DVD Verdict Interviews Ray Harryhausen

Judge Patrick Naugle

October 20th, 2003

In today's slam-bang-boom era of special effects, little is left to the imagination. With special effects extravaganzas like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Hulk cluttering up the multiplexes, it's hard to remember a time when movies weren't budgeted at $100 million. Back in the heyday of science fiction films was Ray Harryhausen, a pioneer in special effects whose work has been both spoofed and celebrated in such films as Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, the films of Sam Raimi, and almost every monster movie made today. In talking with Ray, whose new book "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life" will be released stateside soon, he talks about King Kong, bad distribution, and an epic battle of Medusa vs. The Beast from 20,000 fathoms...

Patrick Naugle: How did you get started working in special effects?

Ray Harryhausen: I was influenced by King Kong, which I saw at the age of 13, the original from 1933. I didn't know how it was done at the time but I gradually discovered out how it was done and got interested in stop motion animation. And of course special effects covers a multitude of imagery. You have to use special effects to put the fantasy on the screen.

PN: Did you ever want to direct or act?

RH: Yes, at one time I wanted to be an actor. I took courses at a city college years ago in acting, which I am grateful for because I can act through my puppets and stay behind the camera instead of in front of it.

PN: What was unique about your approach the process that made your creatures seem so real?

RH: I tried to put character in them. That's very important: give them character and sympathy. I learned that from watching King Kong. Here you have a 19-inch puppet made of metal and rubber and you felt so sorry for him when he fell off the Empire State building. I think sympathy is very important to make the character realistic. And there's a big distinction between a puppet film and the types of films Willis O'Brian and myself made. O'Brian started by using King Kong as a character in the picture, and he wasn't supposed to be a puppet though he was operated in that manner. Then you have something like Chicken Run where the puppets are very stylized. There's a big distinction, though we use the same process of stop motion. I'm revealing all this in my new book, it's called "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life" and I hope it will be out next year in America. It's coming out this year in Britain.

PN: Which of your works do you believe best stands the test of time?

RH: Well I think all of them. (laughs) It's hard to say -- I think Jason And The Argonauts is the most complete. All of our pictures have been revived and I get many fan letters today from young audiences that seem to appreciate the pictures more than when they were first released. The pictures have stood up and I'm very grateful for DVDs, laserdiscs, and videos to revive these old things because so much of today's entertainment is the reinvention of the wheel, so to speak.

PN: Which film are you most proud of?

RH: I think Jason And The Argonauts is the most complete. There are bits and pieces of all of them. I love Greek mythology, so Clash Of Titans I think is one of our better films. The Valley Of Gwangi, it was just dumped on the market when it first came out because the studio changed heads while we were making the picture and the new owners didn't appreciate what the old owners were going to distribute. So it was just dumped on the market. But most people love Gwangi today. They still find The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms a very entertaining film.

PN: What do you think of computer effects today?

RH: Some of them are fantastic. The BBC made something called Walking With Dinosaurs and you expected David Attenbourgh to pop out of the bushes and talk about their sex lives (laughs).

PN: What films in the last 10 years have you found to be very convincing in their special effects?

RH: Well, Walking With Dinosaurs. Jurassic Park has some wonderful things in it. Raiders of the Lost Ark. We don't go to many films because they're too violent. Today they're trying to blind you with an explosion every five minutes and there's no story, so to speak of. These earlier films have at least a story to them you can at least follow. Some of the lines are just happenings you can't connect together as a storyline.

PN: Finally, who would win in a fight: the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms or Medusa from Clash Of The Titans?

RH: Well, Medusa could turn the best to stone as she did the Kraken. (laughs) I think Medusa could win by just staring at her.

Warner Bros. recently released two of Ray Harryhausen's movies mentioned in this interview: The Valley of Gwangi and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.