Happy Birthday to Stop-Motion Animation Pioneer, Ray Harryhausen
June 29th, 2012
What’s that? You’ve never heard of Ray Harryhausen? Well there’s a decent chance you’re already familiar with his work and don’t even know it. Have you seen Clash of the Titans? No, not the 2010 film. I’m talking about the 1981 film. Or maybe, like me you grew up fascinated by the epic battle scenes with sword fighting skelitons in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. To an animation studio like us Ray Harryhausen is a true pioneer. Before CGI and the motion capture techniques we utilize in our animated film Silver Circle even existed Ray revolutionized model animation using realistic miniatures combined with live action footage.
Born June 29, 1920, this special effects master turns 92 today. So, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge his lifelong contribution to movie magic.
Ray Harryhausen was inspired to enter the field of animation by the 1933 feature film King Kong, animated by Willis O’Brien. But in King Kong stop-motion models could not interact directly with live action footage. Ray studied visual effects under O’Brien, but ultimately the student surpassed the master to which O’Brien famously said, “You realize you’re encouraging my competition, don’t you?”
Using Ray’s innovative techniques model animated characters became part of the live action world for the first time, and for the first time in film history the audience had to question the reality of the special effects they were witnessing. These techniques were debuted in his 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms which was the first use of the split-screen to insert animated dinosaurs into real-world settings. As a result it was one of the most influential sci-fi films in history, and for you FireFly fans, many have speculated the Wash’s imaginative dinosaur play was an homage to this classic.
After monumental success pushing the envelope for movie monsters Ray did the visual effect for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), the first full color film to incorporate his mythological monsters.
The 1960s were his best years, in my opinion, when he filmed Jason and Argonauts (1963), One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). In the 70s he returned to the Sinbad franchise filming The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).
It was not until 1992 that Ray Harryhausen was finally awarded an honorary Oscar, which was long overdue, and he has long since retired from film making. But when people say that we stand on the shoulders of giants, Ray Harryhausen is the giant that animated film stands upon.
And don’t forget to visit our official website to learn more about the Silver Circle Movie:http://SilverCircleMovie.com
