History Main / Slurpasaur

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* The 1960s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's ''TheLostWorld'' is ''very'' notorious for this. Particularly when (as mentioned above), ClaudeRains (who is just here for the [[MoneyDearBoy money, dear boy]]) identifies an iguana with plastic fins as a ''brontosaurus''. The most definitely not-fake alligator vs. monitor lizard battle shows one of the main reasons why this trope isn't used anymore.

* Parodied in a Little Red Riding Hood-based skit on ''MontyPython's [[strike:Flying Circus]] Fliegender Zirkus'' (also seen in ''MontyPython Live at the Hollywood Bowl'') in which the Big Bad Wolf is played by a tired-looking dachshund with a piece of faux fur tied to its back.

* Subverted (in a way) in the ''DoctorWho'' story "Colony in Space". A robot with claws plus a hologram simulates a giant lizard attack.
** The same plot point was used in the later story "Vengeance on Varos", only with a hologram (stock footage) of a fly instead of an iguana. ''DoctorWho'' also played the trope straight at least once.

* One of the TimeTravel episodes in ''{{Honey I Shrunk the Kids}}: [[RecycledTheSeries The Series]]'' has the family being transported to "prehistoric times" and being promptly chased by a giant monitor lizard. The [[TVGenius alleged]] ChildProdigy identifies it as a ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenontosaurus Tenontosaurus]]'', which in reality was a ''vegetarian'' dinosaur. [[SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying And then a caveman shows up]].

Making movies about [[{{Kaiju}} giant monsters]] (often dinosaurs) is [[RuleOfCool downright awesome]]. However, sometimes, the filmmakers just don't have the budget to make a [[PeopleInRubberSuits somewhat convincing monster suit]], or an animatronics puppet, or stop motion, or even a [[SpecialEffectsFailure crappily animated CGI monster]].

*** One of the more infamous examples is from ''The Claws of Weng-Chiang'', in which close-ups of a rat in a model sewer are meant to suggest a terrifying giant rat. A man in a rat costume is also used. Sadly, and predictably, the real rat and the rat suit of course look nothing alike.

* [[TheSimpsons "It's just a dog in a space suit!"]]
** As not everyone has seen and memorized every episode of the Simpsons, please explain why this is an example of this trope.

* Arguably an inversion occurs in the Tristar {{Godzilla}}, which features what is supposed to be a mutant lizard looking and acting like a dinosaur.

* One ''FoxTrot'' strip features Jason trying to make his iguana look like a dinosaur by taping a fan to its back.

* Parodied in ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', where UN weapons inspector Hans Blix is fed to sharks (really sea bass in a fish tank) and Kim Jong-Il has giant panthers (really black kittens) at his command.

* Arguably a variant occurs in the Tristar {{Godzilla}}, which shows the 'embiggened-lizard-equals-dinosaur' idea is alive and well.

* Another MST3K episode that has an animal play the monster is ''{{The Giant Gila Monster}}'', which more traditionally has a reptile play a reptile. Not a particularly good movie, but the monster looks okay -- except for the fact that it ''isn't a gila monster''.

* There's a quite funny youtube claiming to be of "A GIANT SPIDER". [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DsaXfNgQZ4 It's a dauchhound in a spider suit]].

* In ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', all the characters are puppets, so when they need the characters to get attacked by panthers, they use regular black kittens. {{Played for Laughs}}.

* The TropeNamer example (albeit by fans of the film), and the one where most of this footage comes from is ''One Million BC'' with Victor Mature and Carl Landis (remade by Ray Harryhausen and Charles Shneer as ''One Million Years B.C.'' featuring [[NubileSavage Raquel Welch]]). This film had a plethora of animals in makeup or enlarged to make them look monstrous. The image above is from this movie. Other examples from this film include an Elephant in fur as a Woolly Mammoth, a pig with glued on horns and a tail as a ''Triceratops'', Alligator with a Glued on Fin (enlarged), various enlarged lizards (monitors, iguana, skinks) as Dinosaurs, a snake and enlarged mongoose (the mongoose eats the snake on screen) and an (enlarged) armadillo with rubber horns. It also featured a [[PeopleInRubberSuits Rubber Suit T-Rex]] which was NOT enlarged in any way. Yeah, it's SoBadItsGood. The FX from this film got reused from the 1940s through the 1960s in such [[SarcasmMode well known]] films as: ''Tarzan's Desert Mystery'', ''Two Lost Worlds'', ''The Lost Volcano'', the American version of ''{{Godzilla}} Raids Again'', ''Jungle Manhunt'', ''Untamed Women'', ''Robot Monster'', ''King Dinosaur'', ''Teenage Caveman'', ''Valley of the Dragons'', ''Journey to the Center of Time'', ''Horror of the Blood Monsters'' (the stock footage was tinted in color for this film), and the Mexican films ''Island of the Dinosaurs'' (''La Isla De Los Dinosaurios'') and ''Adventure at the Center of the Earth'' (''Aventura al Centro de la Tierra''). If you've seen much ''{{MST3K}}'', you've probably seen the footage in question a million times.

But, all hope is not lost. No.... you can just take an ordinary lizard, alligator or other non-extinct reptile, tape a few cardboard fins and horns, and... '''ta-da!''' Instant dinosaur!

** The Harryhausen movie generally avoided this (favouring stop-motion instead), although a real lizard and spider were thrown in around the beginning to liven things up (and as an homage to the original film which did imploy it). A few critics complained that the archelon scene used a real turtle, but it didn't; Harryhausen just made a really good model.

* Parodied by Olive Jar Animation's ''Gila Monster!'' Each episode of this stop-motion animation series ended with the director letting his pet iguana (not gila monster) wander through the dollhouse-sized sets.