Mokele Mbembe Mission
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 9th, 2007
Need an overall enjoyable, high production value, six-minute cryptofiction break? Try this movie, Mokele Mbembe. Keep repeating to yourself, it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie, often. However, ruby red slippers are not needed to view it.
Now to your mission, if you accept it: Please pick out the major points of factual cryptozoological mistakes in this short film. There are more there than meets the eye.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Lol!
It’s terrible 🙂
This screams: STUDENT FILM!
And isn’t Mokele-Mbembe supposed to be on the African continent? They couldn’t have got black student actors? RACIST STUDENT FILM!
And isn’t Mokele-Mbembe supposed to be an sauropod rather than a theropod? BADLY-RESEARCHED STUDENT FILM.
“Don’t let the truth get out?” Don’t let this film get out!
The director, Clint Loveness? More like Clint LoveLESS after the student body on his campus sees this — there’ll be no student bodies for him, that’s for sure.
Even a big name like Jason Lee couldn’t save this from itself! (And I didn’t even see him, anyway.)
Just my two cents.
What a terrible production in all ways.
And isn’t Mokele Mbembe supposed to be a herbivore? Not a t-rex like Jurassic Park computer prop?
The “plesiosaur cadaver” was a whale, wasn’t it? Found outside Japan, not New Zealand, in 1977.
Not sure. Can’t find the reference.
Coelacanth was caught in 1938 and numerous times after that. The movie says it was supposed to have lived 400 mill. years ago, while wikipedia says the Cretaceous period (145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago).
Good break, Loren:)
The Zuiyo Maru carcass was indeed caught off of New Zealand by the Japanese fishing trawler of the same name in 1977. It is mostly accepted to be a basking shark carcass. Also, they show the hoaxed Ica stones. Poor “research”, poor CGI, and possibly poor acting (my speakers are dead, so I couldn’t hear anything said).
Was that “MOKELE-MBEMBE” or “KASAI REX”?
What I found amusing is the Great White Explorer bringing out his book of pictures, and asking the supposedly African Natives if they’ve seen a cougar (which the ‘natives’ called a ‘coga’?) and a horse. Then a monitor lizard. In the African jungle??? That’s funny! As to other bits, what were those duck-foot-like footprints? What was he shooting at? What happened to the guy who was about to stab him in the back?
Now to the major points you mentioned..I have to agree with all the ones mentioned so far. The most glaring is Mokele Mbembe is indeed supposed to be a long necked quadrupedal beastie. Wrong dino type. Ica Stones. Wrong age for the fish. Trawler with decomposed basking shark, wich if I heard correctly he called a ‘pleiosaur’ rather than a plesiosaur. What do Anasazi petroglyphs have to do with Mokele Mbembe? And they were identifying the monitor lizard as being the same as a carnosaur? Very silly film, but fun in it’s own way I guess.
Groan. That is bad, I’m… just speechless. I want those 6 minutes of my life back. 🙂
Ceroill- Haha, those were some of the very same questions I was asking myself as I watched this! Love how the “native” word for cougar is, well.. “cougar”! As for the shooting, maybe he was shooting at the director of this piece. 🙂 And maybe the guy about to stab him figured out that this actor wasn’t the director and went off to finish the job. And here’s another question, what’s the point of this film? I can’t figure out if this is supposed to be educating people about cryptozoology, or entertaining us, or what.
I think the mention of the plesiosaur was just to illustrate the idea of humans and dinosaurs living together. You’re right, this is a silly movie. 🙂
I don’t know if this counts as a factual mistake, but if someone was on an expedition to find this creature, wouldn’t they have a team of people with them? Where is everyone? Instead, it is this one Indiana Jones type guy running around looking for it with a cheap camera. Where is John Hammond when you need him?
I find the responses interesting in their negativity. I enjoyed the little film, and found that it was actually better than I had expected. At least it had some innocence and joy. But, with the benefit of years of “cryptosnooping” – Mokele Mbembe is supposedly on a different continent (Africa) and is a sauropod. Also, it is apparently a poisonous sauropod as there was a report of some number of pygmy tribesmen dying after eating its flesh.
Just glad he didn’t do a Sasquatch film, I imagine clips of Jim Belusi in a gorilla suit. Looks like a student film project done for the Creationism class at Pepperdine University. Great place to go to school if you surf, overlooks Malibu beach; they obviously need some better cryptozoology books in their library, so these kids can get their facts straight. Loren, I might even donate a book of yours to help these kids with their education.
HORRIBLE. Everything about this short is ass-backwards, from the tired cliche of trotting out an Indiana Jones type “hero” to the laughable “natives” to the hysterical inaccuracies surrounding the subject matter. Mokele Mbembe a allosaurvelociraptortrex??? Is it really too much to ask that filmmakers do a little homework before they commit this stuff to video? Being familiar with the challenges of low-to-no budget filmmaking, I could have cut this some slack if it’d only have tried a smidge harder to get at least ONE of the facts correct. And no, mentioning the coelacanth doesn’t count. IMHO, the sheer insanity that was A Current Affair’s “expedition” regarding the Manitoba footage featuring Dr. Franklin “May the Power of the Cosmos be with you” Ruehl and the chainsaw sculptor chick was National Geographic gold compared to this. Perhaps the worst offense of all; having the hero narrate the action to me like I’m six years old. Ah, what could have been with just a little more effort…
Okay. Found this online just now in looking for some background on the filmmakers. NOTE: Text and punctuation is verbatim.
“Synopsis : Mokele-Mbembe
Natives tell stories of a long lost mystery creature, Which they call the Mokele-Mbembe. According to the natives the creature only appears in the wet seasons, deep in the jungles of the Congo where man can not live more than a couple days. The only way into this unknown land is by foot. It is very dangerous with wild animals, angry natives, and rebels carrying guns. A Christian Archeologist (Staring: Michael Dean) has traveled the world looking for artifacts that can support the theory that dinosaurs and men lived during the same time. He has traveled into this world which no man has seen and where no man can survive. He is searching for the Mokele-Mbembe to help prove the theory of Creation. Will He find God’s Greatest Creation? Will He find the mystery creature called the Mokele-Mbembe? Take the journey and let the search begin. This short film is a teaser for a full length movie. I am looking for someone to support this project and to help fund and produce it.”
Wow.
Ah. Interesting. Still sloppy though, regardless of who made it and why.
Is this supposed to become a big movie or something?
This page at studentfilmmakers.com says Length: 5:00:00 minutes. So what was the above? The 6-minute trailer? Or is it 500 minutes (~8 hrs)? 🙂
As vlmagister stated, I am also surprised at all the negative feedback for this goofy little nugget. I found it entertaining, if not factual. It certainly beats the usual YouTube “I really filmed Bigfoot!” garbage. I suspected this had some link to a Christian organization because of the hinting that men and dinosaurs coexisted on earth. If you’ve ever happened on that religious channel that Kirk Cameron is always on, they show a lot of 1-star-quality made-for-that-particular-religious-channel movies. If this ever does end up being made into a feature-length movie, I’m sure that’s where you’ll find it.
By the way, for those of you looking for Jason “My Name Is Earl” Lee in this clip…hey folks, there are probably hundreds of guys with a fairly common name of ‘Jason Lee’ out there. I suspect one of the “natives” was probably a guy named Jason Lee (but not THAT Jason Lee).
Two words come to mind. Crap and well thats really all. The Disney move Baby was a better representation of the Mokele Mbembe creature, and that was back in the ’80’s or such.
Did anyone else feel bad that the guy got eaten at the end by the bad CGI T-rex? Nope, thought not. Oh well. Surely he should have learned something be seeing fantasy movies or reading fantasy books or playing D&D.. Never go into the foreboding jungle/forest/dungeon thing by your self if a large lizard is involved (a dragon for instance) while only caring a short sword (or in this case a 6 shot revolver) come on he deserved to be a light snack for the dino.
“Calm down dear, it’s only a movie” (one for the UK readers only). OK, and most of the creatures in ‘Jurassic Park’ were actually from the Cretaceous, but this didn’t make it a bad film. It’s meant to tell a little story in 5 minutes, not serve as a primer of cryptozoology. My only quibble: I think he looked too clean and well-shaved for a man who’s been sleeping out in the jungle; in my experience a bit of dirt and a slightly exhausted look would be more appropriate.
This film proves that Mokele-Mbembe is alive & well! But Where?
kamoeba,
Just in case you didn’t see the hole that my vitriol was eating in the floor, I was employing sarcasm with my reference to Jason Lee. I’m sure if one went to Hong Kong a generation or two ago, one would have been MOBBED by Jason Lees.
I got to be honest…getting a little tired of the creationist insults
CL Productions Presents A Clint Loveness Film.
Winner for the Best Action Adventure: Videomaker/Sony Short Video Contest 2007
“Mokele-mbembe”
Natives tell stories of a long lost mystery creature, which they call the Mokele-Mbembe. According to the natives the creature only appears in the wet seasons, when the swamps flood and when heavy rains fall deep in the jungles of the Congo where man can not live more than a couple days.
Mokele-Mbembe, whose name translates as “blocker of rivers,” is said to live in the Congo’s immense Likouala Swamp and appears to be a small Apatosaurus. The Pygmies who live in the region say it is rust-coloured, aquatic, fifteen to thirty feet long. Regions in central Africa, specifically the Likouala Swamp, a region which covers an area the size of Florida, still remains 80% unexplored.
This is the part of the movie when the explorer is searching for the Mokele-Mbembe, but finds the KASAI T-REX!!!
The only way into this unknown land is by foot.
It is very dangerous with wild animals, angry natives, and rebels carrying guns.
A Christian Archeologist (Staring: Michael Dean) has traveled the world looking for artifacts that can support the theory that dinosaurs and men lived during the same time.
He has traveled into this world which no man has seen and where no man can survive. He is searching for the Mokele-Mbembe to help prove the theory of Creation.
Will He find God’s Greatest Creation? Will He find the mystery creature called the
Mokele-Mbembe? Take the journey and let the search begin.
This short film is a teaser for a full length movie. I am looking for someone to support this project and to help fund and produce it.
This movie is based on some interesting facts that I have learned.
This movie will have a great story and it has a Christian theme. It has the adventure of Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park.
I made this movie to help inspire people to search for the Mokele-Mbembe. Remember that this is just a movie.
I enjoy hearing critical feedback, but remember to be respectful to the filmmaker because it is hard work to make a movie.
I challenge you to make a better movie. Give it a try?
I would love to see some more short films that are well produced.
I am a big fan of adventure movies, and I hope this short film will inspire more buzz for some one to have courage to search and find God’s Greatest Creature!
God Bless from Clint Loveness