Ray Harryhausen - "We Don't Call Them Monsters"

An interview with SF stop action animation FX master Ray Harryhausen at the Mt. Baker Theater in Bellingham, WA, April 2006.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Harryhausen
• interview
• stop_action
• animation

[coolskater187]

i was 5 when i caught the last ending of the 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD. I was hooked on his creatures ever since. He is a big influence for me. Love you Mr. Harryhausen.

[addvogado]

this guy had made my childhood very happy!

he´s great! all his creations : Medusa, Kalibos, saber toothed tiger, troglodyte, centaurus, griffin. among others.... was just perfect!

[eimb1999]

He's SO right about the modern movie creatures being so extreme. A perfect example is the wretched Peter Jackson King Kong film re-make. A completely over-the-top nonsensical trashing of a classic film. When the laws of physics come into play, the original was a lot more believable.

[SolidMike84]

@coolskater187

I was a little older than you were when I first saw the movie in it's whole, but I was just as hooked ^^

CGI effects today...Don't do it for me, I can sit and just enjoy the hell outta oldies, especially with mr Harryhausen ^^

[Fragile0Still]

@ArcaneAzmadi I have to agree with a very passionate 110 percent. Harryhausen, along with Ishiro Honda, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, and Guillermo Del Toro (maybe also Mamoru Oshii and Takashi Miike) are the reasons I write and create art and stories today. I inherited the sense of wonder and passion from these men that cannot and will not be destroyed.

[DinoDude16]

i wish i could meet him, thats one of my wishes.

[mxylpx]

Mr. Harryhausen has a sense of literacy and theatre which is sorely missing in the "hi-techers" of today.

[SamusDrake]

@60sThru80s Check out any work by Tippet studio.

Although I worship Ray on a daily basis, the work they have done over the years has been jaw dropping.

The wolves in New Moon are a very good example, along with the creatures of Spiderwick Chronicles.

[KingofMarks91]

I still think his stop motion monsters look just as good if not better than CGI. Having something in there is just so cool. You can do more with CGI, but a lot of the time, they can tend to look like cartoons. It's all in how it's done. Good SM is better than bad CGI, and good CGI is better than bad SM.

[ArcaneAzmadi]

I salute Ray Harryhausen, one of the greatest cinematic geniuses in history. If I listed my most admired cinematic geniuses, he'd be in my top 5 alongside names like Akira Kurosawa, James Cameron and Hayao Miyazaki- the VISIONARIES.

[finbomartini]

There isn't a lack of talent or originality, but computer animation looks more realistic, it doesn't have the same charm, but cg looks more realistic, and that's what directors want, monsters that fully immerse the viewer. Plenty of young animators make stop motion in their spare time and if they had Harryhausens experience in it, they'd reach his height.

[jdenoyon]

I laugh at godzilla... but oddly enough I still get godzilla nightmares. It can be very terrifying.

I don't laugh at Harryhausen work though. I'm to busy admiring it.