This weekend I introduced my kids to the magic of Ray Harryhausen, who created some of the world’s greatest movie monsters (including my personal favorite, the cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad).
I loved monster movies when I was a kid, so it was great fun watching some of them again while curled up with my children. I was afraid that they’d be unimpressed by the rubbery creatures – after all, they’ve both been exposed to the technical wizardry of the Star Wars films – but they were as spellbound as I was by Harryhausen’s creations.
My five-year-old daughter Hannah in particular was thrilled by them. At 6:00 this morning she crawled out of bed, crept into my office, and asked, “Can I watch Sinbad again?” So I shut down my email, and we started our day by watching The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
Nick,
“Clash of the Titans” would be another good one to watch. Also, see if you can track down The Wizard of Speed and Time at your local video store. While not Harryhausen, I really liked its “inside look” at making movies and if I remember correctly my kids liked the stop-action which is quite creative. No monsters other than studio executives and union bosses however.
–Greg
What are you doing, working the email at 6am?
Thanks for the tip, Greg. We watched “Clash of the Titans” already (Hannah loved the metal owl), but I hadn’t heard of “The Wizard of Speed and Time” before.
Thomas, I’m a geek. I believe that answers your question :)
please don’t forget “Sindbad and the Eye of the tiger”, “Gulliver” and “One Million Years B.C.”.
I remember about 18 Years ago meeting Mr. Harryhausen at a Film Festival in Munich. I was spellbound, not only by his technical aptitude but by his love creating the monsters and taking ever so much care – for me comparable to the aardvark-studios today.