This probably the best thing ever: all of Ray Harryhausen’s creatures in chronological order.

First, watch it. Even if you have seen it before, it’s good every time.

The great thing about Ray Harryhausen is that he is an artist with a style that no one could ever match. Not just in the designs of the creatures, but in the way they are animated. We remember talking to Shannon Wheeler once when he was working at Will Vinton’s claymation studio, and he mentioned that doing stop motion animation is surprisingly PHYSICAL work. No one but Harryhausen could have made these monsters and flying saucers and everything else MOVE like this. He was an Astaire, a Kelly, a Jackie Chan, a Bruce Campbell, a visual poet. There will never be anyone like him.

It also makes us feel sad that 95% of all today’s ubiquitous CGI animation, while worked on by very talented craftspeople, has none of this character, none of this flair. It’s bland, generic.

That said, it is funny just how many ways you can make tiny humans poke a monster with a sharp stick.

This entry was posted on 12/27/06 at 8:00 am and is filed under Movies, Cartoons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.