Ray Harryhausen, 1920-2013
May. 7th, 2013 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalStop motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen has died today at age 92.
These days, in an era where even the crappiest movie can have dazzling CGI special effects, it's hard to understand how amazing RH's carefully crafted, mostly one man stop motion effects must have appeared when they first came to the screen. After Star Wars premiered, his era of stop-motion essentially ended, though full stop motion features from Nick Park and others would still have a niche in entertainment.
The first of his films I was ever aware of was sadly the last he worked on, Clash of the Titans. When I got older and his catalog became available on DVD I started seeking out the others. These days, my favorites are probably The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the first for its sense of high adventure, the latter for its almost perfect distillation of 50's ear pulp sci-fi tropes.
What are yours?
These days, in an era where even the crappiest movie can have dazzling CGI special effects, it's hard to understand how amazing RH's carefully crafted, mostly one man stop motion effects must have appeared when they first came to the screen. After Star Wars premiered, his era of stop-motion essentially ended, though full stop motion features from Nick Park and others would still have a niche in entertainment.
The first of his films I was ever aware of was sadly the last he worked on, Clash of the Titans. When I got older and his catalog became available on DVD I started seeking out the others. These days, my favorites are probably The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the first for its sense of high adventure, the latter for its almost perfect distillation of 50's ear pulp sci-fi tropes.
What are yours?
