7th Voyage of Sinbad TrailerSpecial effects master Ray Harryhausen had a profound effect on my life. His pioneering work was instrumental into steering me into fantasy story telling, and his movies (all of them) remain among my favorites. I even dedicated a book featuring a clockwork titan to him and Stan Lee (Paul McComas is coming over to watch a Ray film (or several) today, in honor of the Great Man’s birthday. As I have (probably too often) pointed out to my children: today, the credits for a special effects film crew can run for 5 minutes. On Ray’s pictures, all of that was covered by one title card and done by just one man: Ray Harryhausen.
Happy Birthday, Ray — and many happy returns of the day!
Here’s the trailer from what is probably my favorite Harryhausen film. (Though choosing one is like picking a favorite relative.)
And here are the links to Ray’s site, his IMDB page, his Wikipedia page, and — a personal fave — his Creature List.
