The Primevals

by | Jun 19, 2025 | Film, Fun, GlibFlick | 107 comments

This is fantastic. It looks like a screen shot from 7th Voyage of Sinbad, but it was finished in 2023.

The Primevals

Look! A new movie! It has cryptids, stop motion animation and aliens! How the heck did I miss this?

Well, I am rectifying that situation right now. This is a new feature by Full Moon Studios, and I will say it is one of their most ambitious titles.

This film was directed and written by David Allen, the same guy who did the visual effects for The Howling, Ghostbusters II and Willow. So at least you know the effects will look good. Even more impressive is David Allen directed a fair amount of this from beyond the grave. Read on to learn more. IMDB contributor Michael Prescott is going tell you the interesting story on how this movie was made:

In 1978, the film magazine Cinefantastique ran a cover story on an upcoming SF movie, The Primevals, then in preproduction. The Primevals, an ambitious effort on a modest budget, was intended as a showcase for stop-motion animation.

I was in college at the time, and as an animation fan I was pretty excited about seeing this movie. As it turned out, I had to wait just a little longer than expected. Forty-six years, to be exact. It never occurred to me that I’d be nearly eligible for Social Security before The Primevals finally came out.

You see, the initial effort to make the movie fizzled. It was revived in 1994, when the live action and some of the effects were shot. Then the studio behind the project went bankrupt, and the movie, still in post-production, was shelved. It remained in limbo for decades until producer Charles Band and effects expert Chris Endicott worked out a plan to finish it. By that time, the film’s guiding light, animator-writer-director David Allen, was long gone, having died of cancer in 1999.

With a new crew of animators, newly repaired or entirely refashioned models, and digital composites instead of back projection, The Primevals finally completed its remaining effects shots (or all the essential ones, anyway; the plot was slightly streamlined as a cost-cutting measure).

And here we are. Probably one of the last films which will ever use stop motion technology, outside of Aardman productions. Exciting! And it looks really good.

But what is it about? Well, the plot description from IMDB is excessively long, so I will summarize. Scientists kill a yeti, dissect it and discover it had cranial surgery at some point in the past. They go to investigate and get captured by space aliens. And not the good ones, who live on drink specials and Vegas slots. No, these are bad aliens who want use their advanced technology to fly light years to a tiny backwoods planet and conquer it. All the while the aliens wear crappy togas that look like stapled together gas station rags. Honestly that is improbable and qualifies as casual alien raycism, but in the interest of entertainment I will lay that aside. The movie is great.

So watch! Or Don’t! Everything is voluntary! If you do watch, get some popcorn and enjoy. This is a pleasant throwback to another time where monster movies were king, and stop motion was cutting edge technology. Next week, we will have another film, just not sure what yet. I am still working out a schedule and it has been a very socially active June.

About The Author

R.J.

R.J.

Hello. My name is R.J. I am a Tulpa with extra cheese and sour cream.

107 Comments

  1. Common Tater

    “This is fantastic. It looks like a screen shot from 7th Voyage of Sinbad, but it was finished in 2023.”

    Holy throwback, Batman!

  2. Common Tater

    “Chris Endicott”

    Whenever I hear that name I think of Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

  3. Common Tater

    “And not the good ones, who live on drink specials and Vegas slots.”

    Hey, it’s a valid lifestyle.

    • R.J.

      Yes. Yes it is.

  4. Common Tater

    Holy shit, that Yeti is huge.

    • R.J.

      Thatโ€™s what she said.

  5. Derpetologist

    fun facts:

    ***
    The word Yeti is derived from Tibetan: เฝ‚เฝกเฝ เผ‹เฝ‘เพฒเฝบเฝ‘เผ‹, Wylie: g.ya’ dred, ZYPY: Yachรช, a compound of the words Tibetan: เฝ‚เฝกเฝ เผ‹, Wylie: g.ya’, ZYPY: ya “rocky”, “rocky place” and (Tibetan: เฝ‘เพฒเฝบเฝ‘เผ‹, Wylie: dred, ZYPY: chรช) “bear”. The etymology of yeti is uncertain, but it may come from the Tibetan Sherpa phrase yeh-teh, or โ€œsmall, man-like animalโ€. Some researchers have also deduced that the term comes from the Sanskrit โ€œyakshaโ€, a hairy being with superhuman strength. The term is recorded in English from the 1930s and is apparently a borrowing from Sherpa.
    ***

    • Akira

      Interesting. I saw a video from a linguist (or language hobbyist) making a case that Tibetan is the “worst” language instead of English (with “worse” being defined as confusing spellings and irregularity of grammatical rules).

      • Common Tater

        “a hairy being with superhuman strength”

        I’m going with that one.

        English spelling sucks ass. One guy in one of my English classes yelled “Fuck your mother” when the teacher was trying to explain i before e.

        Meanwhile, I have a 99.9% chance of spelling any Spanish word I’ve never heard before.

      • R C Dean

        Ay caramba!

      • cavalier973

        โ€œI before E, except after C, and when it sounds like A, like in โ€œneighborโ€ and โ€œweighโ€, and on weekends, and holidays, and all throughout May, and youโ€™ll always be wrong, no matter what you say!โ€

        โ€œThatโ€™s a hard rule.โ€
        ~Brian Regan

  6. Pat

    it has been a very socially active June.

    Can confirm. After nearly 2 years I finally made a pilgrimage to DFW. RJ is a consummate gentleman and fantastic host.

    This compositing looks good. Almost too good for stop motion.

    • Common Tater

      I recently learned Iran is more than twice the size of Texas.

    • R.J.

      Thank you sir! Come back any time.

  7. Common Tater

    WTF, CBX? I couldn’t break up these buds with an industrial laser shooting out of my dick.

  8. Evan from Evansville

    Stop-motion is just so much fun. Fantastic Mr Fox is underrated, IMO, and another example of how, when done ‘correctly,’ stop-motion adds a special reality, some texture, to the flick.

    Oooh! Bro was big into making home movies in the 90s. I remember at least one stop-motion thing I was his assistant in. As best I remember, it certainly involved a recreation of Back to the Future III with our Hot Wheels and Lincoln Log stockpile.

    Fun latchkey kid stuff, growing up. Most of that impromptu, unsupervised play seems to have gone bye-bye. Me thinky predictable consequences will ensue. Yuck. At least orphaned Asian salt miners can read.

    • Common Tater

      I’m more unsupervised working tobacco, more these kids today are too soft, and need to get off my lawn.

  9. Tres Cool

    “Academia is no place to make up your own rules.”

    This IS an old movie.

    • Common Tater

      If you had a time machine, would you bang Monica Lewinski?

      • Tres Cool

        She was a bit light for my tastes.
        I would bang her now. And take pics to share with Glibs.

      • Tres Cool

        Rondo Montana!

        Blast Hardcheese was taken?

      • Pat

        And take pics to share with Glibs.

        My morbid curiosity is neither that morbid nor that curious.

      • Akira

        On Robbie Bernstein’s “Run Your Mouth” podcast, he had a guest on (David Collum, I think?) who asserted that he had seen a poem written by Monica Lewinsky at age 9 with some graphic stuff in there – stuff that only an abused/trafficked kid would write – and that her affair with Clinton was part of the globalist pedophile conspiracy. Never looked into that in more detail.

      • Tres Cool

        Link?
        I’d love to hear it- I love conspiracies.

      • Common Tater

        “On Robbie Bernsteinโ€™s โ€œRun Your Mouthโ€ podcast”

        Never listened to it. Just POTP. Did you know Israel is some crackhead who will eat your ass for $5.

      • Tres Cool

        Noted. Much obliged.

      • Furthest Blue pistoffnick (370HSSV)

        some crackhead who will eat your ass for $5.

        Ain’t never had my ass ate. Why you wanna do dat?
        *lays $5 on the table*
        *looks around for some crackheads*
        / worries about Heroic Mulatto showing up

    • rhywun

      Juneteenth-napped thru that. Not particularly interested in Messi’s retirement exploits.

      More importantly, USMNT are on now.

      • rhywun

        lol Every ad flashing around the pitch is for either Saudi tourism or Saudi oil.

        Interesting, that.

      • rhywun

        Also thanks to Juneteenth, most of my coworkers are taking tomorrow off. As a fresh returnee from disability I didn’t feel I had that liberty, but I do have a doctor’s appointment that was scheduled months ago so I do get to check out around noon yay.

  10. Aloysious

    Stop motion??

    Ray Harryhausen sheds a tear of joy.

  11. Tres Cool

    “Cathy, let’s help the man pitch a tent”

    Hubba X2.

  12. Aloysious

    Are the aliens going to do the anal probing thing? Did the scientist kill YETI SMITH? Why do the aliens look like Goblins?

    So many questions.

    • Pat

      Very purrty.

    • rhywun

      Wow gorgeous. That tail is bananas.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Huge is my word,
        We call him asshole, for good reason

      • rhywun

        All cats are assholes, except when they choose not to be. ๐Ÿ’•

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I got him at six weeks, he got bigger

    • Sean

      What a spectacular fur ball!

      • Beau Knott

        +1

  13. Pat

    Presuming no CGI enhancement of the stop motion, that was pretty stellar. Especially the last boss fight.

    • R.J.

      I saw definite CGI, on the alien ship’s screens and such. I think everything else was straight up stop-motion.

  14. Spudalicious

    Seventh Voyage of Sinbad? Sherman, set the way back machine. I saw it about ten years after it came out at a Saturday matinee double feature.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      That stuff was killer growing up, Sinbad, the Golden voyage, way cool for a kid.
      Not Elvira cool, she’s still a smokeshow

    • Homple

      I saw it when it first came out, 1959ish as I recall. The Cyclops was awesome. I would watch that movie again.

      There is a Harryhausen exhibit at the Berlin Film Museum, playing the skeleton warriors scene from Jason and the Argonauts. More fun than most CGI I’ve ever seen.

      • UnCivilServant

        I recently rewatched Jason and the Argonauts, and I was miffed that it ended halfway through the story. Sure, Jason robbed the King of Colchis, but he’s still in Colchis, and not back home. Medea hasn’t gone on her crazy killing spree, etc, etc, etc.

  15. Aloysious

    I wonder what David Allen would have thought of the Disney plus Willow. The series that got yoinked stuffed in a hole.

    • Evan from Evansville

      WIllow is *criminally* underrated. Fantastic flick. It knew what it wanted to be, and delivered in magical ways.

      *I’D* fuck Val Kilmer in that movie, and I have a *STAUNCH* history of heterosexuality. (I believe he married the hot-fox redhead after production.) Ron Howard is remarkably good at his job.

      • rhywun

        FWIW I’d have fucked Real Genius Kilmer. I may be a homo but I am quite selective. Val did had a certain allure.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I love you rhy, damn funny!

      • Derpetologist

        The only reason I know about Willow is because of Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

        ***
        Did Ron Howard *intend* for Willow to be a perfect movie? No, and yet it was.
        ***

      • Evan from Evansville

        I was two when Willow came out. Mom, unwisely, took me to the theater to see it. Apparently, I was so loud, we got shushed and Mom took me out through the aisle.

        I’d like to think I was questioning certain parts of the movie’s logic. But damn. The *movie’s* logic makes perfect sense. In my Top 20 Favorite List.

  16. R.J.

    While the visiting dignitary was departing this morning I was able to hammer out the entire summer movie schedule. Tons of new or nearly new movies
    Life is what happens after you make plans, so we shall see how many of these films stay on streaming.

    • Evan from Evansville

      What’s on our docket? Anything stand out?

      • R.J.

        This is it, starting from top to bottom, including tonight:

        The Primevals
        Kong on Skull Island
        Sons of Steel
        Abruptio
        Space Milkshake
        Color out of Space
        Lion Girl
        Attraction
        Birthday/Anniversary show – Voyage of the Rock Aliens
        How to Kill Monsters

      • Akira

        Color out of Space

        Never seen the movie, but the original Lovecraft story was absolutely badass, like most of his longer stories (his short ones are a mixed bag, I thought).

      • R.J.

        It has Nick Cage in it.

      • Brochettaward

        So did Wicker Man.

        Nick Cage can mean a lot of things.

      • Brochettaward

        You should do Wicker Man.

      • R.J.

        Good call. I am adding it to the list.

  17. Brochettaward

    Where the white bitches at? I don’t know. I’m tired.

    • R.J.

      Me too. I have another vacation day tomorrow so I am taking my daughter fishing.

      • Furthest Blue pistoffnick (370HSSV)

        another vacation day tomorrow

        Do NoNe Of YoU wOrK?

      • Evan from Evansville

        My alarm goes off in 3.5 hours! …. FUCK!

        I did ‘nap’ for four hours, earlier. Hope shit goes well for y’all, tomorrow.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The fun ones are all currently recording content for OnlyFans.

  18. Aloysious

    *drinks beer*

    Finally.

    *pushes play*

    *drinks more beer*

  19. Aloysious

    Chronic emotional arousal.

    Good band name.

    This movie was a good choice, RJ. Stop motion rocks.

  20. UnCivilServant

    Why is my alarm going off? I never even went to bed.

    That does not bode well for today.

    ๐Ÿ™

    • Sean

      Call a lid.

      • UnCivilServant

        I am not some dementia-addled pervert.

      • Sean

        โ€ฆyetโ€ฆ

  21. Gustave Lytton

    Good morning Glibbernam! At home at last.

    No fixie on the slashed tire. So buying 4 new ones tomorrow. Fuck the rioters. Use live ammo.

    • UnCivilServant

      I am sorry to hear about your car. I must have missed the initial comment about it, but I’ve gathered from context that persons of insufficient moral integrety damaged your tires in a politically motivated attack.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Rioters after fucking around with the cops and federal agents outside the regional ICE detention facility, roamed around and slashed the tires of pickups in the hotel lot I was staying at. At least it was only a tire and not damage to the rest of the vehicle. And it was only one tire so could put on the spare.

    • Sean

      GL – Check with your local (brand) dealership.

      Around these parts* it’s common for them to run tire specials. Buy 3 get one free/Buy 3 get one for a $1. No games, no overpriced tires.

      *I don’t know how things work in commieland. I live in America.

    • Ted S.

      Paging OMWC to the white courtesy phone.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Raw inside burned outside is a bit too rare for me.

      • The Hyperbole

        Fucking hipsters take everything too far. “IPA’s are good lets hop the shit out of ’em. Rare steak with a nice crust is good let’s burn the fuck outta one and not cook the inside at all”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Agreed. Overhopped beers are a curse upon the land.

    • UnCivilServant

      They need to turn down the heat so that some of it makes it into the itnerior before you get charcoal on the exterior. There is nothing about that steak that was done correctly.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Apparently Pittsburgh style includes a cool interior? To each his own but yuck.

      • UnCivilServant

        ๐Ÿคข

        I don’t care for “Surprise Tartare”

  22. Beau Knott

    Mornin’ all!
    The hernia surgery went great. Laparoscopic and less pain than expected. Mind you, more pain than desired, but that’s life ;-\ Ice packs, hydrocodone alternating with ibuprofen, which I have ‘special dispensation’ to take during the first days of recovery. Slept well (for me) and my mid-night wakeups aligned with the meds schedule, so a definite plus.
    Onwards!

    • UnCivilServant

      Good to hear that you’re on the road to recovery.

    • Grosspatzer

      Yay! Hydrocodone (and all opiods) has a side effect involving the digestive tract… Hope they gave you something for that, extra effort is contraindicated following hernia surgery.

      • Beau Knott

        I think my IBS-D can overcome that, especially if I eat foods that trigger it more than usual ๐Ÿ˜‰ 3-4 Imodium/day kind of support that view.
        But thanks for the ‘yay’ and the warning!

    • Sean

      Good news!

  23. Grosspatzer

    Mornin’, reprobates! And UCS.

    Taking Mrs. Patzer’s ride in for service this morning. Beautiful day to walk around town while waiting. That town planted sweet cherry trees by the parking lot, hope it’s not too late to cop a delicious snack. And no, I do not work.

    Sorry to hear about your “car trouble”, Gustave. Once upon a time, perps went to jail for such things.

    • UnCivilServant

      I expect driving the cybertruck with the “No Ferrners” bumper sticker was a bit much.

    • Rat on a train

      The Swiss National Bank cut its interest rate to zero and signaled itโ€™s ready to go further if necessary as it seeks to deter investors from pushing up the franc.
      Can I get a 30 year fixed loan at a negative percentage rate?

  24. Tres Cool

    suhโ€™ fam
    yo whats goody

  25. Brochettaward

    THE LINKS ARE LATE

    THE LINKS ARE LATE