Manchester Animation Festival DAY THREE (Harryhausen) (OUAN402)

Harryhausen's Lost Treasures/ The Clash Of The Titans

Delving into the world of Ray Harryhausen was my favourite part of this day. I knew virtually nothing about him before but now I have come to appreciate the insane degree to which he has influenced the movie industry by inventing C.G before C.G was a thing. I love C.G as much as the next guy, but I'm finding that with some films recently the C.G is everywhere, green-screened into the backgrounds and used in place of prosthetic enhancements and mechanical setpieces. And while it can definitely improve a film, it can also be overwhelming and make the movie lose its sense of tangibility and realness that makes it stick in my mind and is more involving. Harryhausen's effects are much more of a novelty to watch and because I could see the craftsmanship of the stop motion characters and knew that they were real and that the interaction on screen was genuine (or, at least, as genuine as it could possibly be), it made me focus more on them and drew my attention. I've become too habituated to C.G.

Christopher Lee: "So what should I do? Should I use my powers of acting?"
Stunt co-ordinator: "Just wave this stick around and look bewildered and we will add some stuff in later"
Christopher Lee: "Okay"

Harryhausen's works made me keen to get started learning about stop-frame animation, especially when I watched "Clash Of The Titans" for the first time. I really enjoy live theatre for, again, it's tangibility and to see the mastery of the craftsmanship in the sets and props right in front of my eyes. It is the oldest and purest form of storytelling, and stop-motion effects like those used by Harryhausen are the animation equivalent, and they lend themselves well to a rip-roaring epic like Clash Of The Titans. Each character is boldly defined and has an indescribable spark of life about them. Let's compare two Krakens, the Harryhausen one and the one from the sexed up 2010 remake.

This Kraken is fine, I suppose. But it is still a big grey blob.

This thing will stick in my mind forevermore

The film itself was incredible! I really like a good myth/ legend and this one had great action, a laundry list of exciting villains and it kept a brisk pace. I've already mentioned that I found the visuals to be spectacular.

"Duh got to fight Kraken to sex princess" - Perseus, The Clash Of The Titans (2010)

There is still a lot of love in the world for practical effects.