The Art of Ray Harryhausen
Fantasy-film geeks revere Harryhausen's technically dazzling, meticulously crafted movies employing the painstaking technique of stop-motion animation. This coffee-table volume showcases the material Harryhausen discovered in his archives while researchingRay Harryhausen: An Animated Life(2004). Harryhausen stresses that this book isn't as much about animation as about the previsualization that precedes making the models that will be filmed; accordingly, it focuses on sketches, key drawings, storyboards, and preliminary clay models rather than film stills. Thematic chapters cover Harryhausen's early work, including his stint with animation legend Willis O'Brien on theKing Kongquasi sequel,Mighty Joe Young; dinosaur movies, such asOne Million Years B.C.; sci-fi flicks such as the 1953War of the Worlds; and the series of films portraying the adventures of Sinbad of, more or less, theArabian Nights. Like O'Brien before him, Harryhausen hugely influenced younger filmmakers. In the introduction,Lord of the Ringsdirector Peter Jackson says he grew up wanting to become Harryhausen's apprentice and notes that the animator's films "have lost none of their ability to provoke wonder."Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved