Most of us have an idealized view of Ray Harryhausen. With our near instant-access to information
and movies, we can easily recognize the superiority of Harryhausen’s stop-motion
animation, and judge how well it holds up against contemporary
techniques. But before the Internet and
the Home Video market, it wasn’t always so easy to learn about those who
worked behind the camera. Harryhausen often
locked himself away in his one-man studio for weeks at a time, and still had to
oversee scripts and the director’s working methods to ensure that his animated
creations would seamlessly intercut with live action. Despite such high level involvement in the
production process, it was still the film’s director who got the name
recognition. Ray Harryhausen was just
one of many listed in the credits.
While some recognized his brilliance, in his era Sci-fi films
were usually geared toward children.
Thus, he was rarely assigned to an A-list film. Instead, he worked on B-movies, with
smaller budgets and (usually) a no-name cast.
His films would be paired with the bigger-budget, star-vehicle A-movies
for release in first-run cinemas, or distributed directly to second-run
theaters. Several of his movies, such as
“The Three Worlds of Gulliver,” “Mysterious Island,” “Jason and the Argonauts,”
and “First Men in the Moon” were box office disappointments. Despite the commercial success of 1981’s
“Clash of the Titans,” the studios decided the overwhelming success of newer
special effects techniques, such as those used by the Star Wars and Star
Trek franchises, represented the future, and refused to back any more of his films.
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| The artist Moebius brings to life cantankerous film producer Joe Clarence, and the dinosaur model he criticizes and covets, in "Tyrannosaurus Rex." |
With “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” the final story in Dinosaur Tales,
Ray Bradbury introduces us to Terwilliger, a man who animates dinosaurs for
feature films. Terwilliger never gets
enough money to pay for his equipment, let alone to enjoy a life anywhere near
as glamorous as that of the producers who hire him. After his latest boss forces him to work at a
loss, he nags Terwilliger to let him have his model dinosaur when the
production finishes. He also forces the
man to repeatedly change the dinosaur’s features, dragging him further
behind schedule each time, and thereby consigning his former work to the
trash. Despite all the abuse, Terwilliger carries
on, because he loves his dinosaurs, and he loves his work. Ray Bradbury claims he wrote the story
because of how one producer treated his friend, so perhaps it sheds more light on a man whose fame continues to spread, and whose work we
appreciate more and more, because he didn’t care about things like money or
fame. He loved his creatures, and
stories they allowed him to tell. For
him, that was enough.
After "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," Ray Harryhausen animated dinosaurs in two more films: “One
Million Years B.C.” and “The Valley of Gwanji.”
Still, I can’t help but wonder what might have been, had "the Fates" smiled
on Harryhausen and Bradbury, and allowed them to really make a movie together.
Dragon Dave
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