You know how you know if someone is considered a legend?
You use their name to describe something.
The amount of times I’ve read filmmakers say that they wanted their creatures to have a “Harryhausen like” feel. Or that they wanted to shoot this action sequence as if it was in a Harryhausen film.
That’s the impact this legend has on cinema.
It’s amazing how great his stop motion effects still holds up. All the CGI in the world doesn’t take away the pure visual excitement of seeing his physical puppet creatures move. Stop motion is pure movie magic, a visual trick that can only be done using film, and Harryhausen was the best.
Ray Harryhausen’s impact will live on forever. He had an amazing life. Rest in peace sir, and say hi to Ray Bradbury and Forrest J. Akerman for us. I’m sure they got a seat waiting for you at the Canters Deli in Heaven.
Here’s a video showing EVERY monster Ray Harryhausen made…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYz1J97kdE0
And here is a video interview with Ray Harryhausen made in 1974…