Rating: 
Summary: How DID they train that baboon?
Review: This is the book RH fans have been waiting over 20 years for! When you realize that the last RH feature film was released 23 years ago, it's remarkable that one individual has so much staying power among fans and film industry types. More than a generation has grown up never having seen a RH film in theatrical release!A fantastic book cover to cover. The little stories, technical details, and personal remembrances are what makes this book special. Contrary to what many mainstream moviegoers may think, RH films are not campy. RH is genuine in his passion as a storyteller, and it is very poignant to read RH lamenting the passing of stop motion as a cinematic art form--now having been completely eclipsed by CG effects. I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of the photos, many never before published. This is truly the final statement of RH's magnificent career. I'm very pleased that this book has been published. I noticed a few small but embarrassing typos. The typeface is also too small but with a book of this size it's a compromise the publisher had to make. It should not deter you in the least from buying it. After reading it you will want to watch all RH's movies again. The stop motion models--in particular the major characters--are stars themselves, and I would have liked to have seen a section devoted only to the models, i.e. a "where they are now" kind of appendix. RH tells us that some models were cannibalized to make other ones, and time has not been kinds to others. I really would have liked to have seen more shots of the models as they are today.
Rating:
Summary: The King of the Saturday Matinee Tells All!
Review: When one thinks of the great filmmakers of all time, one needs just list the last names: Hitchcock, Spielberg, Scorcese, Ford, and Wilder, just to name a few. To add to that illustrious list must be added special effects whiz Ray Harryhausen. For many, the master of stop-motion animation is in a class by himself, inspiring a host of successors with his skill and ingenuity.
"An Animated Life" chronicles Harryhausen's early days as a protégé of "King Kong's" Willis O'Brien to his own excursions into science fiction and fantasy. The man responsible for taking viewers to the moon ("First Men in the Moon"), on marvelous treks with the legendary sailor Sinbad ("The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", and "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger"), animating a septet of malevolent skeletons ("Jason and the Argonauts") and placing a scantily-clad Raquel Welch in the talons of a pterodactyl reveals many of the fascinating tricks of the trade in this photograph-rich book.
Harryhausen does not skimp on the details of his craft, providing background that is not only insightful but also entertaining. Remaining humble throughout, he pays homage to those that preceded him as well as those who worked hand in hand with him as he created these timeless classics.
"An Animated Life" is a coffee table book that will definitely be an eye-grabber, taking all the fables of yore and true magic of a Hollywood original.
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