Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Review

• 2nd Apr 2013

These days when stop-motion is mentioned, often people are most likely to think of Tim Burton straight away: “Like in The Nightmare Before Christmas that Tim Burton directed?” to which I have to agree with a sigh that is only relieved as I correct them about who really directed the movie (Henry Selick, Burton merely produced).

Ray Harryhausen though is the grand-daddy of stop motion. Perhaps a lot of people will not recognize the name until you mention a movie or two that he worked on. The documentary Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan will aid that cause as it is very accessible to the general audience whilst being very thorough.

Contributing to this documentary are names that everyone will recognize such as Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro as well as some major industry artists such as Steve Johnson who created the special effects for Ghostbusters  and Greg Broadmore, concept designer of more recent District 9, who, sitting next to two computer screens wearing a well beyond Ray Harryhausen’s time Half-Life game t-shirt, really shows that you can never be too contemporary to appreciate his work. What’s really special about all these appearances is that it makes the people who are not very familiar with Harryhausen’s work relate to the documentary straight away and also makes it clear just how much his work has influenced the film industry all the way to the computer era in which it has settled in today.

Each of his films is covered; going through the story of the making of some of the creatures which he created  and animated while showing some of his original story artwork, animation tests and footage of the real models as they are today (thank you Mr. Harryhausen for having saved all of your work and stored it in your garage!). It’s also great how the original trailers are shown as the next movie is introduced into the documentary, setting us in the period the movies were made, which gives us a real scale of how Ray was already achieving back then.

Looking at this feature, or any other of Ray’s films, it is flabbergasting to see his unparalleled genius. Without computers or digital cameras to keep a track of his ‘dynamation’, and with the little budget and time that kept him from being able to do more than 1 or 2 takes per scene, in all of his humility, Ray has made himself a true creator of performance, art and creativity, and this documentary will show you just that in the most respectful of ways.

This is a 2 disc set. The second disc comes littered with various extras including some extended interviews with every person who contributed to the documentary – truly well worth the value of the price stamp!

Lara Margarida