Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/10/gallery-of-stop-motion-wizard.html
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I saw Harryhausen give a talk once. He brought some of the models from the movies which were really cool to see.
He had the Kali from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad which scared the shit out me when I was a kid. Afterwards I was able to meet him and told him that Kali had given me nightmares as a child. He looked so proud and happy when I told him that. It was really cute.
This was in 96, and the meet and greet portion was shut down after a bit because there was a movie scheduled in the theater we were in. Harryhausen started asking if he could stay to watch the movie, but then added “I hope it’s not Crash (the Cronenberg one), because I’m not sitting through that again!”
EDIT - I forgot, he also talked quite a bit about losing out on doing the special effects for Jurassic Park. He did a test reel for Spielberg and said that Spielberg’s kids liked the CGI reel better so thats what he went with. Spielberg said that his kids thought that the CGI reel looked more real then the Harryhausen reel. Harryhausen called Spielberg an idiot and said that the point of movies wasn’t to see something real, it was to see something fantastic that would trigger your imagination.
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This is genius
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I loved his movies ! Haven’t seen all of them, but if they’re available, I’ll find them.
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That Sinbad poster is fantastic in every sense of the word.
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I think about him saying that every time a see a movie that takes the time to do practical effects. He was right.
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I grew up on a steady diet of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Ray Harryhausen films - it made me what I am today (for better or worse) and I still get chills watching his work. In one of our kids TV series (Ruffus The Dog) we had an episode riffing on Sinbad and had two characters (pig puppets) named Ray & Harry, the Hausen Brothers. And we had a one-eyed big green giant guy too. Only steal from the best, kids.
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Most of them are available on disc and even in collections. Here’s the fantasy one: https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Films-Ray-Harryhausen-Legendary/dp/B00069L0X6
…and there’s a scifi one out there too!
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Thanks ! 
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To quote the great Tom Hanks, “Some people say ‘Casablanca’ or ‘Citizen Kane,’ but I say ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ is the greatest movie ever made.”
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My favorite bit of Harryhausen wisdom on creature effects was what he told the Pixar team when they sought his advice for Monsters, Inc.: “They’re only ‘monsters’ when you make them mad.”
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Supposedly that line from the movie where one of the paleontologists says “I think we’re out of a job” and the other response “I think you mean ‘extinct’” was inspired by something one of the stop-motion animators said after seeing the first CGI test footage.
I met him in 1986 or 1987 when he was a guest of one of the professors of the art department at my university. I don’t even know if he was making a public appearance in the area other than the invitation to come see him at one of the school’s art galleries where the professor introduced us. It seems like only ten or twelve students attended. It was a very small, intimate gathering
I didn’t want to be a jerk and crowd him but we spent a few pleasant (for me) minutes standing around in the gallery talking about art and animation and his work. I had brought along my copy of From the Land Beyond Beyond from 1977 and asked him to sign it. He acted pleasantly surprised that I had it. (“Where on earth did you find this old thing?”)
I made sure to shake his hand before parting because it was the same hand that had built and animated so many of the fantastic characters that I loved growing up. I still really love his work. For me the scene that made the greatest impression as a kid was the skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts, but I’ll still watch anything that he did.
The art professor who was friends with Harryhausen and brought him to our school was James C. Christensen, if any of you are familiar with his work.
https://www.google.com/search?q=James+C.+Christensen+painting&tbm=isch
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Harryhausen was one of the best ever.
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