Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life

Rating:
Summary: The Wizard Shows His Tricks
Review: Computer generated effects are standard in movies now, and any big-budget action film can be expected to have plenty. We didn't always have computers, so the effects such as putting fantasy creatures on the screen, like King Kong, had to be done with meticulous stop-motion filming, whereby a movie frame picture would be made of a model Kong, then the model's arm would be slightly raised, one more frame of the movie shot, and the process repeated until a smooth arm movement could be seen when the entire strip of film ran. It was Willis O'Brien who animated Kong and many other creatures in early movies. It was Kong who inspired Ray Harryhausen to start making stop-motion films. In _Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life_ (Billboard Books), Harryhausen and Timothy Dalton tell the story of Harryhausen's entire career, including his humble beginnings. He was crazy about dinosaurs as a kid, and at the age of thirteen, he was taken by his mother and aunt to see _King Kong_. He studied up on the movie's techniques afterwards, and started making his own movies, first using a home camera that he could merely hope took only one frame at a time when he tapped it, and then purchasing his own 16 mm camera with a one-frame shift. He was one of those lucky kids who knew early what he wanted to do in life, and was able to do it; Harryhausen was the special effects wizard behind _Earth vs. The Flying Saucers_, _Jason and the Argonauts_, and _Clash of the Titans_, among many more. This beautiful book, filled with photographs and drawings to show how the models and effects were made for each of Harryhausen's films (and pictures of the artist's work as a thirteen-year-old as well), is a fascinating record of a career that could only have taken place in a restricted window of time.

To start with a clearing of the record: Harryhausen's first model, a cave bear, was covered with fur cut from an old black fur coat hanging in his mother's closet, but despite reports to the contrary, his mother _did_ know all about it and _did_ give her permission beforehand. This reflects the support his parents gave him toward his youthful enthusiasm, and he is certainly grateful. Most of the book describes his work for the studios; it devotes pages and pictures to all his films, and he gives detailed descriptions of just how he managed particular shots. Harryhausen isn't boasting; throughout the book he lets us know what he thought worked and what didn't, what he is proud of and what he winces at. If stop-motion is no longer going to be an art form, it is good that we have this documentation of what he actually accomplished, for the complexity of his creations and the way they were shot is astonishing. For instance, the Hydra in _Jason_ not only had a serpentine body and a double tail requiring their own movements, but also seven heads. In every frame, the model's movements might be only a millimeter, but there were sometimes more than thirty movements to do. He would have to remember for each head whether it was in the process of going up, down, right, or left, if the mouth was opening or closing, if the neck was flexing, and so on. Astonishingly, he was so in tune with his creation that he did not keep notes on what each head was doing, except if he were taking a break at the end of a work period.

Harryhausen has real affection for his creations. He has used real animals in some films, like an iguana made to look like a giant lizard in _One Million Years BC_. The trainer in charge of the iguanas was ready to use an electric prod to rouse the usually torpid lizards, but Harryhausen would not allow any cruelty, so action could only be obtained by a little prodding. Nonetheless, it was a lot harder to get the iguanas to move in just the way he needed compared to his obedient stop-motion models; he says that using models would have been more cost-effective and more realistic, too. He refuses to call his creations monsters; they are mostly creatures who are simply out of place. Of the tyrannosaurus in _The Valley of Gwangi_, he writes that he felt sorry for him, "... because all he wanted to do was live his life and eat a few people along the way." When he had to dismantle one creature to use its armature for another in a succeeding feature, he confesses, "It always breaks my heart to have to cannibalize my models. It's like losing a close friend." Gentle, self-deprecating humor is a hallmark of all the chapters here, no matter how technical the descriptions become at times. This is a handsome, large format book suitable for the coffee table; however, along with the beautiful illustrations, the written record of work here to show how creature features were made before the computers took over will be enjoyed by any fantasy film fan.


Rating:
Summary: Nirvana for Harryhausen Fans
Review: Fans, here is the book we've all been waiting 25 years for. The Crown Prince of stop motion animation has revealed all of his secrets in this 300 plus glossy paged volume with hundreds of color and black and white photos and drawings, many of which have never been seen before.
If you've ever been amazed at how Harryhausen manages to make the sword of his heroes penetrate a stop motion creauture, the secret is here. Harryhausen also reveals some of his favorite scenes, and comments on actors, directors, the Oscars and gives his opinion about some of the current dinosaur blockbusters.
This is head and shoulders above his past release "Film Fantasy Scrapbook". I especially like the movie posters for all of his films in FULL COLOR, but "Animal World" is missing.
Die hard fans will automatically spend the $50 to buy this book, and it is well worth the price. Casual fans might find the price steep, but at Amazon's price, it's a steal!

Rating:
Summary: Inspiration for creative juices
Review: I just recently purchased Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life.
Mr. Harryhausen was influenced by King Kong for his remarkable career. I was influenced by his first movie released in theaters
entitled BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. Ever since I gazed at the
incredible effects when I was six, I wanted to know why and how
something could seem so life like. Unfortunately, all I did was manage amateur special effects with an 8mm camera, but enjoyed thrilling friends and relatives with what talent I had. Now I can appreciate all the patience and imagination that this
genius has somehow transmitted to the screen. All of his movies are showcased with the wonderful behind the scenes stories and photos that made such magic in my childhood. Anyone who has ambition to follow the FX trade, should definitely read this book. Granted the technology is greatly improved today, but that even made Mr. Harryhausen seem more adept at his work. How tedious it is to move a model just a fraction of an inch until it appears fluid on the film...how educational it is to realize what props were used and what artistry was projected to make everything REAL. This coffee table book will be a treasure
in my collection of literature.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!
Review: I recently received my copy from Amazon and it is a wonderful book. The stories and struggles behind the scenes are fascinating and the large number of photos, artwork and behind the scenes stills are amazing. I do agree with the previous reviewer regarding the size of some of the photos, but it is a very minor gripe. I have loved Ray's films ever since I was a kid and now my young son is a Harryhausen fan too. Simply put, it IS the book we have all been waiting for!!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Record of an Amazing Career
Review: It's all here - behind-the-scenes info on every one of Ray Harryhausen's films, including his early experimental short subjects and unfilmed projects like FOOD OF THE GODS and THE ELEMENTALS. Lots of preproduction sketches and storyboard art, photos of models and miniatures, a reasonable amount of technical detail, and a much more revealing, personal tone than we have heard from Ray before. (But, ever the gentleman, he simply omits mention of any people he disagreed with - like the clueless director of VALLEY OF GWANGI who, rumor has it, tried to get Ray fired from the film! Neither the director's name nor the rumor appears in the text.) There is a respectable number of color photos and a huge assortment of black and white pix, all very well reproduced. Particularly interesting is a section at the end summarizing all the various projects that never made it past the development stage - and there were a lot! Also fascinating is the discussion of how the storylines of the movies changed dramatically through various drafts of the scripts. Giant rats in 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD? A Valley of Vipers in a later Sinbad movie? (Producer Charles Schneer nixed both concepts, the latter because of "some extraordinary idea that it would frighten pregnant women," according to Ray.) My only gripe, and it is minor, is that some of the photos are very, very small. There's a shot of the clay sculture of a Sphinx modeled for the unmade FORCE OF THE TROJANS that is about the size of a postage stamp! Larger would be better, but I can't quibble much with a book that covers so much territory and gives us a glimpse of an era and style of filmmaking that will never be repeated. For those who cherish the hand-crafted excellence of Harryhausen's work, this is a must-buy, and a huge improvement over his much less comprehensive FILM FANTASY SCRAPBOOK.

Rating:
Summary: A DECIDEDLY OLYMPIAN TOME
Review: It's not surprising that this splendid book is visually sumptuous, filled as it is with splendidly-reproduced illustrations; from the beginning, Harryhausen seems to have appreciated the value of, and carefully stored, every sketch, model, still photo, poster and significant piece of paperwork from his remarkable sixty-year career.

No, what's notable about AN ANIMATED LIFE is the literary quality of the densely-packed text, which most such books treat as an afterthought, like extended captions for the photos. Harryhausen, and co-author Tony Dalton, have managed the nearly impossible: a chronicle of Harryhausen's life in words that manage to speak in the voice of the softspoken, humble, unfailingly kind man whom I've had the privilege of meeting on numerous occasions, and that give a clear sense of the ambitions, dreams, sensibilities and occasional failures that form the mileposts in any life.

That said, I do have to add, a bit wistfully, if not sadly, a caveat as to this wonderful volume's single failing: THERE IS NO INDEX -- a matter of greater significance than one might believe at first glance. AN ANIMATED LIFE is, and deserves to be, THE definitive reference work on the subject of stop-motion animation, and one of the core works in the wider field of special effects -- a history of disappearing hand-craftsmanship in this entirely too-digital age. That value as a reference book is severely hampered, however, by lack of an index, because it makes finding individual subjects within the text, and charting their evolutions and inevitable interrelationships, all but impossible, even when one has read the book cover-to-cover.

I strongly recommend that buyers of the book contact the publishers (there are two, British and U.S., whose names can be found on the inside of the flyleaf; their e-mail addresses can be located through Google) and request that they compile an index, which can then easily be made available on the publishers' websites, or in the form of e-mail attachments to all who request a copy.

Still, let this caveat not dissuade you from purchasing what will be one of the more cherished volumes in your personal library -- or on your coffee table.

Rating:
Summary: THE GREAT, THE ONE AND ONLY: RAY HARRYHAUSEN
Review: One might assume that having all the unprecedented technical information about R H's stop-motion model animation process that this book affords could take away much of the mystery and magic from his work, but I can assure you that, for me at least, it only increased it. Any number of intelligent (and very patient) people could be taught this animation process in detail and still not be able to create work on the same level as R H's because they would not be able to bring to their work the same depth of artistic vision. That is one of the many values of this books that it makes clear that R H's greatness is not a matter of mere technique. All art of genius has the ability to open up dimensions that technique alone can not totally account for because the vision-seed is in the artist before the technique is ever developed. The technique gives the vision a means of becoming visible to other people, but the vision itself is already there. This what I mean by saying that having my understanding of R H's technique increased by this book does not take away any wonder from his work. Again, the increased understanding makes it clear that the technical process can not explain this wonder and therefore can not diminish it. In fact, I think we can safely assume that R H's technique was brought into existence by the force of his artistic vision and not the other way around. When R H sets about animating one of his fabulous models, his vision mysteriously seeps into the process in a way that the process itself does not reveal. The technique reveals the vision, but does not, and can not, reveal the source of the vision or how it enters into the technical process. This is the mystery of ART. And this reveals why no current CGI animation, with its blind and lopsided emphasis on, and faith in, mere sophistication of technique can produce art on the level of R H's. His process may seem crude and even primitive to the sophisticated philistines, but his vision puts mystery and magic into the work of his hands that no computer can touch nor ever will unless some other true artist can bring to CGI a genuine vision comparable to what R H brought to stop-motion model animation. The photo-realism of the dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK may be powerfully entertaining in an unsettling sort of way that appeals to jaded viewers, but that does not make it art, nor does it even make them realistic in a deeper sense. And if one were, incidently, to actually encounter a dinosaur in an uncontrolled setting, I think it would be a far more 'unreal' experience, and far less photo-like, than seems to be assumed by the current popular narrow mind-set that is only an extension of the ridiculous faith in the salvific nature of technology itself. There is an artistic and a philosophical principle involved here: technique follows vision and no amount of sophistication of technique can create genuine art when genuine vision is lacking.
This wonderful book does have some inevitable short-comings from the perspective R H fans such as some too small photos and not enough photos of armatures, etc., due to the fact that it is a product limited by business considerations: the first priority was to make the publishers a profit, the second to please R H fans. But I am still delighted with it and recommend it very highly. I believe it will greatly please any real R H fan as long as you take it for what it is, a technical exploration with an interesting glimpse of R H's life and personality, and don't expect it to 'explain' R H's work as art. In that light, I think something that would be very pleasing would be a companion volume of comparable quality that was critical study of R H's work as art.
We are still really only beginning to understand what R H actually accomplished and this book constitutes a genuine foundation to build on. I am very happy to have it. Let me note too that the Amazon price is good and that the first copy I received had a cracked binding and Amazon replaced it no charge in a very prompt and courteous manner.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting foray into the mind of a SFX genius
Review: Ray Harryhausen inspired a generation of special effects artists with movies, which, while pretty hokey today, fascinated most of his audience and made the rest set up miniature studios in their garages. Many of the latter went on to impress audiences with special effects surpassing those of Harryhausen, but forever praised him and acknowledged their debt to him, hence passing along his name to new generations, including my own. I learned his name through Peter Jackson mentioning him in an interview about "Bad Taste". They showed a short clip from "Jason and the Argonauts" (guess which scene), and I was impressed. Later, I read copious amount of material about him, and when I had the money, bought this rather expensive, but hugely informative book.

Ray wisely keeps his private life out of "An Animated Life". 99% of the book is business or SFX-related, which I found pleasing, as I tend to loathe the kind of self-indulgence practiced in other auto-biographies, particularly those of rock-stars. The book's 300 pages are jam-packed with pictures, illustrations and text, explaining in a mostly non-technical language, how Harryhausen's breakthrough effects work was done (it also has a nice picture of Jane Seymour in a bikini). You find yourself going "aha" and "wow, that was pretty logical", which is a good indicator that the editor has done his job well. Your respect and admiration for Ray grows with each page, as you begin to realize the amount of work it took to put to screen stuff that looks pretty ordinary, or even bad, today.

Personal commentaries are frequent throughout, and this is the only place where the book failed to impress me. Harryhausen comes across as a pretty naive gentleman with a narrow-minded view of movies. Some times, his opinions and attempts at dry humour are amusing, at other times they just sound like a bitter old man. You can't really dislike him, he's too much of a nice and non-confrontative guy for that, but his comments about CGI and modern on-screen violence kinda irked me. This is the only fault I could find with the book, otherwise it's a brilliant and thoroughly researched book about a great on-screen magician.

Rating:
Summary: Art book biography of the greatest effects man of all time
Review: Ray Harryhausen towers like a titan over the world of film special effects. This genial genius was the single-handed creator of brilliant, imaginative stop-motion and optical effects on a long series of fantasy movies. The films molded the dreams of many generations of children, writers, special effects technicians, and moviemakers. Harryhausen's best films, like "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Jason and the Argonauts," "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad," and "Clash of the Titans" still thrill viewers today. You can feel Harryhausen's personal magic coming through in his creature effects.

This long-awaited book is a great combination of three concepts in one: a beautiful art volume, an artistic biography, and a behind-the-scenes tour of movie effects. Harryhausen himself, along with film archivist and researcher Tony Dalton, guides you through the length of his career, examining everything from his major motion pictures to his short Mother Goose films and work for the military. Each chapter goes into extensive detail on the origins, realization, and aftermath of each of his films. At over 300 massive pages, there is a flood of material here. Learn the tortures of achieving the brilliant skeleton fight from "Jason and the Argonauts!" Find out how cowboys managed to rope a dinosaur in "The Valley of Gwangi!"

Ray Harryhausen comes across as incredibly personable in these pages; it's almost as if he were sitting beside you telling you stories of his achievements, and sometimes taking swipes at himself. (For example, he admits some disappointment with some of the directors, films, and some of his own unfortunate decisions.)

The balance between the pictures and the text is perfect, unlike many other film-art books I've seen. The treasure-trove of sketches, photos, and promotional artwork is astounding. Harryhausen's own drawings which he used to design his films are works of art in themselves. The pictures of the model creatures let you look closely at their details. Many of the photos show the painstaking process of stop-motion animation and the clever tricks required to bring these creatures to life. Even the most die-hard Harryhausen fan will discover many new facts in this book (I certainly did). There are also many rare behind-the-scenes pictures.

As a final bonus, the book ends with an "A to Z" of the many projects that Harryhausen never completed or which never got off the drawing boards or out of development. It's a fascinating trip through the land of "what-if." Ray Bradbury, a lifetime friend of the animator, provides the heartfelt introduction.

The price is hefty (although Amazon's discount makes that easier to bear), but this is a quality volume of artwork and film history that you will never get tired of flipping through. It's the perfect gift for any fantasy-film lover. The joy of fantasy cinema flows through it and reminds you not only of what an incredible talent Ray Harryhausen was, but also of the limitless possibilities for film to lift us beyond the realm of the ordinary and into the realms of the extraordinary. Cinema and the world in general would be a much duller place if not for Ray Harryhausen.

Rating:
Summary: A comprehensive and in-depth tour-de-force
Review: Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life is the amazing and impressively presented story of Ray Harryhausen's invaluable contributions to cinematography -- especially in the realm of special effects. Inspired by "King Kong" at the age of thirteen, Harryhausen became a master of directing stop-motion animation, ranging from mammoths and giant crabs, to flying harpies, warrior skeletons, and so much more. His work with great actors on movies that would become either classics of film making and/or enduring cult favorites, forms the centerpiece of this comprehensive and in-depth tour-de-force which is filled from cover to cover with color photography, original sketches and diagrams, an in-depth commentary on Harryhausen's lasting work on a wide variety of movies, and so much more. Especially recommended for anyone with a keen interest in the art of stop-motion animation in film, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life is a core addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Cinematic Studies reference collection.