Karen: Last weekend I hopped on a plane and flew out to my true home, the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. Besides seeing An American Werewolf in London on the big screen (as I mentioned on Thursday), I also caught the U.S. premiere of a documentary, "Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan" at the Bal Theater in San Leandro. This is a wonderful documentary -I've seen others on Harryhausen, but this one really has it all: test footage, rare behind the scenes stuff, and plenty of footage with Ray himself. On top of this, the producers sought out many top film-makers, including Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, John Landis, Peter Jackson, etc., to interview about how Harryhausen has influenced them. It's great stuff.Making this showing even more special was the fact that one of the producers, Tony Dalton, agreed to be Skyped in before the show so the audience could ask questions -despite it being 3:30 AM his time!Dalton was a delight, and explained that one of the intentions of the documentary was to help raise money for the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, which is seeking a home for Ray's models and artwork.
On top of all this, special effects gurus Phil Tippett and Dennis Muren were also in attendance, and after the film they got up and spoke about their careers, and Ray.
The finale was a showing of "Golden Voyage of Sinbad," which was coincidentally the first Harryhausen movie I saw in a theater. It was great to see it on a big screen again, after almost 40 years! The Bal Theater and Bay Area Film Events did a fantastic job.
The producers have said that a DVD of the documentary will be out "soon," so if you're a Harryhausen fan, keep your eyes peeled!
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Many years ago, my dad got my kids one of those "50 Classic Cartoons" videotapes-- the ones that are compiled solely of cartoons that have fallen into Public Domain? A lot of Little Lulu, Old Popeye, Three Stooges (animated), many things from long-defunct studios--- and there are several that are called "Puppetoons" by. . . Ray Harryhausen! They look to be from maybe the late 30's or so (although I'd have to check), and while they're not wildly entertaining as cartoon shorts, it's mesmerizing to see him unfolding his wings early on with his developing stop-motion animation techniques.
Oh say, Karen, they very likely would have touched on that in the documentary, yes? Any further tidbits there?
HB
BTW--JASON & THE ARGONAUTS would be my personal favorite Ray H. film. That enormous statue of Talos slowly coming to life instilled in me a lifelong thrilling dread of colossal statues. . .
HB
I'd really like to see this; in fact, I'd really like to see 'Golden Voyage' again - it's been ages...
Whenever I stumble across a Harryhausen film on TV, I have to watch it, it doesn't matter how many times I've seen it.
Sadly the only Harryhausens I ever saw in a cinema were the final two Sinbad movies, both of which I loved.
Sounds like a great documentary and a great experience, thanks for sharing the story.
My city built a Festival Around Harryhausen's work a few years back, he was in town during the first day. I got to see 'Jason and the Argonauts' on a big screen in this beautiful old movie palace:
http://www.hipharp.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Byrd-1024x682.jpg
Harryhausen talked for a few minutes before the film, when it was over, he received a standing ovation. It was one of the greatest movie going experiences of my life. Harryhausen was obviously touched by the applause. I'm happy for him that he's lived long enough to be appreciated, unlike some other behind-the-scenes artists of old.
HB: the documentary does discuss puppet toons. In fact Ray's father made the armatures for those figures, and many others. However, it seems Ray is embarrassed by them now.
Harryhausen just comes across as very genuine, and a true gentleman. I'm glad he's getting the recognition he deserves.
My favorite Harryhausen film is Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. Not only is it a fun 50s sci-fi flick, but the UFO effects are truly fantastic - and a little different from Harryhausen's usual work, which involved animating monsters.
The climax, in which the UFOs make an all-out attack on Washington DC, is really spectacular -- especially if, like me, you live in DC and pass by those landmarks every day!
Inkstained -I love Earth vs. the Flying Saucers! Very atypical in Harryhausen's repertoire, as it features mechanical things rather than actual creatures. The saucers are very cool. Usually I am against colorization, but the recently released (4 years ago?) colorized versions of this film and 20 Million Miles to Earth are both top notch.
Karen,
I was at the premiere of the Harryhausen doc in San Leandro as well. I work in San Francisco, so there was no way I was going to miss that. You summed up the evening very nicely.
Horace, thanks for coming back to this topic and giving others a chance to hear about this wonderful documentary, which unfortunately is still not out on a Region 1 DVD! It's available on Region 2 but for whatever reason those of us in the States are still out in the cold. But I would highly recommend it to anyone who can get their hands on it.
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