One of the forefathers of modern special effects, Ray Harryhausen ran so that the stop-motion animation of Star Wars And Wallace & Gromit could run (with three seconds of screen time per day). The aptly titled Monster Inc would even quote the man directly with the name of the restaurant Mike and Celia go to on their date together, and English band The Hoosiers would devote an entire song (and luscious video) to his works in their breakthrough hit "Worried About Ray." "
More recently, Star Warsalumni Phil Tippet gifted the world with a complete stop-motion feature film in his inexplicable Crazy Godas the industry can't stop recognizing the man's creative impact on screen and what can actually be achieved with a huge imagination and a lump of clay.
Using the painstaking stop-motion process, Ray Harryhausen created monster after monster for sci-fi B-movies before moving on to sword and sandal epic, building an entire art form that simply couldn't be named without reference to the artist's contribution. . Below are our picks for some of its best.
9 Harpies (Jason and the Argonauts)
These evil and menacing creatures torment Phineas day and night Jason and the Argonauts. As a cruel trick, while gifted as a fortune teller, Zeus makes the blind man endure harpies. As a rendezvous, Phineas asks Jason to free him from the harpies for information.
Phineas traps the harpies in a net and rules over his new found pets. So unusual that the creatures with their bat wings and broken blue colors look like something straight out of Games Workshop.
8 Minaton (Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger)
Bright bronze with the body of a man and the head of an ox, Minaton the minotaur acts as this powerful silent henchman for the witch. Muted throughout, the sound design is what makes the minotaur so damn creepy, as its metal limbs creak and groan with every move and the cacophonous theme plays every time it appears on screen.
As always, credit where it's due - when Minaton is finally crushed and vanquished, you can't help but feel sorry for a creature that has so far been used only for evil. Underused Sinbad and the Eye of the Tigerand cries out for a real fight scene, Harryhausen's Minaton is nevertheless extremely effective when on screen.
7 Giant octopus (he came from under the sea)
Watch as giant tentacles emerge from the ocean and swallow most of San Francisco It came from under the sea. Pretty much copy beat for beat what they did with the previous Harryhausen picture The beast of 20,000 fathomsthis movie finds a giant octopus causing a massacre for the US Navy, before destroying national monuments in the Golden Gate Bridge.
6 Dinosaurs (Various)
Dinosaurs in their many forms appeared in many of Harryhausen's works. With their shaky movements and sharp teeth, their clashes with the man below them and with each other feels exactly like the kind of play we would have played as kids, smashing our toys together.
At their purest, Harryhausen's dinosaurs, whether playing alongside the great Raquel Welch, fighting cowboys or destroying entire cities, emulate that sense of spectacle and love of destruction of sitting cross-legged on the carpet and living in a childish world of miracle.
5 Kraken (Clash of the Titans)
Yet another gargantuan monster in Harryhausen's playbook, the sheer size of the Kraken is certainly often emphasized in the long lead-up to this creature's reveal. As the main big bad in Clash of the Titansthe reveal is not understated.
Unfortunately, despite all the hints to the monster, it feels like all the hype is over in an instant, as the monster is defeated when Persius reveals Medusa's head and turns it to stone. Anyway, it's a very uniquely designed and cool creature.
4 Talos (Jason and the Argonauts)
Since Talos is modeled after a human male, even a warrior, his pursuit of Hercules and company is all the scarier as he is essentially one of them. Gigantic, his only weakness is his Achilles heel, which Jason exploits and eventually takes down the jade creature. Using the same trick as the minotaur, its silent creaks as it moves makes for fantastic sound design.
3 Cyclops (Sinbad's seventh journey)
A fan favorite, with hind legs and hooves, with its single horn and eye, the cyclops feels like the most hodgepodge of all Harryhausen's work. Not exactly based on any animal or any particular type of mythology, the creature appears to be half Shrek, half Mr. Tumnus, terrorizing Sinbad on the beaches and in its caves. The clash between a cyclops and a freshly unleashed dragon Sinbad's seventh journey is epic.
2 Skeleton Warriors (Jason and the Argonauts)
Where would we be without the Skeleton Warriors? Perhaps the quintessential villain, when a movie buff thinks of Harryhausen's work, these smiley foes demonstrate just how brilliant the technology was/is while swordplaying against the Argonauts. These creatures can both throw and take hits and feel 'real' and deadly. The same trick would be copied Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger with similarly shaped ants/alien warriors.
1 Medusa (Clash of the Titans)
Feeling like an incredible boss fight in a video game, Perseus must claim Medusa's head to defeat the Kraken. Later in her lair, a shadowy creature creeps slowly hissing through... Little quirks like each snake on the monster's head being completely independent of each other or her rattlesnake tail are not missed in this mighty foe, and every close-up on her face reveals her terrifying human eyes. Clash of the Titans was supposed to be remade in 2010, but it doesn't match this in any shape or form.
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