It’s time for another edition of Ask Squatch, where we pick one of the weird, random search queries formed as questions that lead people to the site and answer them, Dear Abby style. I didn’t want the second post in this series to also be about dinosaur movies, but I couldn’t pass up writing about this movie from my childhood.

It was a VHS rental that I remember getting quite a few times, and it’s one of the few movies from my nostalgia that hasn’t been released on DVD yet. I included it on my list of the worst dinosaur movies of the 90s, but I loved it when I was little. So, what is it? Prehysteria!, a direct-to-video movie from 1993 that went direct-to-my-heart because dinosaurs and that kid from Last Action Hero.
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With the economic downturn over the last several years, there are probably quite a few fathers who can relate to caveman Grug Crood in some small way.  Just keep your head down, nose to the grindstone, keep doing things the way you’ve been doing them for the last 20 years, and you’ll somehow keep the family going.  But then, disaster strikes, and there’s no choice but to venture outside your comfortable confines in order to survive.  For the Croods, the disaster is a lot worse than a layoff or a defaulted mortgage; their home is destroyed as their entire world quite literally comes crashing down around them.  The only thing Grug, wife Ugga, mother-in-law Gran, eldest sister Eep, middle son Thunk, and feral toddler Sandy can do is run into the great unknown of a jungle they never even knew existed.

While there, they meet Guy, an idea man with a slightly more rounded forehead who has survived alone by his wits, cunning, and a little help from his sloth pants-holder-upper/comic relief sidekick, Belt.  Guy creates fire to keep predators away at night, he understands the concept of shoes, and can set elaborate traps to snare food.  He also has a plan: to get to the high ground before this thing he’s calling “the end” catches up with all of them.  But Grug doesn’t like change…and he doesn’t like the way his teenage daughter is so enamored with this new Guy, either.
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To capitalize on the March Madness that will grab college basketball fans this week, StarWars.com has introduced a similarly themed character tournament. The official site has paired 32 Star Wars  personalities in a Light Side vs. Dark Side showdown. Daily, starting on Monday, March 19, you can vote in head-to-head popularity contests. They call it “This Is Madness.” The individual battles lead up to the finale, set for voting on April 9.

Despite all their work, it’s really not that interesting. There is a mildly entertaining video with Darth Vader that pretty much anyone with a costume and a YouTube account could create. Paging Chad Vader. I’ve already turned in my bracket for the office pool betting that everyone’s favorite baddie Boba Fett takes home top prize. Ultimately, StarWars.com did something geeky but didn’t quite make it geeky enough.
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I’ve seen posts like this on a few blogs I read regularly, so thought I would start occasionally mentioning what random movies and TV shows I’ve been watching. If nothing else, you may find something to put in your Netflix queue or you may think of something to recommend to me. I’m going to just number these posts sequentially so I don’t have to think of clever titles each time, because lazy.

Take Shelter – Amazon/Netflix

It may be the anticipation of seeing him portray General Zod in the upcoming Superman flick Man of Steel, but I’ve been on a big Michael Shannon kick lately. That dude is intense, and reminds me of the kind of kid that was held back a few times in High School but always gets put on your team in gym class and scares the shit out of you.

In Take Shelter, Shannon plays a Dad and husband to Jessica Zero-Dark-Thirty Chastain who is plagued with nightmares about apocolytpic storms and starts building a storm shelter in his backyard. He worries he’s going crazy, and the whole movie is done in this very subtle way and it was very cool. Shannon plays a quiet, subdued, average guy, and that makes you hang on every word he says. If you like psychological thrillers, you should definitely check it out.
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Over the years there has been some pretty random and wacky stuff published here on Top Hat Sasquatch, and as a result, we get some really funny search queries pop up in our analytics that lead people to the site. It’s funny how many people form their searches as questions, and it got me thinking. What if I picked out the best ones every so often and treated it like a reader mailbag? The result is a new series: Ask ‘Squatch.

I’ll try to use the exact searches as often as I can, but sometimes if we get a really good one I may just form it into a question or something. Trust me though, I’ve got a big list of really funny ones. Because of my dumb 10 Worst Dinosaur Movies of the 90s post, a lot of them are about dinosaur movies. Go figure.

We’re kicking off the series with one that doesn’t sound as wacky as some of the others, but when you think about why someone would be looking for this information, it’s kind of hilarious.

What is the worst Land Before Time movie?

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