up of the fences around the paddock, we have to accept the film's dinosaur as an adult.

    About Dennis Nedry knowing or not knowing what animal he's dealing with, this is a quote from the novel:
    The animal was already there.
    But it wasn't close. The dinosaur stood forty feet away, at the edge of the illumination from the headlamps. Nedry hadn't taken the tour, so he hadn't seen the different types of dinosaurs, but this one was strange looking. The ten-foot-tall body was yellow with black spots, and along the head ran a pair of V-shaped crests. The dinosaur didn't move, but again gave its soft hooting cry.

    (Page 196, paperback edition.)

    If we go by the novel and Nedry's line ("I thought you were one of your big brothers,") it seems Nedry has no clue about the animal he's dealing with. Further evidence for this can be found in Muldoon's line, spoken in the control room: "Even Nedry knew not to mess with Raptors." Apparently, Nedry was warned by the park's management about the extremely dangerous Velociraptors and he kept the fences of the holding pen active. (Seeing as how that holding pen - strangely - is located very close to the Visitor's Center, it might even be possible that Nedry passed the, heavily guarded, pen regularly.)

    Is it conclusive that Nedry does not know what animal he's facing? No. But it seems most likely that he indeed has no clue and goes by the first appearance of the dinosaur: which seems rather cute and playful.
  • edited November 2011
    I would like to add the following:

    From The Winston Effect by Jody Duncan;
    The spitter was the most fictionalized of all Jurassic Park's dinosaurs. Whereas a real Dilophosaur stood approximately ten feet tall and was non-poisonous, the movie's Dilophosaur was a much smaller animal, with a vibrating cowl and the ability to spit toxic venom.

    (Page 177, chapter Jurassic Park.)
  • edited November 2011
    Neelis, we asked Telltale to fix the issue with the mini-merging of novel and film, alongside the evidence presented in the Lost World film, and they fixed it. There is no confusion about the sizes
  • edited November 2011
    T002Tyrant wrote: »
    Neelis, we asked Telltale to fix the issue with the mini-merging of novel and film, alongside the evidence presented in the Lost World film, and they fixed it. There is no confusion about the sizes

    It would still not explain why the fence is so low: a real life Dilophosaurus would scale it without much effort. As far as I'm aware, in the first film, the Dilophosaurus we see follow and attack Nedry is accepted as being an adult, despite the (later) found evidence in merchandise and the sequel(s).

    It's cool that Telltale made note and even has the voice over on the video attached to the map explain that these animals are young Dilophosaurs. But it doesn't solve all inconsistencies within Jurassic Park's universe.
  • edited November 2011
    Neelis wrote: »
    It would still not explain why the fence is so low.

    Moat on the other side?
  • edited November 2011
    Neelis wrote: »
    It would still not explain why the fence is so low: a real life Dilophosaurus would scale it without much effort. As far as I'm aware, in the first film, the Dilophosaurus we see follow and attack Nedry is accepted as being an adult, despite the (later) found evidence in merchandise and the sequel(s).

    It's cool that Telltale made note and even has the voice over on the video attached to the map explain that these animals are young Dilophosaurs. But it doesn't solve all inconsistencies within Jurassic Park's universe.

    Uhhh, I believe that someone from the production of the movie said that the Dilophosaurus was juvenile. I think.
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