Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Animated Inspiration: Jason and the Argonauts

To commemorate today being the 90th birthday of stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen, here is a clip from the 'Talos' sequence of Jason and the Argonauts, the first film with Harryhausen's animation that I remember watching as a child.



A couple years back, I was at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (2002 or 2004, I think) and they held a special screening of Mr. Harryhausen's completed film "The Story of 'The Tortoise & the Hare'"--a film that he had started back in the 1950's but had never finished until recently. Yes, even back in the day, billable work took precedence over personal projects, as many animators well know. As he approached the age of 90 years, Mr. Harryhausen went back and finished a project he started half a century earlier. I've long admired his skill as an animator, but now I'm wondering if I should be admiring his persistence even more?