Ray Harryhausen Film Discussion Thread

[mikelcho]

Saw Valley of Gwangi again. Spectacular film that shows Ray at his finest.

I saw it once on DVD and I'm thinking right now that Obie would've been real proud of Ray for making that film. At least one of his unmade projects finally got made.

Now, if only someone could do the same exact thing to, say, The War Eagles and King Kong Meets Frankenstein...

[Cryptid_Liker]

Saw Valley of Gwangi again. Spectacular film that shows Ray at his finest.

I saw it once on DVD and I'm thinking right now that Obie would've been real proud of Ray for making that film. At least one of his unmade projects finally got made.

Now, if only someone could do the same exact thing to, say, The War Eagles and King Kong Meets Frankenstein...

War Eagles has a novelisation, actually. Perfect way for a studio to get the rights easier.

[mikelcho]

Saw Valley of Gwangi again. Spectacular film that shows Ray at his finest.

I saw it once on DVD and I'm thinking right now that Obie would've been real proud of Ray for making that film. At least one of his unmade projects finally got made.

Now, if only someone could do the same exact thing to, say, The War Eagles and King Kong Meets Frankenstein...

War Eagles has a novelisation, actually. Perfect way for a studio to get the rights easier.

The War Eagles has a novelization? Great! Is it a graphic novel or a regular one?

Can you please show me a picture of it and tell me who released it? I'll bet it was TidalWave Comics (formerly known as Bluewater Comics), since they did a lot of comic book stories in the past related to Ray's films.

[Gigantis]

Can you please show me a picture of it and tell me who released it? I'll bet it was TidalWave Comics (formerly known as Bluewater Comics).

Actually it was released back in 2008 by..actually can't find who released it.

Here's a pic:

[mikelcho]

Can you please show me a picture of it and tell me who released it? I'll bet it was TidalWave Comics (formerly known as Bluewater Comics).

Actually it was released back in 2008 by..actually can't find who released it.

Here's a pic:

Thank you! I definitely want to read this one!

[eabaker]

Can you please show me a picture of it and tell me who released it? I'll bet it was TidalWave Comics (formerly known as Bluewater Comics).

Actually it was released back in 2008 by..actually can't find who released it.

Here's a pic:

Ooooh, by Carl Macek, the man who americanized Robotech!

[The Octopus]

seeing as how it was cut up for stock footage that was used in so many other films

It was mostly unused footage.

[tbeasley]

Cool poster. Love the colors.

[LegendZilla]

Can you please show me a picture of it and tell me who released it? I'll bet it was TidalWave Comics (formerly known as Bluewater Comics).

Actually it was released back in 2008 by..actually can't find who released it.

Here's a pic:

Ooooh, by Carl Macek, the man who americanized Robotech!

It could be a different Carl Macek.

[NSZ]

Actually it was released back in 2008 by..actually can't find who released it.

Here's a pic:

Ooooh, by Carl Macek, the man who americanized Robotech!

It could be a different Carl Macek.

No no, it's the Carl Macek.

[Terasawa]

Ooooh, by Carl Macek, the man who americanized Robotech!

It could be a different Carl Macek.

No one’s gonna charge you for doing a Google search.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

The only Harryhausen film I've never seen is One Million Years B.C. Is it worth checking out? I've heard some say it's his worst film; from what I've seen, that dishonor goes to Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I like pretty much all the others. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad might be my favorite.

[mikelcho]

The only Harryhausen film I've never seen is One Million Years B.C. Is it worth checking out? I've heard some say it's his worst film; from what I've seen, that dishonor goes to Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I like pretty much all the others. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad might be my favorite.

Hey, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is my favorite Ray Harryhausen film, too! I saw it in a theater in PA in 1974, when it was first released.

Like they say, you never forget your first time.

And yes, One Million Years B.C. is pretty good, too. Just be sure you get the Kino Lorber release, because that's got the unedited U.K. version of the film and the slightly edited U.S. one.

And also get the sequel When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth from Warner Archive (even though Jim Danforth did the stop-motion special effects on this one), because that's also the unedited U.K. version as well.

Warner Archive's also got the third film, Creatures the World Forgot, too, but this one has no dinosaurs or any prehistoric animals in it at all. I'd only recommend it if you're a hardcore completeist (forgive me if the last word here is spelled wrong, but the dictionary I tried to look it up in didn't have the word in it at all).

I believe all three of them are on Blu-ray.

[eabaker]

Hey, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is my favorite Ray Harryhausen film, too! I saw it in a theater in PA in 1974, when it was first released.

At the very least, it's my favorite of his Sinbad flicks. John Phillip Law, Tom Baker and Caroline Munro are all really solid; and Kali, the Centaur Cyclops and the Griffin are all great creatures.

[Rody]

^It's become one of my favorites too; Kali has extraordinary screen presence, and even besides the animated creatures, the scope and drama of the story feels like it's carried better than a lot of the other fantasy films Harryhausen was attached to. I really wish this one would get reissued on Blu-ray.

As for One Million Years BC, I'd say it's one of the weaker ones, story-wise; but Harryhausen's creatures all look great. The musical score is pretty swell too.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

I think Sinbad's swordfight with Kali is second only to the skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts in terms of Harryhausen's achievements in blending stop-motion with live-action. Argonauts is probably my second favorite Harryhausen film, but Golden Voyage slightly wins out because I'm a bit bothered by Argonauts' cliffhanger ending; I sorely wish it had gotten a sequel in which Jason reclaims his throne from Pelias.

As to Harryhausen's sci-fi films, I've always been partial to Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth.

[Kaiju-King42]

The only Harryhausen film I've never seen is One Million Years B.C. Is it worth checking out? I've heard some say it's his worst film; from what I've seen, that dishonor goes to Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I like pretty much all the others. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad might be my favorite.

One Million Years BC is... okay. There's plenty of stop-motion creature action, to be sure, but I'm in the camp that considers it to be one of Ray's weaker films. Weaker than Eye of the Tiger, actually, least to me eyes.

And yes, Golden Voyage is the best of the Sinbads.

[Terasawa]

Mysterious Island is probably my favorite of Ray's films.

[Kaiju-King42]

My favorites have to be his two Greek epics: Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans (the latter being the only Ray film I grew up with). Golden Voyage, The Valley of Gwangi and Mighty Joe Young are all close contenders though.

Honestly, I think the only that I've seen (yet to see Three Worlds of Guilliver) that I didn't care for was It Came From Beneath the Sea.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

My favorites have to be his two Greek epics: Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans (the latter being the only Ray film I grew up with). Golden Voyage, The Valley of Gwangi and Mighty Joe Young are all close contenders though.

Clash of the Titans would be in my top five along with Golden Voyage, Argonauts, 20MMTE and Flying Saucers. I grew up with all these movies except One Million Years B.C., so I'm not biased toward or against any of them based on nostalgia.

Honestly, I think the only that I've seen (yet to see Three Worlds of Guilliver) that I didn't care for was It Came From Beneath the Sea.

I'm with you on It Came From Beneath the Sea. It's a mediocre monster movie with good special effects. I'd say that 3 Worlds of Gulliver is pretty skippable; that one, It Came From Beneath the Sea and Eye of the Tiger are definitely my three least favorites. I like all of the rest.

Depending on how long this quarantine lasts, I may binge the Harryhausen films next. I've already binged the Showa Godzilla films and I'm halfway through binging the 007 films right now.