Happy (belated) Birthday to the late Ray Harryhausen – the original Grand Master of movie model animation. His creations were the heart of 16 feature length movies (as well as 5 short films) between 1949 and 1981.
Photo from the May 2013 NY Times article, reporting Ray’s death at the age of 92.
His best remembered creations were fantasy monsters and giant prehistoric animals. The term “Dynamation” was coined to market his techniques. It’s a combination of “dynamic” and “animation,” and refers to seamlessly merging live actors with stop action animation puppets.
Imagine the painstaking process of sculpting and hand painting armature characters, moving each in tiny increments, and photographing them one frame at a time. After that, sandwiching the images (a foreground scene featuring live actors, the animated monster, filmed one frame at a time in the middle-ground, then another scene filmed for the background) into a single, moving 3d image.
Ray saw 1933’s King Kong as an adolescent, and it began a lifelong dedication to making impossible fantasy characters become real. And it led to a lot of inspiration in its own right. Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings movie fame and Guillermo del Toro, creator of Pan’s Labyrinth, both cite Ray Harryhausen as their major influence. Likewise, Steven Spielberg (a la Jurassic Park) and James Cameron (Terminator) praise his groundbreaking visual imagery. And try to picture George Lucas’ Star Wars movieswithout model making and 3d image manipulation. They all achieved success standing on the shoulders of giants. (Giant monsters, but giants nonetheless.)
So many of his scenes are memorable that it seems impossible to choose his best. Instead, I’ll show a few of my favorites.
Although the swordfight is great, I really like the movements as Kali comes to life beforehand. (The Dr Who fans among you may recognize the evil sorcerer bringing her to life.) A casting of the Harryhausen Kali figure sold at a memorabilia auction last fall for over $240,000.
When the titan Talos awakens…that’s some creepy stuff right there!
And perhaps the most iconic of all – the skeletons, also from Jason and the Argonauts.
Sophisticated modern audiences sometimes see the action as “fake” or “cheesy” because it doesn’t look real. I’ll agree to disagree. Although we can see how a magician performs a particular trick, it doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the skill. And his art is truly movie magic!
His work combines 3 of my favorite things – movie monsters, swords and sorcery, and scale model building. This fall, I’ll get to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibit at the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures. I suspect it will be amazing!
-Toph
Which of Harryhausen’s creations do you remember most fondly? Be sure to send me an email to let me know!
Fictional adventure heroes have been vying for the top spot in adolescent imaginations for decades. Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Doc Savage were the front runners in the 1930s and 40s. By the 1960s, a new face had emerged. His name was Race Bannon, and the show was “Jonny Quest.”
Although I wasn’t around for its premier on primetime TV, I was one of thousands tuning in to watch every Saturday morning for the reruns in syndication. The stories were imagination fuel that has supplied my brain for decades to come.
The show was born out of an idea by comic book artist Doug Wildey. He had put together a TV project with cartoon producers Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera that was based on the radio adventure character Jack Armstrong. He created several animated sequences, but the project was never brought to fruition. After some re-working, it morphed into the Adventures of Jonny Quest.
The backstories for the characters are somewhat inconsistent. It’s understandable. After all, they are fictional, and more than one writer penned the stories. The original series “Jonny Quest” ran for only a single 26 – episode season from 1964 to 1965. Since then, it has been continued, re-booted, and renewed a few times. The main characters have also been referenced in guest crossovers for other shows and mediums (sometimes in parody or satirical situations.) That, coupled with an array of fan fiction creations have contributed tons of related material.
Keeping that in mind, here is a rather reconciled and expanded overview of the team:
Dr Benton Quest – patriarch of the team
Dr. Benton Quest was one of the country’s “top 3 scientists,” though, much like “the professor” on Gilligan’s Island, his specialty varied from episode to episode; chemistry, biology, and missile technology were all fair game for the good doctor. He is widowed – his wife died several years earlier. The implication is that she was killed by an enemy of the scientist, and a bodyguard was assigned by the government to protect Dr. Quest and his family.
Roger “Race” Bannon – government agent, and all-around man of action
Roger “Race” Bannon was assigned to the job by “Intelligence One.” Some sources identify him as a “former agent”, while others indicate that he is on active duty with the agency. His character was inspired by 1950s action star Jeff Chandler. In addition to being ruggedly handsome and athletic, he had prematurely grey to white hair (all characteristics that I can relate to, if I do say so myself.)
40s and 50s action hero Jeff Chandler – the inspiration for Race Bannon
Hadji and Jonny
The show also featured 2 boys; The title character is Jonny, Dr. Quest’s biological son. He is accompanied by Hadji Singh, an orphan from India, who was adopted by Dr. Quest after one of their adventures. The boys are about 11 years old. Both are very intelligent and adventurous. Of the two, Jonny is the more impulsive. Hadji has some mysterious skills tied to his cultural heritage – levitation, snake charming, etc. It is never completely reveled if they are actual supernatural abilities, or simply well practiced tricks, but they sometimes come into play against an especially dim-witted foe. He accomplishes these feats with the mystical incantation “Sim Sim Sala-bim.”
Bandit – the bane of Doug Wildey’s existence.
And finally, there is Bandit. He is a bulldog, pug, or Boston terrier, depending on the source. He’s cute and supplies comic relief to the thriller. Doug Wildly wasn’t a fan of the character, but the producers insisted on including him to keep the story family friendly.
One reason for its popularity was a more serious tone. Unlike earlier cartoon heroes, Jonny and company faced adversaries that were more like Bond villains than the hungry coyote or inept duck hunter of other Hanna-Barbera shows. Explosions, gunfights, and real peril were all fair game.
The adventures crossed science fiction, adventure travel, and crime fighting. Various installments involved undersea exploration, ancient curses, and cryptozoology. The gadgets and technology were futuristic, without being too outlandish. The most difficult suspension of disbelief is the involvement of the boys at all. As someone who spent most of his career as a Mandated Abuse Reporter, I’m sure Protective Services would be highly involved with the Quest family. I mean, who in their right mind would bring children along to hunt man-eating crocodiles or try out experimental jet packs?
Uh…never mind.
In spite of high ratings and critical acclaim, the show was canceled due to its enormous production costs. It gained a further following as a Saturday morning cartoon, and its popularity continued for many years, eventually appearing on all 3 television networks. Like many pop culture successes, it has been revived, rebooted and re-imagined over the years. There was an animated continuation of the show in the 1980s. The style was very similar, and basically “picked up” where the 60s show left off. Some have referred to it as the second season to the original. There were also 2 movies in the early 90s, a comic book series, and an additional 1990s show called “The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest“. (In the 90s series, the boys are in their teens and are joined on their adventures by Race Bannon’s daughter Jessie.)
When viewed through modern eyes, there are elements that would cause some concern in the show’s original form. The villains are often caricatures of other “exotic” cultures. Foreign languages are a simulated gibberish, and outdated stereotypes abound. In my opinion, it doesn’t take away from the exciting stories, but it does clearly identify them as a product of a less enlightened time.
My exploration into this wonderful series came out of an accidental discovery a couple weeks ago. The original episodes (as well as several of the re-boots and “further adventures”) are all available to stream on the Internet Archive:
