YMMV / Prehysteria

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Mrs. Winters a meanie by nature, or is it due to the stress of not only having to put up with her mischievous ward, but also having to cope with the strained relationship between said ward and his workaholic father?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Near the beginning of the first film, Rico journey's into a hidden jungle temple and starts exploring inside. At one point he spots the corpse of a fellow archeologist/paleontologist hanging from the celling and comments, "that about gave me a heart-attack,". Seconds later the corpse is forgotten, and is never brought up again.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The two Laughably Evil Stupid Crooks from the first movie, Ritchie and Louis, ended up being some of the standouts from the human characters for the crew members and some critics, so much that they made cameo appearances in another Moonbeam film, Remote.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Scientists have often viewed Madonna's design to be inaccurate due to the fact that she can fly as a newborn. Years later, it was discovered that pterosaurs really could fly as newborns.
  • The turkey bone. Yes, Vicki, that does count as prehistoric life, because of the connection between dinosaurs and birds.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In the first film, Rico crosses this by kidnapping and abusing the dinosaurs (except Madonna, who escapes) and holding Vicki hostage, threatening to kill her if the Taylors try to rescue her or the dinosaurs.
  • In the second film, Mrs. Winters crosses this twice; first when she tells Brendan that his father doesn't spend time with him because he hates him and is ashamed of him. Second when she tells Brendan's father that Brendan ran away (sure, Brendan and Naomi had run away to protect the dinosaurs, but Mrs. Winters twists it to seem like he did it out of spite).
• Sequelitis: The second and third films are not quite as popular as the first. Probably doesn't help that they don't seem to focus as much on the dinosaurs. Neither does the decline in quality for the dinosaur animatronics. In several instances the 3rd film even reuses footage from the previous two movies. Both examples portray a diminished budget.
• Ugly Cute: While the dinosaurs are technically babies, the fact that adult models where used makes them look a little, weird.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The baby dinosaurs were made from advanced (at the time) animatronics and look strikingly realistic. Lampshaded in the behind the scenes featurettes at the end of each film, where about fifty percent of the time was spent filming the actors and actresses marveling at how lifelike the dinosaurs not only look but, according to Jerry's actor, feel. They still hold up pretty well even today, in fact.
• The Woobie: Monica and Mr. Taylor in the first film, Brendan in the second.

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