Happy Birthday to Ray Harryhausen, an artist whose work and influence are as awesome and awe-inspiring as any monstrous titan. Harryhausen was a magician as much as a filmmaker, capable of illusions as wondrous as any conjurer’s. Like Prometheus, he breathed life into clay and created beings as alive as the actors they played against. Stop-motion is an expensive and time-consuming process, so to know that one man was responsible for the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, the Cyclops in 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the saucers in Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, and many, many more brilliant creatures is just astounding.
Harryhausen himself was one of us: a fan of monsters who dreamt of fantastical adventure. As a boy, he saw 1933’s King Kong and was astonished by Willis O'Brien’s now-legendary effects. He went on to work with O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young, a tremendously fun movie that never fails to put me in a good mood. From that point, Harryhausen became the O'Brien to generations of future artists, including Tim Burton, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, Phil Tippet, and James Cameron. Knowing Harryhausen’s love for genre fiction and idolization of Willis O'Brien makes his incredible work all the more endearing and that much more genuine. From fan to legend, Harryhausen is an icon to monster lovers and dreamers everywhere. He sent us on fantastical journeys, introduced us to magnificent monsters, and made the world feel truly magical. Ray Harryhausen was cinema’s greatest sorcerer.
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2087
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