I was wondering what people thought was Ray Harryhausen's greatest creature? If you had to pick one, would it be his Cyclops? Skeleton? The Ymir? As great as all of those were, my vote would be from right off the top of his career-the Rhedosaurus from Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
To me this was always the most beautiful and fearsome creature he brought to life. Intending to be a "dinosaur", but incorporating "dragon" elements, the Rhedosaurus is a wonderful hybrid of real and fantasy. He had a real personality too, thanks in part to the script based loosely on Ray Bradbury's story The Foghorn (how could anything with Bradbury's touch not have personality?) The Rhedosaurus was a lean, mean wreckin' machine, crumbling buildings, stomping cars flat and shlurping up New York's finest like spaghetti. Even his firey finish at the amusement park was pure drama, and never fails to make me feel sad for the poor beast.
For my money, I'll take the Rhedosaurus. Thanks, Ray!
I liked the Giant mutant Walrus.
Sentimentally, I would have to say Medusa. Im only 35 so I didnt see a lot of his early works until I was older, but I saw CLASH on TV as a kid and she was REAL - Scared me to death, and is still an awesome creature to this day!
Rhedosaurus takes the #1 spot
Kraken and medusa are awesome too
Let'snot forget The Hydra and Talos.
Then there's the Ymir.
but Rheddy for the win. 8)
Well, if you love Harryhausen films, then every single creature is special...I like 'em all...but...
I would like to put a special spotlight on...THE CENTAUR! from Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
This thing is out of a nightmare, man. Screams with human vocal chords, but seems totally unhinged, comes at ya swingin' a club. Scary face, looks like a mad one-eyed monkey. I absolutely believed that this was a thing that gnawed on human bones for supper!
I've always had a soft spot for the dragon from "7th Voyage of Sinbad". I think he qualifies as one of the best screen dragons ever.
George
Cyclops!
I saw Jason and the Argonauts as a child. The battle with the skeletons, really impressed me.
all of rays creatures are great in some way also mighty joe is a fav of mine, long live ray harryhausen :)
Ymir!
My favorite depends on which movie I've just finished watching. Gwangi is up towards the top of my list. So's Cyclops, Talos, and Kali.
This is a tough question, since they're all so good. But the dragon, the cyclops, Talos, and medusa all stand out for me.
CYCLOPS
heres a pretty cool article on the cyclops and why he is one of the greatest monsters ever.
http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid7/cyclops.htm (http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid7/cyclops.htm)
Definitely the Ymir. Harryhausen did a great job on the Styracosaurus (my favorite dinosaur) in Valley Of The Gwangi too.
All the creatures in
7th Voyage of Sinbad
and
Jason and the Argonauts
You can't go wrong there...... :angel:
I used to dig the Harpies(not to be confused with herpies!) Mighty Joe Young was a favorite of mine too.
Love em all, but have to go with TALOS. I always loved the moment when he comes to life, he's one scary statue!!
They are all great but these are my favorites. If you go to the site you can see quick clips of the creatures in action! There are far more than I was aware of (over 70) and they are sorted by films!
http://www.harryhausen.com/ (http://www.harryhausen.com/)
Calibos and I love the Neil McCarthy portrayal of the character
(http://alicia-logic.com/capsimages/cot_041Calibos-.jpg)
(http://pharosproductions.com/aosma/images/aosma_movies_clash_calibos_25_200x143.jpg)
(http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/5125/355999-calibos.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rzdB5a4kLAo/S7ETPW5PfLI/AAAAAAAATS8/uL-uWLQ6bpo/s1600/ClashofTitansCalibos.jpg)
Medusa
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_68.jpg)
(http://alicia-logic.com/capsimages/cot_069Medusa.jpg)
(http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/medusa.jpg)
(http://www.stephenjoneseditor.com/media/rh-medusa-clashofthetitans.jpg)
Kraken
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_70.jpg)
Cyclops
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_14.jpg)
I was always very impressed with the Skeletons
Homonicus
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_51.jpg)
Centaur
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_54.jpg)
Kali
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_53.jpg)
Skeletons
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_18.jpg)
Ymir
(http://www.harryhausen.com/images/stills/h_13.jpg)
The Cyclops is probably my favorite closely followed by the Rhedosaurus, Kraken (man do I wish I still had the big toy of him) and Ymir
I like the elephant that fought Ymir. If not him the skeleton warriors
I think the Medusa from Clash of the Titans was the best. Not only was it a great looking creature, but the animation with the snakes on the head was awesome.
I really like the all the skeletons and dinosaurs as well as the spaceships, Dioskilos, scorpions, Minoton, rhedosaur, and mighty Joe young, all the giant lizards and dinosaur creatures are great
The Ray Harryhausen Creature List (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kmjW73-v4#)
For me, it was Medusa, the Kraken, Hydra, and the skeletons from Jason.
Cyclops, Hands down.
Or should I say "eyes down".
Or "eye down".
Not only my favorite Harryhausen monster, but my favorite monster, period.
Cyclops is #1 for sure, then Medusa#2 (even though snakes don't have segmented bodies nor do octopi have segmented tentacles why does Ray keep doing that?), Kali#3, the Homonculus#4 and the wooden#5 statue off the bow of the ship chick from Sinbad.
I liked the idea of the giant two headed vulture in Clash of the titans and BTW was Charon's animation/sculpt done by Harryhausen in that flick? If so I gotta change my whole line up.
So many to choose from, but I'm going with the Cyclops. I still wish Aurora had made a model of him.
JP
THE CYCLOPS!!
I like the harpies in Clash of the Titans and the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.
I'm a huge fan of Gwangi..that was some great spfx!!
How about bubo the owl, not a Monster as such
But a great addition to rays line up.
The cyclops would probably have to get my vote, but the ships in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers are just about my favorite Harryhausen. And there is something singularly creepy about those minimalist aliens...
Every creature in Clash was awsome, but the Kraken would be my favorite. Large and in charge! Medusa was the scariest by far.
Ymir
Cyclops
Talos
Minoton (Though I thought they screwed the pouch killing him off before he could do battle) :'(
Beast from 20,000 fathoms was his best
John Woodcox
Actually like all his effects
John Woodcox
It's impossible to choose just one, but here's one nobody has mentioned -- the masthead from "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad":
(http://jen.apfox.com/art/roger/masthead.jpg)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzQ0WDEwMjQ=/z/ybMAAMXQlUNRJsX~/$T2eC16VHJGYE9nooiLRlBRJs(+RCrQ~~60_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F)
But it was hard not to be totally creeped out by Talos, one of my favorites:
(http://londown.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/talos.jpg?w=500)
The Ymir
The Rhedosaurus
Gwangi
Talos
the Griffin(from Golden Voyage Of Sinbad)
Medusa!
Out of curiosity, did Harryhausen have a plan for any films after "Clash of the Titans", or perhaps he planned that to be his final motion picture?
Quote from: Haunted hearse on April 11, 2013, 08:23:38 AM
Out of curiosity, did Harryhausen have a plan for any films after "Clash of the Titans", or perhaps he planned that to be his final motion picture?
I think the big studios passed him up in favor of newer technology like Industrial light and Magic was making for
Willow and
Return of the Jedi. I know that he scrapped a sequel to Clash of the Titans because no studios would fund it called
Force of the Trojans.
I got to do a sit down interview with Ray Harryhausen for a local news weekly at his first Wonderfest appearance, and I asked him that very (obvious) question about why he retired after the great reviews of his work on "Clash of the Titans." His answer was simply, "I thought it was proper to retire while I was still on top."
As a lifelong fan, of course, I didn't want him to retire and it took awhile for me to see the wisdom of his thought process. I think Harryhausen could see the winds of change in the special effects business. "Star Wars" and the creation of ILM had changed almost everything four years prior to the release of "Clash of the Titans," and this last film was the first time he just wasn't able to complete the enormous amount of animation himself and had to bring on a team of animators to help.
It was the end of an era, and now entire companies would be put to work doing the same work that Ray used to do all by himself. Today, there aren't even many craftsmen left in the effects business, just mostly computer programmers. Maybe Ray left the business at just the right time, and his legacy is eternal.
Thanks RRW. CGI was just comming in around 1980, and that does make sense. Tim Burton had initially wanted to do "Mars Attacks", with stop motion puppets, but he ended up doing CGI Martians. I'm glad that he went back to stop motion with "Frankenweenie".
Quote from: Radioactive Rod Whitenack on April 12, 2013, 02:09:49 PM
I got to do a sit down interview with Ray Harryhausen for a local news weekly at his first Wonderfest appearance, and I asked him that very (obvious) question about why he retired after the great reviews of his work on "Clash of the Titans." His answer was simply, "I thought it was proper to retire while I was still on top."
As a lifelong fan, of course, I didn't want him to retire and it took awhile for me to see the wisdom of his thought process. I think Harryhausen could see the winds of change in the special effects business. "Star Wars" and the creation of ILM had changed almost everything four years prior to the release of "Clash of the Titans," and this last film was the first time he just wasn't able to complete the enormous amount of animation himself and had to bring on a team of animators to help.
It was the end of an era, and now entire companies would be put to work doing the same work that Ray used to do all by himself. Today, there aren't even many craftsmen left in the effects business, just mostly computer programmers. Maybe Ray left the business at just the right time, and his legacy is eternal.
I agree. He left the biz at just the right time but his creations and work will go on for all times.
The CGI stuff is visually exciting (at times...) but stopping to think about the creativity that Ray invested into his work is absolutely unheard of in today's world of the superficial.
At Monsterpalooza, 25 minutes of fantastic clips were shown from a great new documentary about Ray, "Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan". It was done by a couple of Frenchmen named Gilles Penso and Alexandre Ponset in conjunction with the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation. The docu is loaded with interviews with influential film folks who were in turn influenced by Ray (everyone is influenced by Ray!) Better still it is loaded with previously unseen materials and amazing side-by-side comparisons of some of Ray's creature battles vs. battles from more contemporary films like Star Wars, etc. Ponset said they are working on a DVD for release in the US -- I told him I'll buy the first copy!!
(http://www.rayharryhausen.com/images/premier_3_large.jpg)
Penso and Ponset
(http://www.rayharryhausen.com/images/gilles_alexandre_large.jpg)
Wow, I hadn't heard about that documentary! Now I won't be able to sleep until I've seen it and have the DVD in my collection. Thanks for the tip!
Rod