History Film / Prehysteria

The first movie in the series, ''Prehysteria!''--released in 1993–is about [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Rico Sarno]], a museum curator, who enters a ancient temple in a South American jungle, and discovers a nest of five eggs. He steals them and brings them back to his museum. Frank Taylor, a farmer, sells fossils to Rico and in a mix up, the Taylor's dog takes a cooler, which has the eggs. The kids, Monica and Jerry discover the dinos when they hatch and try to keep it a secret, until their father finds out. Vicki, a woman who works for Rico, sees the dinos, she tells the Taylors not to give them back to Rico because he will expose them. Rico finds out the Taylors have them and hires two robbers to help him get the dinos back.

* SecondLove: Vicky to Frank in the first film.

''Prehysteria!'' involves a young boy named Jerry and his family embark on a series of adventures when Jerry finds some mysterious eggs which hatch to reveal a brood of baby dinosaurs. The five baby dinos are named after famous pop musicians. Including Music/{{Elvis|Presley}}, a male Tyrannosaurus Rex, Music/{{Paula|Abdul}}, a female Brachiosaurus, [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Jagger]], a male Stegosaurus, [[Music/McHammer Hammer]], a male Chasmosaurus, and Music/{{Madonna}}, a female Pteranodon.

The first movie in the series, ''Prehysteria!'' is about [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Rico Sarno]], a museum curator, who enters a ancient temple in a South American jungle, and discovers a nest of five eggs. He steals them and brings them back to his museum. Frank Taylor, a farmer, sells fossils to Rico and in a mix up, the Taylor's dog takes a cooler, which has the eggs. The kids, Monica and Jerry discover the dinos when they hatch and try to keep it a secret, until their father finds out. Vicki, a woman who works for Rico, sees the dinos, she tells the Taylors not to give them back to Rico because he will expose them. Rico finds out the Taylors have them and hires two robbers to help him get the dinos back.

Continuing in ''Prehysteria! 2'' Mr. Cranston is a friend of the Taylors and he watches the mini dinosaurs while they are on vacation. The five babies break out of the Taylors' farm and accidentally get shipped into a crate of raisins. The crate is found in a box car by Naomi, a girl whose father works at the train station and a rich kid named Brendan Wellington who she helped hide in the box car while being chased by [[KidsAreCruel bullies]]. When the two discover the dinos, desperate for attention because his father Brendan tries to keep them. Needless to say, things don't go exactly as planned.

This follows straight into ''Prehysteria! 3''. This time, the saurian gang falls out of the back of Mr. Cranston's truck, and they make their way to another family's home. The dinosaurs help the [=MacGregor=] family, who is struggling with their mini-putt golf course. Ella [=MacGregor=], is in love with her Scottish ancestry, but is dispondant that the mini golf course is going under. She finds the dinos, and with her family's help, they re-build the golf course with a dinosaur theme, which helps them a lot. But Ella's evil uncle Hal [=MacGregor=] is determined to take over the course by all means, and Ella and her parents must hide the mini dinosaurs.

* CarnivoreConfusion: Despite being a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', Elvis is mostly vegetarian, with one his favorite snacks being, rasins. He enjoys eating dog food, though.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: The baby dinos are as playful and friendly as puppies.
** AllFlyersAreBirds: Except Madonna, who acts more like a parrot.

* PteroSoarer: Madonna. Also kind of zig zagged; she's a fairly accurate model, appearance-wise (with the sole exception of lacking the short crest that a female ''Pteranodon''/''[[ScienceMarchesOn Geosternbergia]]'' would have), but in behavior she's more like a parrot than a Pterosaur.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* HotScientist: Vicki in the first film, which is lampshaded by Monica.
-->'''Monica:''' (''to her father'') Getting pretty cozy with Professor Cupcake, aren't you?

* FiveManBand: List for the baby dinos follows.
** TheHero: Elvis
** TheLancer: Jagger
** TheSmartGuy: Madonna
** TheBigGuy: Hammer
** TheChick: Paula

* FatSlob: Good ole Rico is basically [[Film/JurassicPark1993 Dennis Nedry]] with a mustache and without glasses.

* FreudianExcuse: In ''Prehysteria 3'', Mr. MacGregor seems to overreact to squeaky sounds (like his back door). Later Ella finds out that her father's golf pro hopes came to an end when a loud, high-pitched bird cry (later revealed to be [[spoiler:Hal using a whistle disguised as a cigarette]]) caused him to miss his putt.

* StockDinosaurs: ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Pteranodon'' and ''Brachiosaurus'' all appear as leads. They were all no doubt chosen specifically to appeal to young people. The only exception is Hammer, who is a ''Chasmosaurus'' rather than a ''Triceratops''. It should be noted that Madonna is called a ''Pteranodon'', her species now given its own name, ''Geosternbergia''.