Around 17 years ago, my mom pointed out a book in a member's magazine of a nearby bookstore chain to me. As a child, I was very much into dinosaurs (ok, I absolutely LOVED dinosaurs!), and knowing that, she showed me this book with a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the cover, titled "Dino Park".

"Dino Park" was the German title of this book by author Michael Crichton, the English title is "Jurassic Park". Little did I know back then that only a few months later, the movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg would be released. Newer versions of the book were published with a "Jurassic Park" somewhere on the cover, mine is still the "old, pure version" (as seen here on the left).

I absolutely loved the book, once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. It was not always easy to read for a 11 year old, as it talked about things like "chaos theory", "genetic reconstruction", etc., but it definitely became my favourite book at that time.

Naturally, I was very excited when I heard that the movie adaptation would come out. The movie was released in June 1993 in the US, 4 months earlier than in Germany. Thus, we heard a lot of news about it before it actually 'arrived'. The news talked about scared teenagers, who were draumatised by the brutal scenes, and there were discussions what the lower age limit for the movie should be in Germany.

I was hoping a lot that I'd be allowed to see it, and that the authorities wouldn't release the movie under the 14+ years category. Luckily, they didn't, the movie was released with 12 as lower age limit
The only "problem" with that was that I'd only turn 12 in October, the movie however was released in September....

A few days after it was released, I went to watch it with 2 friends (both a few months younger than me) in our local cinema. At the ticketing counter, I asked for three tickets, and when I was asked 'how old?', my heart beat went up a lot and with a not very confident voice I said '12'. And I got the tickets!

The movie was absolutely awesome: great CG effects (when I look back at the technology of '93, the results were just freaking amazing, those dinosaurs look SO REAL!), convincing actors (though the kids were annoying....), and a well composed music score.

Once the VHS came out, I bought it (might've also been a present, can't fully remember), as well as the soundtrack. And I even bought some of the dinosaurs (2? 3?), which I still have somewhere at home. What I never got, however, was the big T-Rex, the crème de la crème among all dinosaur toys! The reason: it cost 100 DM back then, a lot of money (though if you compare it with nowadays, where so many have a Playstation, XBOX, PSP, etc, it's not really that much anymore....). Years later, I was tempted to buy it on ebay, but in the end I didn't.

What I still remember the most about the movie, and what makes this movie one of my favourites of all times, is the scene where we get to see the dinosaurs for the very first time (I still get goose bumbs everytime I see it....):
The visitors just arrived on the island, when their jeeps stop, and Dr.Alan Grant looks to his left and sees something that he cannot believe to be true (the dinos, of course). Ellie Sattler, who sits next to him in the jeep, is busy analyzing a giant leaf, when he turns her head, and she gets to see this:

An 11 year old boy's dream come true