Remembering Ray Harryhausen! (Part Eight)

Despite the box office and critical success of "Clash of the Titans" the technological advances made in the world of movie special and creature effects lead by the sophisticated computer-assisted technology developed by George Lucas and his team at Industrial Light & Magic and established costume and makeup masters such as Stan Winston producing such stunning work, The sun had begun to set on the special kind of effects Harryhausen had spent years perfecting.

MGM and all the other studios Harryhausen & Schneer approached with the sequel to "Clash Of The Titans" titled "Force of the Trojans" passed on project.

This directly led to Harryhausen retiring from active film making at the age of 62. 

Ray was one of the few true artists that was lucky enough to become a hero in his own lifetime and enjoyed a long retirement where he could reflect upon and preserve and document his unique legacy.  

Ray was also actively involved and supervised the restoration and digitisation of all his films seeing them released first on VHS and Laserdisc then DVD and finally Blu-ray. 

He supervised the colourisation of three of his films "It Came From Beneath The Sea" (1955), "Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers" (1956) and "20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957) and these versions were first released on DVD in 2008.  

At the same time as digitising and colouring his black and white films from the 1950's Ray took the opportunity to digitally remaster and restore three of his favourite films from the 1930's that he adored and were at risk of being lost.  

The RKO Pictures "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) and  "She" (1935), The British Sci-fi film "Things to Come" (1936)

It's easy to see why Ray would be a fanboy of these movies "The Most Dangerous Game" and "She" share director/producer and acting talent with "King Kong" (1933) in various combinations and with "Mighty Joe Young" (1949) which was Ray's big break.   

"Things To Come" is just a fantastic film that has some great model work in it and it would have been a tragedy if it had suffered the fate so many films have been.  

In 1986, Harryhausen and his wife formed The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation,

a registered charity in the U.K. and U.S. that preserves his collection and promotes the art of stop-motion animation and Harryhausen's contributions to the genre.

The foundation has maintained and restored Ray's original creature models and has  arranged exhibitions in the UK and in America.  

Rick Baker, John Landis, Ray Harryhausen & Peter Jackson at the  "Myths and Legends" exhibition at the London Film Museum in 2010 at Ray's 90th birthday celebration.

In November 2016 the British Film Institute compiled a list of those present-day filmmakers who have publicly said they have been inspired by Ray Harryhausen, The list included

Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante, Tim Burton, Nick Park, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, Terry Gilliam, George Lucas, John Landis, Henry Selick, J. J. Abrams, Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez and special effects supervisors Phil Tippett, Rick Baker and Dennis Muren,

On the 7th of May 2013

"the most influential stop-motion animator and special-effects wizard in cinema history."

Passed Away at the age of 92.

What I hope I have communicated with this series of blogs is that Ray was a genuine fan of movie magic that went on to be a true pioneer and visionary that influenced generations of filmmakers that we love today. 

He was a true artist who also apparently had the patience of a saint and an epic eye for detail. So much of the box office giant blockbuster films of the last 20 years the CGI big robots or  kaiju smashing up cities owe a huge debt of gratitude to the work of Harryhausen.

What really annoys me is the idea that people think stop motion creatures in film are "Cheesy" or "bad" and the whole thing is naff but this concept has nothing to do with Harryhausen and his "Dynamation" process it's people seeing films that have nothing to do with Ray and judging him by them.

There is a slew of stop motion creature features that don't come close to what Ray achieved but sadly muddy the waters for the casual film fan. So seek out and watch Ray's work and don't accept poor imitations.  

Must see Harryhausen films are,