Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

With there only being a few days to go until a poll being held on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best titles of the 1915-1919 era ends,I started to take a look at a post that a fellow IMDber had kindly done which listed short movies from the period.Due to having heard about director Willis H. O'Brien legendary special effects work on the original King Kong,I was delighted to spot O'Brian's debut short,which led to me getting ready to find the missing link.The plot:Due to each caveman sharing affection for Miss Araminta Rockface,The Duke & Stonejaw Steve decide that they will fight to the death for Rockface's fair hand.Pushing Duke into a pot of boiling water,Steve prepares to declare himself the winner,but is stopped in his tracks by the sudden appearance of Theophilus Ivoryhead,who leads to Steve and Duke realising that they have a real fight on their hands for Rockface's heart.View on the film:Backed by an energetic score,director Willis H. O'Brian shows an amazing skill in bringing out the personality in each of the stop- motion characters. Displaying a surprising fluidity with the animation,O'Brian perfectly balances cute dinosaurs with a satirical upper-class Drama.In the sadly uncredited screenplay,the movie is given excellent Comedy shots,as all 3 cavemen try to win Rockface's heart in the land before time.

Dinosaur and the Missing Link, The (1915) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Edison short running five minutes from Willis O'Brien who would later go onto create The Lost World and King Kong. In this film, three cavemen are trying to win the affections of a woman but she will pick the winner from whoever kills a missing link that is terrorizing them. The winner eventually gets the girl but in fact he had some help from a dinosaur. This is a very entertaining and fun short even though it really can't compare to D.W. Griffith's two prehistoric films, Man's Genesis and Brute Force. The claymation effects here are very well done and I really loved the look of the missing link and the cavemen. The highlight of the film is a scene where the missing link is eating the guts out of a dead animal and this is a scene you have to see for yourself just to believe. The dinosaur is actually the weakest thing in the movie but it doesn't take away from any of the fun.

Its amazing to see what O'Brien was able to create so early on in the history of film. The motion picture camera was barely new and he made such a groundbreaking piece of work with it. Every stop-motion lover or animator should see this film, its truly fantastic for its time. I had just seen a preview of this on the King Kong DVD and to actually see it is a joy. Its a shame that no video documentation on his techniques could have been made, I guess we just have to figure things out for ourselves. Its kind of surreal to watch with technology today what was shot on such crude and primitive equipment in the early 1900's, but hopefully this means we will be able to enjoy pioneers in stop motion like O'Brien's work for years to come.

This film is a 1910s version of what would today be called Claymation. It features dinosaurs, apes, and caveman. It is worthy of mention as it was one of the first films made by the legendary Willis O'Brien, who would later do the special effects for "The Lost World" and "King Kong". O'Brien's clay animation in "Missing Link" is certainly not as good as his work in later films(which featured far more advanced models). However, as this was one of the first films with stop-motion animation, it was a pioneering work for O'Brien, and for the film industry in general. It was probably not the first film to use stop motion animation, but it may well be the first dinosaur movie to have done so. These historical notes will make it worth seeing for some people, in particular those interested in film history.