Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Page #2

My first introduction to

the work of Ray Harryhausen

was the Mother Goose stories, actually,

which at the time I was not aware

that they were Ray Harryhausen's work.

(J' Frantic orchestral music)

I was about nine or ten years old

and, you know,

it was all cozy, Christmas Eve,

and this Films came on,

which was Hansel and Gretel

And I could not believe it, I was just

so drawn into it, the magic of it.

I don't know back then if I knew

how stop frame animation was done,

but I could see there were no strings.

I think Ray Harryhausen is really

the grandfather of stop frame animation.

I mean, I know that there was

Willis O'Brien as the great-grandfather.

I'd kept in touch with Willis O'Brien.

I had met him

when I was still in high school.

I called him up at MGM

and he kindly invited me over.

I brought some of my dinosaurs

in my suitcase and showed them to him.

And finally,

after Merian Cooper and Willis O'Brien

were going to make

Mighty Joe Young,

I became Willis O'Brien's assistant.

(Whistle blows)

(Sirens blare)

(Gorilla roars)

Here we were

making another gorilla picture,

which wasn't quite like King Kong

but it had a gorilla.

And gorillas are my best friends.

(Narrator) 'See Mighty Joe Young,

enraged by Hollywood pranksters,

'destroy film-land's swankiest nightclub

on the fabulous Sunset Strip.'

Willis O'Brien was busy

getting the next set-ups ready

and making tests and everything,

so I ended up doing

about 90 percent of the animation.

I think that's some of his best stuff,

cos the personality in Joe Young

is amazing.

And the way he moves,

he does move like a gorilla.

Whereas King Kong

doesn't move like a gorilla at all.

(Narrator) 'See the most fantastic

relationship between beast and beauty,

'a mere girl

mastering a primitive giant.'

(Ray) I thought I'd get in the mood

by eating celery and carrots

for my tea breaks

so that I felt like a gorilla. (Laughs)

The studio sent a cameraman

to the Chicago Zoo to photograph a gorilla.

All the gorilla did seem to do was

walk across the screen and pick his nose,

so we couldn't use that

to any great degree as a copy,

but it gave an idea

of how a gorilla moves.

(Narrator) Mighty Joe Young, whose

sensational exploits will startle you.'

(Ray) After Mighty Joe Young,

I did The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

(I Dramatic orchestral music)

(Roaring)

(Explosions)

(Screaming)

(Beast roars)

I didn't wanna duplicate

the Lost World concept

of having a real known dinosaur,

so we devised this dinosaur

between the writers

and the producers and myself

and called it the Rhedosaurus,

a different type of animal

that has never been seen before.

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