The Fantastical Worlds of Ray Harryhausen

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Exhibit by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.

  Paying tribute to the Dynamation, visual effects maestro on his 90th birthday, AMPAS hosted a free Ray Harryhausen exhibit on the 4th floor of the Wilshire office location.

Ray, who turned 90 on June 29th, mastered a technique of interacting his models with live action using a split screen process.   The models had to be re-positioned in each frame, known as stop-motion animation, which was a tedious process and is somewhat of a lost art due to the advent of CGI.  His creatures were made of a latex over steel armature with ball and socket structure, and more often than not Harryhausen was a one-man operation, who believed his creatures should sustain an almost unreal (fantasy) look. 

 His work may be seen in such high-action fantasy films as Mighty Joe Young (1949), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Clash of the Titans (1981), and a trilogy of terrific Sinbad adventures; The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).

On display at AMPAS (which ran from May 14th – August 22nd) were the models Perseus, Pegasus and the Kraken from Clash of the Titans, the sword-wielding skeleton crew from Jason and the Argonauts, the Cyclops from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and many more, all of which had incurred some degree of degredation over the years.  This most impressive collection also included drawings, photographs and storyboards, as well as screens set up highlighting clips from his most popular films.

Cheers to AMPAS for hosting this wonderful free exhibit and a very happy birthday to Ray!