STACK #193 Nov 2020

FILM FEATURE STOPMOTION MAGIC TO I

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Decades before Jurassic Park revolutionised the art of visual effects, the late, great Ray Harryhausen was enchanting cinema audiences with a menagerie of stop-motion animated fantastical creatures. His 33-year career spanning 16 films delivered some of the greatest special effects creations in cinema history, including the celebrated and influential skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Seven of his classic films have now been assembled for the Ray Harryhausen Ultimate Collection , together with a wealth of bonus content that provides a fascinating insight into Harryhausen’s genius and the art of stop-motion animation. Words Scott Hocking & Paul Jones

eyed centaur, and a show- stopping swordfight with an animated statue of the six-armed Hindu goddess Kali. Look out, too, for Tom Baker as

the sorcerer Koura – a performance that was instrumental in him landing the role of Doctor Who in 1974. Sinbad sets sail for another lost island to reverse a witch’s spell in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), the most expensive of the three films. The ambitious stop motion FX took Harryhausen 18 months to complete and include a sabre-tooth tiger, a troglodyte, a giant walrus and the mechanical Minoton – the latter played by Peter Mayhew (aka Chewbacca) in the live-action sequences. Released the same year that Star Wars revolutionised visual effects, Eye of the Tiger would be the penultimate film to feature Harryhausen’s marvellous animation – the final being Clash of the Titans (1981). FROM BENEATH THE SEA AND OUTER SPACE Having created The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953, Harryhausen unleashed another monster from the deep two years later in It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) – a giant radioactive octopus that

THE VOYAGES OF SINBAD The 7 th Voyage of Sinbad (1957) sees the titular sailor journey to the island of Colossa to retrieve a roc’s

distinguish his process from traditional ‘cartoon’ animation. Harryhausen constructed the Cyclops model using the skeletal armature of his Ymir monster from 20 Million

egg, which will break a spell cast on his beloved Princess Parisa by a sorcerer. The first stop motion feature shot in colour provided a veritable showcase for Harryhausen’s fantastic creations – a Cyclops, roc, dragon and

Miles to Earth (1957), which he originally conceived as a Cyclops! The best and most iconic of Harryhausen’s Sinbad trilogy is The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), which sends the intrepid adventurer in search of three golden tablets that will reveal the location of the fabled Fountain of Destiny. Harryhausen highlights include a battle between a griffin and one-

animated skeleton – and also introduced the term ‘Dynamation’ (dynamic animation) to

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