Another film great passes - Ray Harryhausen

[j_garcia]

Visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen dead at age 92

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Influential visual effects maker and animator Ray Harryhausen, who brought monsters, skeletons and mythological beasts to life for movies like "Jason and the Argonauts" long before computers took over the job, died Tuesday at age 92, his family said.

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"Ray's influence on today's film makers was enormous with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK's own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations," the statement said.

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"Some say 'Citizen Kane' is the greatest motion picture of all time, others say it's 'Casablanca,'" actor Tom Hanks said as he presented the special Oscar to Harryhausen. "For me, the greatest picture of all time is 'Jason and the Argonauts.'"

All his films, maybe some not as good as the others, are all still among my all time favorites. I still enjoy watching them to this day as they've lost none of their magic. RIP RAY.

 

[avliner]

A pitty indeed John!
One of my all-time fav. is Jason and The Argonauts, a truly gem in its own genre.
RIP Ray, mission accomplished...

 

[sholling]

Jason and The Argonauts is a favorite of mine too. RIP Ray.

 

[afterlife2]

hmmm never heard of his movies will check them out. RIP.

 

[j_garcia]

hmmm never heard of his movies will check them out. RIP.

What are you 16? Ever heard of this guy named Tim Burton? The stop motion films he directed (Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, etc...) are a direct result of Ray's influence. In Monsters Inc., the restaurant they went to was called Harryhausen's.

 

[afterlife2]

I never saw those Animated Burton movies, but I did get the Corpse Bride recently on BD used. Thanks I'll check it out this weekend. Nightmare I think is on amazon prime or netflix. Oh look: http://movies1.netflix.com/WiRoleDisplay?personid=39746&sod=search-person-highlight&vt=tg

 

[j_garcia]

Nightmare Before Christmas is on Netflix for sure and possibly also Prime. Coraline is another good one - done by the animator for the Burton ones; not sure if that one is on either, but I don't think so.

If you are going to watch Harryhausen though, just find Jason and the Argonauts. Old, but still fun.

From coraline. This is the longest, most complex single stop motion animation sequence ever done. Note that it isn't that long. IIRC, they said it took months just to shoot this sequence. (this one is unfinished).

 

[majorloser]

Man, I loved when they would play those movies on "SciFi Saturday" when I was a kid. Those films are all cult classics.

RIP Ray

 

[j_garcia]

"Creature Feature" was our Saturday show. I watched it as often as I could.