A Few Words About A few words about...™ Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

I was ready for this one. I've always been a huge fan of Mr. Harryhausen's work, so a quality documentary, with old interviews by the master, and new ones from some of our top filmmakers discussing his work, would be an absolute must own.

But somewhere along the production route, something seems to have gone wrong, as while we have some nice test footage, and wonderful explanations of how the effects were created, there is no quality footage of his actual finished work.

It's almost as if the filmmakers didn't have the budget, or didn't want to bother licensing proper footage, and for me, that kills the entire project, especially for something billed as coming from the Harryhausen Foundation.

The production footage that we do see, comes from what are billed as "original trailers."

This takes us back to VHS and DVD days, for which entities would gather together used trailers, and cut them into something that might be entitled "The Great Films of the 1930s."

Not even close.

Image - 5 (new interviews)
Image - 1 (production footage)

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 5 (new interviews)
0.5 (production footage)

Pass / Fail
New Interviews - Pass
Production footage - Fail

While some of the extras may be interesting, the main project doesn't cut it.

For true fans, you'll probably want this in your collection, but will ultimately find the examples of the work of a master, unfortunately available only as limited examples, and in poor quality...

Especially, when superb quality imagery exists, and is available.

RAH

 

[Charles Smith]

Oh, yikes. Too bad.

Completely agree that excellent footage is mandatory in something like this.

Unlike in a great many worthy documentaries that are chock full of great history and facts, and where you kind of go along and ignore/excuse the quality of the clips ... this is presumably about the footage.

 

[Robert Harris]

Oh, yikes. Too bad.

Completely agree that excellent footage is mandatory in something like this.

Unlike in a great many worthy documentaries that are chock full of great history and facts, and where you kind of go along and ignore/excuse the quality of the clips ... this is presumably about the footage.

It would be rather like someone producing a superb doc on David Lean, and using uprezzed pan & scan VHS footage to illustrate Freddie Young's widescreen cinematography.

 

[Charles Smith]

Yes indeed!

 

[Angelo Colombus]

There is a good documentary made by Richard Schickel called The Harryhausen Cronicles made in 1998 and i believe it's on the 20 Million Miles to Earth dvd.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

I was ready for this one. I've always been a huge fan of Mr. Harryhausen's work, so a quality documentary, with old interviews by the master, and new ones from some of our top filmmakers discussing his work, would be an absolute must own.

But somewhere along the production route, something seems to have gone wrong, as while we have some nice test footage, and wonderful explanations of how the effects were created, there is no quality footage of his actual finished work.

It's almost as if the filmmakers didn't have the budget, or didn't want to bother licensing proper footage, and for me, that kills the entire project, especially for something billed as coming from the Harryhausen Foundation.

The production footage that we do see, comes from what are billed as "original trailers."

This takes us back to VHS and DVD days, for which entities would gather together used trailers, and cut them into something that might be entitled "The Great Films of the 1930s."

Not even close.

Image - 5 (new interviews)
Image - 1 (production footage)

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 5 (new interviews)
0.5 (production footage)

Pass / Fail
New Interviews - Pass
Production footage - Fail

While some of the extras may be interesting, the main project doesn't cut it.

For true fans, you'll probably want this in your collection, but will ultimately find the examples of the work of a master, unfortunately available only as limited examples, and in poor quality...

Especially, when superb quality imagery exists, and is available.

RAH

Here is a mini-review published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, presumably written for a more generalized audience (i.e., not as detailed as your review).

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-cm-new-releases-20160621-snap-story.html

From the archives

“Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan” (Arrow DVD, $14.95; Blu-ray, $19.95)

Although stop-motion animator and special-effects innovator Ray Harryhausen is responsible for some of the most stunningly imagined special effects sequences in cinema history, the actual movies he worked on tend to be pretty hit-and-miss. That’s one good reason to watch the documentary “Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan,” which strings together some of the man’s best set pieces, along with rarely seen tests and experiments. An even better reason to watch is for the insights from the likes of Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg, who speak eloquently about how even with their state-of-the-art technology, they can’t match what Harryhausen could do with just a few crude tools.

[Special features: A commentary track, bonus footage, and extended interviews]

 

[B-ROLL]

It would be rather like someone producing a superb doc on David Lean, and using uprezzed pan & scan VHS footage to illustrate Freddie Young's widescreen cinematography.

Unfortunately that's what Criterion did for the David Lean Directs Noel Coward Bluray set. Brief Encounter has a TV documentary from 1971 "David Lean: A Self Portrait" that is just exactly that.

I believe Sony just ported their SD "World OF Harryhausen" for their initial oop Bluray releases.

 

[Robert Harris]

Unfortunately that's what Criterion did for the David Lean Directs Noel Coward Bluray set. Brief Encounter has a TV documentary from 1971 "David Lean: A Self Portrait" that is just exactly that.

I believe Sony just ported their SD "World OF Harryhausen" for their initial oop Bluray releases.

A TV doc from '71 would have that attribute.