Review of Ray Harryhausen The Early Years Collection

Introduction

Ray Harryhausen is one of the few behind-the-scenes superstars whose name is readily recognised by more than dyed-in-the-wool aficionadoes. In over half-a-century of breathtaking work, he has cemented his place as one of the grand elder statesmen of visual effects photography. Harryhausen`s imaginative special effects have inspired a whole generation of modern filmmakers from George Lucas, through Peter Jackson to Sam Raimi. Wherever you see a swordfighting skeleton, whether it be in an Evil Dead picture or an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you see the inspiration of Ray Harryhausen because he did it first - in Jason and the Argonauts.

While his effects often appear quaint in this modern era of CGI, the movies he made have fired the imaginations of generations in a way that modern effects houses can only dream of. Most animation aficionadoes are well-acquainted with Ray`s feature work - Jason and the Argonauts, the Sinbad series, Twenty Million Miles To Earth, One Million Years BC among others. This two disc set is a collection of short test pieces, early animations, featurettes and interviews.

Many of the early animations, typically fairy stories, are stylistically very reminiscent of George Pal`s Puppetoon works, but the experimental films are unmistakably Harryhausen.

As there is no "main feature" in this set, but masses of short material, I`ve classed everything as "extras" for the purpose of this review rather than making this section cover everything and then make some lame see-above comment in the extras section.

Video

The source material for this disc ranges between videotape, 16mm film and 35mm film, so quality is often variable. The Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive were instrumental in restoring Harryhausen`s 16mm film experiments. Much of the material had been shot on highly stable 16mm Kodachrome Reversal, and the traditional photochemical rather than digital route of restoration was followed to make the films look as good as possible.

All the materials are presented in 1.33:1, and although there is some wear and tear commensurate with the films being made on 16mm reversal film, colours are striking and the picture excellent.

Audio

The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, reproducing the original optical mono soundtracks of the shorts. In transferring the films to digital, the Academy Film Archive did a certain amount of audio cleanup work, but not so much as to make artifically perfect soundtracks.

Features

The material on these two discs covers sixty years of Harryhausen`s life, from his early test animations made in the 1930s to recent tributes and events he has attended.

On disc one, Stories and Tales are nine short films, each introduced by Ray Harryhausen himself. These are divided into two categories - the Mother Goose Stories which were educational shorts independently made for showing in junior schools, and the Fairy Tales which were more ambitious projects. The last of these tales, The Tortoise And The Hare, had been started in the early 1950s but never completed. Harryhausen, with the assistance of animators Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh, completed the film in 2002 and it is presented here with an audio commentary and a making-of featurette.

The six Early Films are technical pieces and commercials shot by Ray during the 1940s and into the 1950s. Each of these, like the Stories And Tales has an introduction by Harryhausen. Tests and Experiments are ten brief clips, also with introductions by the man himself which show his ingenuity and ability given the limited resources he would have been able to work with.

Disc two consists of the supplemental material including nine featurettes: The Hollywood Walk of Fame (where Harryhausen unveils his star); Harryhausen`s Livingstone Statue (he`s a talented sculptor and this featurette features his work on a statue of David Livingstone the explorer - Dr I Presume in other words - whose great-granddaughter he happens to be married to); The Clifton`s Cafeteria Reunion (where Ray reminisces with old friends and fellow sci-fi giants Ray Bradbury and J Forrest Ackerman); In the Credits - an interview of Ray about his work with Arnold Kunert.

An Evening with Ray Harryhausen - a ten minute highlight of an interview with Leonard Maltin at the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences; Harryhausen`s Bronzes - Ray made a series of bronze reproductions for posterity of his most famous monsters; The Ted Newsom Interview - Shot for the DVD, Ray is interviewed about his early educational shorts; The Academy Archive Restoration - Mark Toscano of the Academy Film Archive goes over his work in bringing the films to DVD and Filmmuseum Berlin - Dr Rolf Geisen, the curator of the museum shows off its permanent exhibition of Ray`s models.

There is a set of 80th birthday tributes culled from a reel of video "birthday cards" made by fellow stop-motion and CGI animators, including the Flat Earth gang who used to do the Xena: Warrior Princess CGI effects and the Celebrity Deathmatch team who contribute the hysterical Ray Harryhausen: Time Traveller.

A section simply called "An Appreciation" is a short but fulsome tribute to Ray`s lifetime of work from virtually every big name in Hollywood fantasy film-making, including Peter Jackson, James Cameron and John Landis.

Also in the section is a speech given shortly before his death by David Allen, one of the second generation of animators inspired by Ray.

The disc is rounded off by a photo and artwork gallery.

There are multilingual but not hard of hearing subtitles.

Conclusion

To fantasy film enthusiasts, Ray Harryhausen is a legend, possibly better known that the hero who inspired him to become a filmmaker, the great Willis O`Brien who animated King Kong. Harryhausen met and worked with his idol on that other classic giant ape picture Mighty Joe Young. Subsequently, Harryhausen has inspired a good couple of generations of movie makers with his wonderful, epic fantasies - Jason and the Argonauts, Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, Clash Of The Titans among many others. Movie makers including George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Nick Park and Steven Spielberg. This two-disc set gives an insight into the man and shows us the talent he possessed as a young filmmaker prior to landing his first assignment. For fans and animation scholars, this set is a must-buy. For the casual observer, this is an eye-opening look into the world that currently gives us Wallace and Gromit. Fascinating.