Customer Reviews

Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life

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It's all here - behind-the-scenes info on every one of Ray Harryhausen's films, including his early experimental short subjects and unfilmed projects like FOOD OF THE GODS and THE ELEMENTALS. Lots of preproduction sketches and storyboard art, photos of models and miniatures, a reasonable amount of technical detail, and a much more revealing, personal tone than we have heard from Ray before. (But, ever the gentleman, he simply omits mention of any people he disagreed with - like the clueless director of VALLEY OF GWANGI who, rumor has it, tried to get Ray fired from the film! Neither the director's name nor the rumor appears in the text.) There is a respectable number of color photos and a huge assortment of black and white pix, all very well reproduced. Particularly interesting is a section at the end summarizing all the various projects that never made it past the development stage - and there were a lot! Also fascinating is the discussion of how the storylines of the movies changed dramatically through various drafts of the scripts. Giant rats in 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD? A Valley of Vipers in a later Sinbad movie? (Producer Charles Schneer nixed both concepts, the latter because of "some extraordinary idea that it would frighten pregnant women," according to Ray.) My only gripe, and it is minor, is that some of the photos are very, very small. There's a shot of the clay sculture of a Sphinx modeled for the unmade FORCE OF THE TROJANS that is about the size of a postage stamp! Larger would be better, but I can't quibble much with a book that covers so much territory and gives us a glimpse of an era and style of filmmaking that will never be repeated. For those who cherish the hand-crafted excellence of Harryhausen's work, this is a must-buy, and a huge improvement over his much less comprehensive FILM FANTASY SCRAPBOOK.

Ray Harryhausen towers like a titan over the world of film special effects. This genial genius was the single-handed creator of brilliant, imaginative stop-motion and optical effects on a long series of fantasy movies. The films molded the dreams of many generations of children, writers, special effects technicians, and moviemakers. Harryhausen's best films, like "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Jason and the Argonauts," "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad," and "Clash of the Titans" still thrill viewers today. You can feel Harryhausen's personal magic coming through in his creature effects.

This long-awaited book is a great combination of three concepts in one: a beautiful art volume, an artistic biography, and a behind-the-scenes tour of movie effects. Harryhausen himself, along with film archivist and researcher Tony Dalton, guides you through the length of his career, examining everything from his major motion pictures to his short Mother Goose films and work for the military. Each chapter goes into extensive detail on the origins, realization, and aftermath of each of his films. At over 300 massive pages, there is a flood of material here. Learn the tortures of achieving the brilliant skeleton fight from "Jason and the Argonauts!" Find out how cowboys managed to rope a dinosaur in "The Valley of Gwangi!"

Ray Harryhausen comes across as incredibly personable in these pages; it's almost as if he were sitting beside you telling you stories of his achievements, and sometimes taking swipes at himself. (For example, he admits some disappointment with some of the directors, films, and some of his own unfortunate decisions.)

The balance between the pictures and the text is perfect, unlike many other film-art books I've seen. The treasure-trove of sketches, photos, and promotional artwork is astounding. Harryhausen's own drawings which he used to design his films are works of art in themselves. The pictures of the model creatures let you look closely at their details. Many of the photos show the painstaking process of stop-motion animation and the clever tricks required to bring these creatures to life. Even the most die-hard Harryhausen fan will discover many new facts in this book (I certainly did). There are also many rare behind-the-scenes pictures.

As a final bonus, the book ends with an "A to Z" of the many projects that Harryhausen never completed or which never got off the drawing boards or out of development. It's a fascinating trip through the land of "what-if." Ray Bradbury, a lifetime friend of the animator, provides the heartfelt introduction.

The price is hefty (although Amazon's discount makes that easier to bear), but this is a quality volume of artwork and film history that you will never get tired of flipping through. It's the perfect gift for any fantasy-film lover. The joy of fantasy cinema flows through it and reminds you not only of what an incredible talent Ray Harryhausen was, but also of the limitless possibilities for film to lift us beyond the realm of the ordinary and into the realms of the extraordinary. Cinema and the world in general would be a much duller place if not for Ray Harryhausen.

Fans, here is the book we've all been waiting 25 years for. The Crown Prince of stop motion animation has revealed all of his secrets in this 300 plus glossy paged volume with hundreds of color and black and white photos and drawings, many of which have never been seen before.
If you've ever been amazed at how Harryhausen manages to make the sword of his heroes penetrate a stop motion creauture, the secret is here. Harryhausen also reveals some of his favorite scenes, and comments on actors, directors, the Oscars and gives his opinion about some of the current dinosaur blockbusters.
This is head and shoulders above his past release "Film Fantasy Scrapbook". I especially like the movie posters for all of his films in FULL COLOR, but "Animal World" is missing.
Die hard fans will automatically spend the $50 to buy this book, and it is well worth the price. Casual fans might find the price steep, but at Amazon's price, it's a steal!

I just recently purchased Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life.
Mr. Harryhausen was influenced by King Kong for his remarkable career. I was influenced by his first movie released in theaters
entitled BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. Ever since I gazed at the
incredible effects when I was six, I wanted to know why and how
something could seem so life like. Unfortunately, all I did was manage amateur special effects with an 8mm camera, but enjoyed thrilling friends and relatives with what talent I had. Now I can appreciate all the patience and imagination that this
genius has somehow transmitted to the screen. All of his movies are showcased with the wonderful behind the scenes stories and photos that made such magic in my childhood. Anyone who has ambition to follow the FX trade, should definitely read this book. Granted the technology is greatly improved today, but that even made Mr. Harryhausen seem more adept at his work. How tedious it is to move a model just a fraction of an inch until it appears fluid on the film...how educational it is to realize what props were used and what artistry was projected to make everything REAL. This coffee table book will be a treasure
in my collection of literature.

Computer generated effects are standard in movies now, and any big-budget action film can be expected to have plenty. We didn't always have computers, so the effects such as putting fantasy creatures on the screen, like King Kong, had to be done with meticulous stop-motion filming, whereby a movie frame picture would be made of a model Kong, then the model's arm would be slightly raised, one more frame of the movie shot, and the process repeated until a smooth arm movement could be seen when the entire strip of film ran. It was Willis O'Brien who animated Kong and many other creatures in early movies. It was Kong who inspired Ray Harryhausen to start making stop-motion films. In _Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life_ (Billboard Books), Harryhausen and Timothy Dalton tell the story of Harryhausen's entire career, including his humble beginnings. He was crazy about dinosaurs as a kid, and at the age of thirteen, he was taken by his mother and aunt to see _King Kong_. He studied up on the movie's techniques afterwards, and started making his own movies, first using a home camera that he could merely hope took only one frame at a time when he tapped it, and then purchasing his own 16 mm camera with a one-frame shift. He was one of those lucky kids who knew early what he wanted to do in life, and was able to do it; Harryhausen was the special effects wizard behind _Earth vs. The Flying Saucers_, _Jason and the Argonauts_, and _Clash of the Titans_, among many more. This beautiful book, filled with photographs and drawings to show how the models and effects were made for each of Harryhausen's films (and pictures of the artist's work as a thirteen-year-old as well), is a fascinating record of a career that could only have taken place in a restricted window of time.

To start with a clearing of the record: Harryhausen's first model, a cave bear, was covered with fur cut from an old black fur coat hanging in his mother's closet, but despite reports to the contrary, his mother _did_ know all about it and _did_ give her permission beforehand. This reflects the support his parents gave him toward his youthful enthusiasm, and he is certainly grateful. Most of the book describes his work for the studios; it devotes pages and pictures to all his films, and he gives detailed descriptions of just how he managed particular shots. Harryhausen isn't boasting; throughout the book he lets us know what he thought worked and what didn't, what he is proud of and what he winces at. If stop-motion is no longer going to be an art form, it is good that we have this documentation of what he actually accomplished, for the complexity of his creations and the way they were shot is astonishing. For instance, the Hydra in _Jason_ not only had a serpentine body and a double tail requiring their own movements, but also seven heads. In every frame, the model's movements might be only a millimeter, but there were sometimes more than thirty movements to do. He would have to remember for each head whether it was in the process of going up, down, right, or left, if the mouth was opening or closing, if the neck was flexing, and so on. Astonishingly, he was so in tune with his creation that he did not keep notes on what each head was doing, except if he were taking a break at the end of a work period.

Harryhausen has real affection for his creations. He has used real animals in some films, like an iguana made to look like a giant lizard in _One Million Years BC_. The trainer in charge of the iguanas was ready to use an electric prod to rouse the usually torpid lizards, but Harryhausen would not allow any cruelty, so action could only be obtained by a little prodding. Nonetheless, it was a lot harder to get the iguanas to move in just the way he needed compared to his obedient stop-motion models; he says that using models would have been more cost-effective and more realistic, too. He refuses to call his creations monsters; they are mostly creatures who are simply out of place. Of the tyrannosaurus in _The Valley of Gwangi_, he writes that he felt sorry for him, "... because all he wanted to do was live his life and eat a few people along the way." When he had to dismantle one creature to use its armature for another in a succeeding feature, he confesses, "It always breaks my heart to have to cannibalize my models. It's like losing a close friend." Gentle, self-deprecating humor is a hallmark of all the chapters here, no matter how technical the descriptions become at times. This is a handsome, large format book suitable for the coffee table; however, along with the beautiful illustrations, the written record of work here to show how creature features were made before the computers took over will be enjoyed by any fantasy film fan.

I recently received my copy from Amazon and it is a wonderful book. The stories and struggles behind the scenes are fascinating and the large number of photos, artwork and behind the scenes stills are amazing. I do agree with the previous reviewer regarding the size of some of the photos, but it is a very minor gripe. I have loved Ray's films ever since I was a kid and now my young son is a Harryhausen fan too. Simply put, it IS the book we have all been waiting for!!

Die-hard fans of special effects master Ray Harryhausen may recall Jeff Rovin's book "From the Land Beyond Beyond", which arrived in 1977. It was a welcome addition to the Harryhausen legacy, but was too subjective and fan-based for some tastes. Hard to believe it took almost thirty years for this definitive, color version of the Harryhausen story to arrive on the scene. Some will feel it is merely an extension of Ray's previous work, the Film Fantasy Scrapbook, and in many ways, it is, but there's so much detail here that this deluxe volume is worth picking up. Though of course modern special effects have become almost ridiculously complex, it's wonderful to hear Ray describe in great technical detail the processes and techniques he used to bring his animals and fantasy creatures to life in films like "7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts". He's also candid about which films worked for him (and audiences) and which somehow missed the mark. Even readers who prefer modern spectacles to Harryhausen's classical, stately epics should find something of value here, and there is plenty to inspire any animator, filmmaker, or budding cinematographer. This book isn't just a special effects guide, it's a valuable and integral part of the history of film: Harryhausen's career spanned five decades, and he worked with some of the greats in the industry--not only effects geniuses like Willis O'brien, but actors like Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, James Franciscus, Honor Blackman, Richard Carlson, Jane Seymour and Raquel Welch. A little pricey, but worth the cost. A must have for Harryhausen fans, naturally, but anyone interested in the movies will come away satisfied.

It's not surprising that this splendid book is visually sumptuous, filled as it is with splendidly-reproduced illustrations; from the beginning, Harryhausen seems to have appreciated the value of, and carefully stored, every sketch, model, still photo, poster and significant piece of paperwork from his remarkable sixty-year career.

No, what's notable about AN ANIMATED LIFE is the literary quality of the densely-packed text, which most such books treat as an afterthought, like extended captions for the photos. Harryhausen, and co-author Tony Dalton, have managed the nearly impossible: a chronicle of Harryhausen's life in words that manage to speak in the voice of the softspoken, humble, unfailingly kind man whom I've had the privilege of meeting on numerous occasions, and that give a clear sense of the ambitions, dreams, sensibilities and occasional failures that form the mileposts in any life.

That said, I do have to add, a bit wistfully, if not sadly, a caveat as to this wonderful volume's single failing: THERE IS NO INDEX -- a matter of greater significance than one might believe at first glance. AN ANIMATED LIFE is, and deserves to be, THE definitive reference work on the subject of stop-motion animation, and one of the core works in the wider field of special effects -- a history of disappearing hand-craftsmanship in this entirely too-digital age. That value as a reference book is severely hampered, however, by lack of an index, because it makes finding individual subjects within the text, and charting their evolutions and inevitable interrelationships, all but impossible, even when one has read the book cover-to-cover.

I strongly recommend that buyers of the book contact the publishers (there are two, British and U.S., whose names can be found on the inside of the flyleaf; their e-mail addresses can be located through Google) and request that they compile an index, which can then easily be made available on the publishers' websites, or in the form of e-mail attachments to all who request a copy.

Still, let this caveat not dissuade you from purchasing what will be one of the more cherished volumes in your personal library -- or on your coffee table.

Without a doubt, "An Animated Life" is the book RH fans have been waiting over 20 years for! It picks up where RH's own "Film Fantasy Scrapbook" left off. It is also a welcome addition to an excellent (and extremely rare) book published in the 1970s by Jeff Rovin called "From the Land Beyond Beyond" which looked at the RH feature films up to "Golden Voyage of Sinbad", but didn't place a lot of emphasis on the early tests (Cave Bear, Elementals) and RH's other forays (army films, Mother Goose Stories).

When you realize that the last RH feature film was released 23 years ago, it's remarkable that one individual has so much staying power among fans and film industry types. More than a generation has grown up never having seen a RH film in theatrical release!

A fantastic book cover to cover. The little stories, technical details, and personal remembrances are what makes this book special. Contrary to what many mainstream moviegoers may think, RH films are not campy. RH is genuine in his passion as a storyteller, and it is very poignant to read RH lamenting the passing of stop motion as a cinematic art form--now having been completely eclipsed by CG effects.

I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of the photos, many never before published. This is truly the final statement of RH's magnificent career, and I'm very pleased that this book has been published. I noticed a few small but embarrassing typos. The typeface is also too small but with a book of this size it's a compromise the publisher had to make. It should not deter you in the least from buying it. After reading it you will want to watch all RH's movies again. I certainly gained a lot of new insights after reading some of RH's comments. I grew up with these films and will always love them.

The stop motion models--in particular the major characters--are stars themselves, and I would have liked to have seen a section devoted only to the models, i.e. more detailed photographs as well as a "where they are now" kind of appendix. RH tells us that some models were cannibalized to make other ones, and time has not been kinds to others. In a way, the models exist only on screen, where RH brings them to life. On a table top they lose some of their magic, I suppose.

Highly recommended for all RH fans.

Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life is the amazing and impressively presented story of Ray Harryhausen's invaluable contributions to cinematography -- especially in the realm of special effects. Inspired by "King Kong" at the age of thirteen, Harryhausen became a master of directing stop-motion animation, ranging from mammoths and giant crabs, to flying harpies, warrior skeletons, and so much more. His work with great actors on movies that would become either classics of film making and/or enduring cult favorites, forms the centerpiece of this comprehensive and in-depth tour-de-force which is filled from cover to cover with color photography, original sketches and diagrams, an in-depth commentary on Harryhausen's lasting work on a wide variety of movies, and so much more. Especially recommended for anyone with a keen interest in the art of stop-motion animation in film, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life is a core addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Cinematic Studies reference collection.