Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In An Animated Life (Aurum, 2003) Ray Harryhausen told the story of his career as the acknowledged grandmaster of special effects in the pre-computer era, the creator of classics such as One Million Years BC, Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of Titans.

In this book the focus is not on the movies themselves, but on the vast hoard of artwork which Harryhausen has carefully preserved in his London home. These include preliminary sketches, elaborate drawings of key scenes and carefully plotted storyboards, all produced as he sought backing for his next venture and prepared to undertake the laborious task of animating the prehistoric creatures, aliens and mythical monsters which stole scene after scene from the human actors. There are also the tiny, elaborately articulated models which Harryhausen created to play these roles and the bronzes which he cast to preserve their forms in perpetuity.

This stunning array of images is a tribute to the scope of Harryhausen' s imagination and his artistic skills which no student of special effects or cinema history will want to be without.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Harryhausen arguably is film's most important animator, edging out even his mentor, Kong pioneer Willis O'Brien, on the sheer weight of his work. This companion volume to his 2004 bio, An Animated Life (LJ 4/1/04), focuses on Harryhausen's career as an artist, and the book sports almost 300 images of his illustrations, clay sculptures, and wax models for the beasties that fueled the daydreams and nightmares of countless moviegoers, including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson (who provides a foreword), and many nameless FX artists, all of whom are Harry-hausen's creative stepchildren. So much of what viewers still see, from The Terminator's murderous robotic skeleton to the prehistoric terrors of Jurassic Park to Hellboy's demonic nasties, was spawned from childhood fantasies inspired by Harryhausen's work on Mighty Joe Young, Jason and the Argonauts, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Mysterious Island, etc., etc., etc. Harryhausen discusses each of his projects, detailing his creations from initial conceptual art through the construction of the underlying armature to the completed model ready for animation. The text is fun and informative, but the main feast here is the art, and the reproductions of the concept drawings and photos of the models are superb. Harryhausen is a living legend with a dedicated following ranging from Hollywood heavyweights to fawning fanboys, all of whom will love this book and want it on their shelves. Make sure it's on yours. Highly recommended.-Michael Rogers, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

In this current era of CGI (Common Gateway Interface) special effects, the serious film student will often overlook the history of earlier animation techniques. This lavishly illustrated book chronicles the oft-forgotten work of the master of stop-motion animation, Ray Harryhausen. It discusses his techniques from rough sketches to final filming and explores his creations in bronze sculpture. All of his film work is represented, from his Mother Goose adaptations (1946) to Clash of the Titans (1981), with particular emphasis on the Sinbad films (1950s-70s). Of notable interest in this volume are the full-color photographs of Harryhausen's models and drawings, plus illustrations from works of his influences, including Gustave Dore and Willis O'Brien. Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings and King Kong (2005), contributes the foreword and discusses the impact of Harryhausen on his own directorial style. A must for all film and 20th-century art collections, this is highly recommended for undergraduates interested in the technique of animation and sculptural modeling. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates; two-year technical program students. S. P. Beiting Ave Maria College

Booklist Review

Fantasy-film geeks revere Harryhausen's technically dazzling, meticulously crafted movies employing the painstaking technique of stop-motion animation. This coffee-table volume showcases the material Harryhausen discovered in his archives while researching Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life0 (2004). Harryhausen stresses that this book isn't as much about animation as about the previsualization that precedes making the models that will be filmed; accordingly, it focuses on sketches, key drawings, storyboards, and preliminary clay models rather than film stills. Thematic chapters cover Harryhausen's early work, including his stint with animation legend Willis O'Brien on the King Kong0 quasi sequel, Mighty Joe Young0 ; 0 dinosaur movies, such as One Million Years B.C.0 ; sci-fi flicks such as the 1953 War of the Worlds0 ; and the series of films portraying the adventures of Sinbad of, more or less, the Arabian Nights0 . Like O'Brien before him, Harryhausen hugely influenced younger filmmakers. In the introduction, Lord of the Rings0 director Peter Jackson says he grew up wanting to become Harryhausen's apprentice and notes that the animator's films "have lost none of their ability to provoke wonder." --Gordon Flagg Copyright 2006 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A collection of drawings, storyboards and photographs of models crafted by the stop-motion animation expert. Billed as "cinema's greatest master of fantasy" in an appreciative preface by Lord of the Rings director/King Kong remaker Peter Jackson, Harryhausen was already making puppets in junior high, shooting short animated films in his late teens. (Mom made the costumes and Dad built the sets for his early efforts.) He apprenticed with Willis O'Brien, legendary animator of the original King Kong, but after WWII found ways to adapt Obie's expensive techniques to the lower-budget films that were becoming the fantasy norm. His brief but informative text frequently notes compromises made to reduce costs: Cerberus having two heads instead of three, photos used instead of hand-painted backdrops for Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and One Million Years B.C. Wistful references to never-made projects, including War of the Worlds and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, remind readers how often a movie artist's dreams go unrealized. Harryhausen had a better track record than most, partly because he knew how to sell an idea; many of the dramatic charcoal and pencil drawings handsomely reproduced here were created for pitch sessions with the money men. Though drawings predominate, fans will particularly relish the less frequent color photos of the intricate models--usually latex rubber covering a metal armature, supplemented by a few bronze casts--of Harryhausen's most famous monsters: the snaky Medusa in Clash of the Titans, the many-armed Kali and the giant Cyclops from two of the Sinbad movies, the hydra and the amazing skeleton warriors in Jason and the Argonauts. The organization is thematic rather than chronological, putting all the aliens in one chapter, dinosaurs in another; a marvelous section entitled "Masks, Mayhem & Monsters" features a hilariously creepy photo of 21-year-old Harryhausen, wearing a Mr. Hyde mask he designed himself, flanked by a heavily made-up girlfriend with a rope around her neck. A nice companion piece to Harryhausen's autobiography, An Animated Life (2004). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.