Cretaceous Cats: Arizona Dino-Sized ‘Wildcats’ Talent From the Jurassic Film Era

1997 The Lost World

Most sequels are not better than the original, and this is certainly the case with the Lost World, but there are still plenty of reasons to get somewhat excited for this movie.

The first reason is they brought back Dr. Ian Malcolm. 

The second reason is the Lost World brought us three T-Rex’s. Unfortunately for Malcolm’s gang, his girlfriend decides to take an injured baby T-Rex away from its home (she wanted to fix its leg) and bring it back to where the gang was staying.

Bad idea but fun to watch on the big screen when Mom and Pop T-Rex show up and want their kid back.

The coolest part of this movie is when a large group of humans decide to walk through long grass full of Raptors all while a leader of the group is yelling “Don’t go into the long grass!” It’s one of the best scenes in the four films, but it’s not good enough to make this sequel Toy Story 2 or Empire Strikes Back.

1996-97 Arizona Wildcats 25-9, National Champions

The franchise may have not delivered in the sequel but I didn’t care because the Cats won the National Title! It’s been 18 years and I still can’t believe it, even though the National Championship clock in my bathroom says the Cats really won in 1997.

Arizona became the first team in history to defeat three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament on their way to winning the championship.

One of my favorite memories from that tourney run is when Jason Terry jumped onto the scorers table and celebrated after the Cats surprised the heavily favored Kansas Jayhawks in the Sweet 16.

Player/Character Comparisons

Bennett Davison/Kelly Malcolm

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Bennett Davison had the best two-year run a Wildcat has ever been a part of. He was a junior college transfer that made an immediate impact for the Champion Wildcats.

During his two years in the desert, the Cats were 10-1 in the NCAA Tournament. His athleticism shined bright, always jumping out of the gym before throwing down a sweet jam.

Kelly Malcolm (Ian Malcolm’s daughter), also showed some terrific athleticism in the Lost World.

In probably the worst scene of the franchise (start watching at 2:18 on the video above), Kelly decides to fight off a raptor by climbing up some bars and doing some gymnastic tricks.

Earlier in the film we learned that Kelly had recently been cut from her gymnastics team back home. I’m guessing her coach was not Bela Karolyi, because Kelly proves she has major gymnastic swinging skills, when she does a perfect spinning routine, all while kicking a raptor through a broken window.

Kelly pulled off a perfect routine until the dismount (2:46 on the video above). After all that swinging and kicking, Kelly was fatigued and it showed when she hit the ground. It was an OK landing, but I think Olympic judges would probably give her a 9.5 at best, for the entire routine.

A.J. Bramlett/Roland Tembo

A.J. Bramlett had a breakthrough at a practice in February of 1997. He shattered a backboard and it caused him to have stitches in his left arm. After the backboard incident, Bramlett went on a rampage.

When the NCAA Tournament started Bramlett became even more of a rebounding machine down low.  A.J. averaged a double-double during the first four games of the tournament and when it was all over he averaged over 10 boards a game in the Cats six tournament games.

Much like Bramlett in the NCAA Tournament, Roland Tembo was fearless in the Lost World.

Tembo was a distinguished animal hunter who came to the island mainly to hunt the ultimate prey.

The T-Rex.

What was amazing about this was Tembo was hunting a T-Rex with only a big shotgun. When his gun was tampered with he ended up taking out the T-Rex with a tranquilizer gun.

Next: 2001 : Jurassic Park III