Fantasia and Our Changing Views of Dinosaurs

Abstract

Popular culture often presents us with images that can color our perception of the past, even if those images are later shown to be inaccurate. One such image, the “Rite of Spring” sequence from Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940), can act as a starting point for a discussion of our changing views of dinosaurs. At least fourteen recognizable dinosaur genera, as well as other extinct reptiles (plesiosaurs, mososaurs, pterosaurs, and pelycosaurs) and transitional forms between fish and amphibians and between reptile and birds, are represented in the sequence. Compared to more recent dinosaur films, perhaps no other sequence so genuinely attempted to portray dinosaurs as they actually might have been. Of course, many of the interpretations presented in the “Rite of Spring” have not survived the scientific progress of the past half century, but this demonstrates the need to be constantly aware of new discoveries and interpretations; not only about dinosaurs, but about any branch of science.