December 11, 2006

(Youtube) Montage of creatures created by the genius that was Ray Harryhausen.
posted by xenmate 17 years ago
  • Is it just me, or were things more fun before everything got all slick and perfect and digital? Nice way to start the week. Kind of wish the music was a little more apropos though.
  • Excellent, and nice bit of Tito Puente in the soundtrack too. The Jason and the Argonauts bits brought back memories. Weren't some of his dinosaurs modern reptiles with bits stuck on and blown up by bluescreen? That's what the giant tortoise made me half remember, but no doubt have that wrong.
  • Jason and The Argonauts, Sinbad (there were several), and Clash of the Titans were some of my favorite movies. The one with the brass bull I can probably recount the whole tale to you. Princess's brother was turned into a baboon, that got more feral all the time. He had to be changed back soon, but that had to be done by bathing him in a special light. The brass bull was the creation of a witch, who changed into a seagull but ran out of potion to change her back so she wa left with a seagull foot.....
  • 10 points for spotting Tom Baker.
  • Awesome, awesome syuff. Where art, technique, and fun mett, there lies Harryhauses. The skeleton army sequence from J&TA was the first special effects sequence I ever saw that really made me sit up and take notice. And mind you, that was AFTER having seen the first "Star Wars" movie.
  • Relieved to see ye back, Nickdanger. Glad ye avoided trouble with the weather! I've enjoyed a lot of his work, from those old Puppetoons on. Chicken Run is my favorite, I think!
  • ...and we have Harryhausen to thank for inspiring the wonderfully skeleton animation in the Evil Dead movies. Fun stuff!
  • Damn! Meant "wonderfully awful" - but awful in a good way.
  • I love this. Harryhausen made some of my favourite childhood holiday films. A_C, I'm pretty certain he didn't use real animals with hats on, although the giant crab in 'Mysterious Island' was a real dead crab, articulated with wire and stop-motion-animated. And when the saucer crashes into the Washington Monument at the end of 'Earth vs The Flying Saucers', every brick was individually animated. What a guy. Please do not poke the Ymir.
  • I grew up on Harryhausen movies. The Sinbad series was a particular love of mine. I remember flicking through the (4? or 5? Can't remember now.) channels daily, nearly obsessively, hoping that one of the Sinbad movies was showing. When it came out, Clash of the Titans blew me away with its special effects. Those Harryhausen movies were what started my fascination with special effects, and made me want to go into that when I was a teenager. This was, of course, before CGI was even vaguely an option. Looking at that montage of Harryhausen's work now, it still impresses me. Thank you, xenmate, for a wonderful trip down memory lane.
  • Christophine! : )
  • You're welcome Cristophine. :)
  • Thanks, bees. We're still travelling so I don't think I'll be much about for another few weeks.
  • petesbest! :)