Nitpickers.com : Movie Nitpick - Citizen Kane - 1941 - Post and Review nitpicks on your favorite Movies.

Nitpick Description

Submitted by Nitpicker :	9188
Movie :	Citizen Kane - 1941
Nitpick Category :	Special Effects
Approximate time of Nitpick :	1/3 of the way through
Summary :	When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Detail :	In the scene where Kane and his entourage set off for the beach from Xanadu, large birds\n are seen flying across the background. In fact, the background was montaged from a \n science fiction film to reduce <a href="http://www.malpracticecost.net" alt="Malpractice Cost" target="_blank">cost</a>s, and the birds are, in fact, pterodactyls.

Comment By :	18533
Summary:	When Cranes Ruled The Earth...
Detail :	When I read this, I remembered something about animated birds in the picnic scene, so I watched this scene again last night. By the way, the birds appear during the picnic scene as the camera pans from the close-up of the singer, not while the group is driving on the beach. This is obviously NOT a rear screen projection from an earlier film, since several tents identical to the real tents appear in the matte painting. The birds appear to be cranes or some other big wading birds, admittedly rather crudely animated. If you have ever seen this type of bird in flight you would notice they DO resemble pterodactyls (their long legs are held straight back, resembling long tails). The animation of the birds does resemble somewhat that of the seagulls flying around Skull Island in King Kong. Maybe that's how this connection was made...(Lost World...King Kong...Willis O'Brien...flying thingies...Citizen Kane...)