What Harryhausen managed to achieve during his career revolutionised how stop motion and practical effects are used in film today. Alongside being an extraordinary animator, he also specialised in special effects which he applied to his creations to give them life.
His most notorious work featured in the 1963 classic Jason and the Argonauts where the protagonist fights seven skeletons animated and choreographed by Harryhausen himself. He truly pushed the boundaries of what was possible in cinema and brought forth ideas and concepts the likes which had never been seen by the filmmakers and audiences before; he was a pioneer.
Harryhausen spent his early career producing short animated clips and segments, experimenting with the intent of achieving realistic stop motion similar to the likes of which found in King Kong (1933 - animated by Willis O’Brien); the key piece of inspiration that Harryhausen used as influence through the years. Ray Harryhausen often referred to his early days as an animator as his “Teething-Rings” as he was simply getting the his footing in the industry, working alongside other animators before moving onto bigger things.
Prior to the conclusion of world war 2, Harryhausen dreamed of working on a version of War of the Worlds, a story of aliens emerging on the Earth’s surface and battling the human race for Earth. Some years after the end of the war, he went onto animate a short segment where an alien creature emerges from a smoky capsule only to react poorly to the planet’s atmosphere and limply fall out of frame; presumed to be dead.
Although he unfortunately passed away in 2013, 32 years after the release of his final film Clash of the Titans (1981), his legacy lives on as modern filmmakers take his methods and techniques and use them in their movies. These filmmakers in question include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, James Cameron and Wes Anderson.
An example of his influence comes from Steven Spielberg's interpretation of War of the Worlds in 2005, the story that, as explained earlier, was Harryhausen's dream. Now regarding the final scene of the film where the alien emerges from the capsule, it shares a lot of the characteristics as the alien from Ray's earlier short from the weak facial expressions to the limp movements.
His most notorious work featured in the 1963 classic Jason and the Argonauts where the protagonist fights seven skeletons animated and choreographed by Harryhausen himself. He truly pushed the boundaries of what was possible in cinema and brought forth ideas and concepts the likes which had never been seen by the filmmakers and audiences before; he was a pioneer.
Harryhausen spent his early career producing short animated clips and segments, experimenting with the intent of achieving realistic stop motion similar to the likes of which found in King Kong (1933 - animated by Willis O’Brien); the key piece of inspiration that Harryhausen used as influence through the years. Ray Harryhausen often referred to his early days as an animator as his “Teething-Rings” as he was simply getting the his footing in the industry, working alongside other animators before moving onto bigger things.
Prior to the conclusion of world war 2, Harryhausen dreamed of working on a version of War of the Worlds, a story of aliens emerging on the Earth’s surface and battling the human race for Earth. Some years after the end of the war, he went onto animate a short segment where an alien creature emerges from a smoky capsule only to react poorly to the planet’s atmosphere and limply fall out of frame; presumed to be dead.
Although he unfortunately passed away in 2013, 32 years after the release of his final film Clash of the Titans (1981), his legacy lives on as modern filmmakers take his methods and techniques and use them in their movies. These filmmakers in question include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, James Cameron and Wes Anderson.
An example of his influence comes from Steven Spielberg's interpretation of War of the Worlds in 2005, the story that, as explained earlier, was Harryhausen's dream. Now regarding the final scene of the film where the alien emerges from the capsule, it shares a lot of the characteristics as the alien from Ray's earlier short from the weak facial expressions to the limp movements.
Animation - History of Ray Harryhausen
Reviewed by Ben Roughton
on
June 20, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Ben Roughton
on
June 20, 2018
Rating:
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