I'm a big Ray Harryhausen fan. His painstaking work has given us so many memorable fantasy films and characters, encompassing fairy tales, classical myths, and futuristic visions. From the epic tale of Jason and the Argonauts, to the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor, to alien invaders in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, no filmmaker with a hand in the fantasy and adventure genre can say they don't know who he is. G4TechTV.com has an interview with the legendary stop-motion animation and special effects pioneer at this link.There's also a video interview with some clips from the newly-released Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection DVD. It's nice to have Ray's early work included on one DVD, and a big thank you to the people responsible for putting it together. If you want to send me a review copy, I'd be very pleased to look at it!
Two different DVD collections have just been released with many of Ray's films. The packaging for the box sets are classy, yet adventurous, showcasing Ray's magical creations, like the Cyclops and Ymir, and characters from the films, like Sinbad. If you haven't picked up a few of these movies, the box sets are a good deal.
The Fantasic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Monster Series features Jason and the Argonauts, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver.
The Fantasic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Science Fiction Series features these classics: It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Mysterious Island, and H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon.
A new retrospective book on Ray's stop-mtion animation career was also recently released. Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life features over 300+ pages of history, never before seen concept sketches, movie production drawings, frame-by-frame deconstructions of special effect shots, and a foreword by Ray Bradbury.
Ray looks and sounds great for his age. He still does interviews, speaking engagements, and conventions, and I hope he's able to do so for years to come. If he's able to realize some of those ideas he's got floating around in his head, I have no doubt the final products would be nothing less than outstanding.
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