On Saturday, my wife, son and I went to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibition at the gallery of modern art in Edinburgh.
Ray's iconic and groundbreaking special effects, in The Valley of the Gwangi, Mysterious Island, the 3 Sinbad movies, Clash of the Titans and, of course, Jason and the Argonauts had me transfixed as a kid and have remained with me ever since. They chimed with a love of dinosaurs, mythical creatures and Greek legends which I had as a kid in the 70's and which led to D&D and fantasy role playing games in the 80's and still resonates with me today.
In the days before blue screen, green screen and cgi - Ray's monsters ruled...and even today their movements and their basic design informs and influence moviemakers and figure designers.
The exhibition runs until the 22nd of Feb and I really can't recommend it enough. A few years ago I saw the Kubrick exhibition at the design museum in London and while that impressed me with the exhibits and insight into Kubrick's processes and obsessions it had nothing on this.
Spread across the rooms of the 2nd campus building the exhibition includes the earliest of Ray's models and his influences in illustration and film. As you move through the rooms you encounter not only the creatures of the movies lovingly preserved by the Ray and Diana Harryhausen foundation, but Ray's wonderful incredibly detailed scene drawing (each a piece of art in itself) and descriptions of how he designed, built, animated, and filmed them.
All the classics are there.
At times, I got down on my hands and knees to look into the cabinets and stare at the detail.....and I was not the only one. Kids of all ages were doing the same as some were introduced to the creatures for the first time and others saw old "friends", like Pegasus, Talos or Son's of the Hydra's Teeth. (The toy versions of which apparently caused problems for parents and the museum gift shop staff as neither knew they glow in the dark leading to scared kids when they awoke up in the night!).
As you can tell I loved this show. If you have the chance - go see it....if not buy the book and watch a movie on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and you'll be smiling from ear to ear....just as I was.
