Visit the ‘Ray Harryhausen – Titan of Cinema’ Virtual Exhibit at the National Galleries Scotland

“Release the Krakken!”

No! You don’t have to travel to Scotland to see the original sculptures and models created by Ray Harryhausen. Just visit the ‘Ray Harryhausen – Titan of Cinema’ Virtual Exhibit at the National Galleries of Scotland. But tickets for the virtual tour HERE

In films spanning five decades Harryhausen breathed life into his foam latex creations through the process of stop-motion animation. He set them among living actors to create fantastical creatures that enchanted and terrified audiences worldwide. His film credits include classics such as Jason and the Argonauts, with its uncanny sword-fighting skeletons and towering living statue Talos, and Clash of the Titans featuring Medusa, one of the most frightening and iconic monsters to slither across the flickering screen.

Although the sources for Harryhausen’s monsters often came from existing material – from myths and legends (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans and his trilogy of Sinbad films), the fantastic literature of H.G. Wells (First Men in the Moon), Jules Verne (Mysterious Island) and Jonathan Swift (Three Worlds of Gulliver), they always contain something of his own genius. Harryhausen’s creatures are special because he made them so. He endowed them with personality. They are characters in his films rather than mere special effects. The love of their maker is in them. The time and care that Ray took over his creation is right there on the screen for all to see.

Despite his undoubted skill and imagination, Harryhausen was always humble and openly acknowledged those that had gone before. This inspiration came not just from cinema but from the wider visual arts.

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS  and  THE 7^TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD  passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw KING KONG at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron is immeasurable and his work continues to inspire animators and VFX artists around the world.