Thursday, May 9, 2013

Harryhausen: Technical Titan

Editor's note -- This blog is not turning into an obituary page but Flippantly Florida can't let the death of Ray Harryhausen pass without note from the New York Times. 
Ray Harryhausen, the animator and special-effects wizard who found ways to breathe cinematic life into the gargantuan, the mythical and the extinct, died on Tuesday in London. 
His innovations were honored in 1992 with a career Academy Award for technical achievement. 


At the Oscar ceremony, Tom Hanks told the audience that he thought the greatest movie of all time was not “Citizen Kane” or “Casablanca” but “Jason and the Argonauts."


The Editor posted a similar sentiment to her Facebook page: "Argonauts is my favorite Harryhausen movie. Maybe one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Who's with me?"

I think Tom Hanks very well might be... 



"My favorite monsters," Harryhausen said, "are the more complicated ones. Like the hydra had seven heads, which you had to animate, and the seven skeletons took a lot of time and, of course, Medusa in Clash of the Titans. She was a fascinating image to animate."