Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan

There’s no lingering on biographical facts here. The obvious purpose of this tech-nerd documentary is to expose younger viewers to Ray Harryhausen’s influence on the work of modern special-effects magicians, and to thus also to defend CGI as a noble continuation of the tradition. Though the speakers lack critical distance, their admiration is mostly for how convincingly a given monster moved, rather than for what a great guy Ray is. Like a number of other documentary portraits, this film becomes exceedingly sentimental in the closing minutes (Ray’s 90th birthday celebration). It’s intimated only subtly between the lines that the films with Harryhausen’s effects had mediocre screenplays and wooden actors, and that – with a few exceptions – watching them from start to finish would not be nearly as entertaining as this cherry-picked exhibition of the best trick scenes. In the case of such a fannish tribute (for example, the titles with the names of the speakers are complemented with miniature examples of their creativity) that could bear the subtitle “The Best of Ray Harryhausen”, such one-sidedness is understandable and probably unavoidable to a certain extent (try enticing Cameron, Jackson or Spielberg to take part in a film aimed at dispassionately assessing Ray Harryhausen’s life and work without concealing unpleasant truths). 80% (07/08/2014)

Ray Harryhausen is a genius of film animation and stop motion. What he achieved for film is essentially impossible to fully appreciate. However, this documentary, in which genuinely significant personalities including Ray speak, attempts and succeeds in doing so. It is a beautiful overview of his work and actually the entire realm of fantastic film production. Yes, I am very biased, but not overly so. (11/10/2015)