YMMV / The Last Dinosaur

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The T-Rex vs Triceratops scene. Even by dinosaur movie standards that scene was way too nonsensical and random considering that the Triceratops suddenly bursts out of a mountain side and gets into a fight with the T-Rex after the former wakes up the latter from its nap by burrowing the polar borer with some dirt from the mountain side after it finds it at a lake.
• Designated Hero: Despite being the main protagonist of the movie Masten isn't likable or sympathetic in any way considering that he's a grouchy and misogynistic middle-aged great-white hunter who shows no remorse in hunting and killing animals and objectifying any women he interacts with. It also doesn't help that he becomes even more unlikable and unsympathetic when he becomes too obsessed with killing the T-Rex even after Chuck and Frankie find the Polar Borer and try to convince him to go home with them.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Two-fold.
  • Luther Rackley as Bunta is pretty universally agreed upon as the most competent character in the whole movie, with sharp survival skills and helping reign in Masten.
  • The Uintatherium suit, while obviously utilizing the "two men in a horsie suit" technique, actually looks pretty good with the armored hide and charging gate. Certainly, looked less floppy than the similarly animated Triceratops.
• Ham and Cheese: A lesser example, but Richard Boone is both clearly giving his all while, according to behind-the-scenes information, more than a bit drunk between shots. Some of his deliveries delightfully veer right into this.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Given Rankin/Bass Productions is most well-known nowadays for its Christmas Specials, hearing that the plot takes place near the North Pole can engender a few chuckles.
• Jerkass Woobie: It's hard not to feel a little bit sorry for Masten, an old man who feels the world has left him behind, and the obsessive hunt for the dinosaur is the only thing giving him any sense of purpose.
• Narm: "You ding-dong! We were about to get killed back there!"
• Narm Charm: The movie's theme song. How many heartfelt ballads about a dinosaur can you name?
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The Tyrannosaurus clearly changes size in certain scenes. Most noticeable when Frankie runs between its legs, where it appears to be about 100 feet tall, even though the dialogue repeatedly states that its 20 feet tall.
  • The most famous example is probably when the T. rex is hit in the head with a giant boulder — the top of its head flattens and then pops back into shape. And it's shown in slow-motion!
• Unfortunate Character Design: Other than Masten's surname sounding too suggestive, there's also a poster of the movie which shows the very phallic Thrust Polar Borer sticking out between the T-Rex's legs which makes it look as if the T-Rex has got a giant silver penis sticking out between its legs.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Hmm, judging by the clothes and especially the music, it's a good guess this was made in the 1970s.
• Values Dissonance: Bunta may dress in modern safari clothes, but everything else about the character is ripped straight from a stock "Native Jungle Guide" character from a '30s movie. He even carries a spear!
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The movie was advertised as a kid's dinosaur movie when it aired on ABC in America but despite that the movie contains very suggestive scenes for a dinosaur movie. It also doesn't help that Masten's surname (i.e. Thrust) sounds too suggestive for a kid's dinosaur movie.

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