| Yours is a career that needs
no introduction. What was the initial spark that ignited
your passion for animation?
King Kong. I saw it when I was thirteen, and I haven't
been the same since. For some reason, that picture struck
a chord in me. I didn't discover how it was done for years
later. Finally, I discovered the secrets of animation. Then
I got involved and did it as a hobby, and it eventually
turned into a profession. There were no books on it, nothing.
Very few people even knew of the concept. My father let
me use the garage as a studio. I started experimenting while
I was still in high school. They didn't insist I become
a lawyer or a cartoonist, or the usual pattern. So I was
grateful for that. In fact, they assisted me with many of
my experiments.
You eventually were able to work on Mighty Joe
Young with Willis O'Brien...
After King Kong, he was my idol. When I was still in high
school, I called him up at MGM and he kindly invited me
over. Because there were not many people interested in animation
at that time. So I must have been unique. I saw all sorts
of preparation for War Eagles, which was amazing, although
unfortunately the picture was never made. Then, after Mighty
Joe, I teamed up with others for awhile and then had to
go on my own...
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is finally making
its DVD debut, and of course it is the first film to use
what would become known as "Dynamation." Was it
necessity or invention that led you to pioneer the process?
We never used the word. Mighty Joe Young got the reputation
of being terribly expensive, and so a lot of producers avoided
animation. Unfortunately, when we made Mighty Joe Young,
RKO was just sold to Howard Hughes and we were the only
picture shooting - for two years. We had 47 people on the
payroll for over a year. We had four artists doing big matte
paintings, which was expensive. And then they dumped all
of the overheads of the departments on our budget. So it
made the picture look like it was terribly costly, which
it wasn't.
So I had to go to the other extreme to prove (effects could
be cost-effective). So I tried to make films as inexpensively
as possible. I tried to slim down the whole process of injecting
animated creatures into live action films.
The dinosaur from Beast is certainly an icon. How
did you conceptualize him?
That was a problem. It went through many transformations.
At first, we thought it would be an octopus. Then, we changed
it into a dinosaur. Finally, I arrived on what you saw on
the screen. And we didn't want to make it in competition
with The Lost World. We didn't want a brontosaurus or a
normal dinosaur. So, the writers cooked up the name "Rhiddi-saurus."
Some people seem to think it has my initials on it. (laughs)
The Valley of Gwangi is also debuting on DVD with
Beast and they sort of feel like companion pieces in some
ways. What did you try to do differently on Gwangi that
you couldn't do on Beast?
There is a big gap. It is also a different picture. Gwangi
was started by Willis O'Brien in 1942, then abandoned because
of the war. I had a script, and we bought the rights to
the story. What we wanted to do different (from Beast) was
to modernize it a bit without going too extreme.
Throughout your career you have created so many
different types of creatures. Was you choice of material
influenced more by what you could create, or were you inspired
by the story first and foremost?
I was always involved. Some people think I was just handed
a script and told, "Put this on the screen." You
can't do that. The way our pictures were made, I was involved
with the writer, director and producer from the beginning.
We developed the script, because economy was the main purpose.
And I think that what is accounts for our longevity because
we could make very reasonable. I did all the animation myself
and kept my costs down. And Mr. Schneer, who was the producer,
kept the costs down on the live action. So we made pictures
for a nominal sum.
Clash of the Titans was the last film you worked
on as an artist. Have you had many offers since then to
come aboard any other big budget studio pictures?
No, not particularly. CGI, of course, everyone seems to
think that is the epitome of economy. CGI is a great tool,
but I think it is only a tool. I doesn't mean everything
should be done that way.
To me, CGI is more inherently fake. I think now,
intellectually, we go in knowing everything is fake. Whereas
at least with models and such, it is still real objects
moving in real space...
I get a lot of fan mail, saying they prefer our films to
CGI. I'm very flattered. I think stop motion animation adds
a quality of fantasy that you don't get if you try to make
these things too real. BBC made a wonderful series of documentaries
called Walking with Dinosaurs. The dinos were very real,
they did a herd of them, which would be very expensive in
animation. And moving the camera all the time. CGI offers
some wonderful opportunities. But I don't know, if there
is something lacking in it, maybe it is the dramatics. We
always chose subjects that were sort of melodramatic.
Perhaps the real solution is to integrate the two...
That was Willis O'Brien. He started that way back with
The Lost World in 1925. And I tried to follow in his footsteps
after Kong. Where you have an animated character in the
story, rather than say a stylized puppet film like Chicken
Run. It uses the same basic principals but it is a different
concept. The stylized puppet film is obviously just that,
a puppet film. But we tried to make our characters like
King Kong as a real character in the story. And that has
not been done much since.
I know it is probably impossible to choose among
your children, but is there any creation of yours that you
are most proud of?
I think Jason (and the Argonauts) is the most complete.
I got tired of destroying cities. We started with the Beast
destroying Coney Island. We destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge
with a giant octopus. And we also destroyed Washington DC.
I knocked over the Washington Monument long before Mars
Attacks. (laughs) It got rather repetitious. So I was looking
for a new avenue, and I thought the legends of Sinbad would
be ideal for fantasy and stop motion. And then the next
step was Greek Mythology (with Titans).
So, I hear you have a book coming out, Ray Harryhausen:
An Animated Life?
Yes, it will be out on November 22nd. This book will reveal
all! Unlike Film Fantasy Scrapbook, which I did some years
ago, this will have more detail. It is a coffee table book.
Many pictures that have never been seen before, in color
and black and white. I did it with Tony Dalton, in conjunction
with him because I am not a regular writer of books. I thought
I needed some additional help and input.
So, with the book almost out, what's next after
that?
(laughs) Vacation. Well, in April, I'm having a large,
one-and-a-half-times life size up in Scotland unveiled,
which will be Dr. Livingston attacked by a lion. It will
be quite a heroic bronze.
Special thanks to all at Carl Samrock Public Relations
and Warner Home Video. |
