Ray Harryhausen has passed away

Sad news indeed. When I was little, the skeleton fight scene in Jason and the Argonauts was one of my favourite film sequences.

Heck, it still is.

RIP.

It's just been on the news here.

Like others have said, "The Skeleton Scene" from Jason and the Argonauts is a part of my childhood.

Now I know why the fancy sushi restaurant in Monster's Inc. is called "Harryhausen's".

Ray Harryhausen Died

The greatest practitioner of stop motion animation. So many wonderful films made great by his preternatural skills.

RIP

All the good ones are going. It's that era.

jessica. said:

All the good ones are going. It's that era.

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unfortunately, it is.

That's why I'm hoping we can hold onto Lou Scheimer, Allen Oppenheimer, Susan Blu, Frank Welker, Peter Cullen, and many others as long as we can.

We already lost Linda Gary nearly 20 years ago..

BL.

I remember being mezmerized by the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.

The patients and artistry of stop motion is not appreciated by the current generation of movigoers used to CGI eye candy.

eawmp1 said:

I remember being mezmerized by the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.

The patients and artistry of stop motion is not appreciated by the current generation of movigoers used to CGI eye candy.

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Gumby was charming too.

I'm sure younger people look at that stuff and think, "How cheesy." But that was state-of-the-art for those of us in the boomer generation. Sense of wonder and all that.

Thomas Veil said:

I'm sure younger people look at that stuff and think, "How cheesy." But that was state-of-the-art for those of us in the boomer generation. Sense of wonder and all that.

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I fear the CGI generation will never understand.

No sense of history!

One of the few instances where the word "genius" is appropriate.

Shrink said:

I fear the CGI generation will never understand.

No sense of history!

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Not to get too far OT, but stop-motion and model-making are two very under-appreciated arts.

The last two Saturdays, MeTV ran the first two episodes of Lost in Space. There is some mind-blowing model work of the Jupiter 2 soaring through space in these episodes -- much better than what came in later seasons. If they follow suit, this weekend MeTV will show the episode in which the Jupiter 2 crashes onto Preplanus. Some of it -- the rear-projected view of the planet through the ship's viewport -- doesn't hold up well. But the shots of the ship itself plunging towards a crash landing filled me with awe as a kid...and they still do.

Those were marvelous special effects, by L.B. Abbott and Howard Lydecker. And if you think about it, they were standing on the shoulders of people like Mr. Harryhausen ("Earth vs. the Flying Saucers").

Thomas Veil said:

Not to get too far OT, but stop-motion and model-making are two very under-appreciated arts.

The last two Saturdays, MeTV ran the first two episodes of Lost in Space. There is some mind-blowing model work of the Jupiter 2 soaring through space in these episodes -- much better than what came in later seasons. If they follow suit, this weekend MeTV will show the episode in which the Jupiter 2 crashes onto Preplanus. Some of it -- the rear-projected view of the planet through the ship's viewport -- doesn't hold up well. But the shots of the ship itself plunging towards a crash landing filled me with awe as a kid...and they still do.

Those were marvelous special effects, by L.B. Abbott and Howard Lydecker. And if you think about it, they were standing on the shoulders of people like Mr. Harryhausen ("Earth vs. the Flying Saucers").

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And Harryhausen stood on the shoulders of Willis O'Brien, who did the stop motion animation for "King Kong". Harryhausen was blown away when he saw the film and wanted to follow in O'Brien's footsteps. He did, ultimately, apprentice with O'Brien.