Ray Harryhausen Collection (Blu-Ray) - Reviewed By Wes Vance
Reviewed By: Wes Vance
Released: October 7th 2008
Movies Directed by: Robert Gordon, Fred F. Sears, and Nathan Juran.
Released by: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
MOVIES: 4 out of 5 skulls
TRANSFER: 3 and a half out of 5 skulls
AUDIO: 3 and a half out of 5 skulls
The legendary special effects master Ray Harryhausen has been the inspiration of thousands for decades now. His career started in the 1930’s long before the advent of computers or even a lot of the modern makeup effects we know of today. The style he made his own was stop-motion animation. While it a very timely process all of the hard work definitely paid off and his work is continuously appreciated by newer generations all across the globe. Recently Sony Pictures Home Entertainment paid their own tribute to the man in this new Blu-Ray collection of Harryhausen’s most beloved films. I recently had the chance to sit down and experience the magic all over again for the first time in High Def. 
‘It Came From Beneath The Sea’ (1955) -
Shortly after a disastrous encounter with an unknown creature Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis) and Professor Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) work with Commander Pete Matthews (Kenneth Tobey) to identify it. After they realize the giant creature is a radioactive octopus it may be too late for the town of San Francisco as the stop motion creature attacks with a vengeance.
While this film is short, sweet and at the time monster movies were the big craze, I can’t help but appreciate this little movie for what it is: Pure Cheese. While watching I noticed the movie seemed to be shot on a shoestring budget. Regardless, the stop motion creature created by Harryhausen is top notch for it’s day and still looks excellent 53 years after its release. The picture quality on this one is pretty good as well. A really cool feature on a lot of these discs in this set is the angle feature where you can switch back and forth between the black and white version or the colorized version of the films.
‘Earth vs The Flying Saucers’ (1956) -
Decades before the friendly aliens of the 1980’s the aliens of this era are more evil, unconscionable beings. The film begins with Dr. Russell Marvin and his wife Carol traveling through the desert to a military base which uses rockets to study the upper atmosphere of the Earth. When all of the sudden they spot this bizarre swiftly moving object flying across the desert’s sky. During the sighting the duo accidentally record a cryptic message on their tape recorder. Once decoded the beings demand to speak with the leaders in Washington before 3 lunar days past or they will destroy the city and everyone in it! ‘Earth vs The Flying Saucers’ is a classic example of a cheesy b-movie from the 1950’s. Films like this one inspired a whole stable of children some of which went on to make classics even more well known as this film. Harryhausen’s spaceships in this film are often regarded as the quintessential look and were borrowed generation after generation. Harryhausen also did a lot more scale models of famous locations in Washington…and of course destroyed them which is even more memorable. Again a really fun flick and a good one to revisit every once in a while.
‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ (1957) -
An exploratory US spaceship returning from a mission to the planet Venus has crashed into the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Italy. The ship’s lone survivor Col. Calder awakens and asks about a specific tube that unfortunately for the Italians contains a native of the planet Venus…who’s embryo has hatched and is growing at a rapid rate and now is becoming violent when anyone gets in it’s way. Now with the authorities working with him, Calder must find a way to either contain the beast or destroy it, before it destroys Rome! ‘20 Million Miles’ is an amazingly fun movie and easily one of the most impressive overall projects Harryhausen worked on in his 60 plus year career in films. The creature in the film to which he calls the ‘Ymir’ is astonishingly realistic and even sympathetic sort of like Kong which undoubtedly inspired Ray to create his own monsters. While the next film we’re reviewing of his may be his most anticipated to Blu-Ray…’20 Million Miles’ is my favorite of the set!
‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ (1958) -
After Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) is cursed by a wicked magician to live the rest of her days as a 5 inch version of herself. Her fiancee Captain Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) and his men are sent to the island of Colossa to find the rare materials to cure her. Unfortunately for Sinbad and his friends, Colossa is the home to many monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops, a fire breathing Dragon, and even a skeleton soldier. With the help of a magical genie however there just may be hope for the Princess and Sinbad, or will the malicious magician foil their plans forever!? While ‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ remains my favorite in the set there is no doubt that ‘7th Voyage’ is the most ambitious of all the films. It’s the only movie here that was originally filmed in technicolor back in 1958 so it clearly looks a lot better in High Def. Another aspect of this one is the amazing creatures spread throughout the film. We have a total of 4 or 5 mythical creatures that Harryhausen brought to life as opposed to maybe 1 or 2 in the previous films. As a straight action/adventure movie ‘7th Voyage’ works very well too, its a lot of fun and should be appreciated by all!
The Extra Goodies / Audio/Video
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings us this ‘Ray Harryhausen Collection’ which features the four movies mentioned above. All of the films for their age look fine with only one of the films in ‘7th Voyage Of Sinbad’ looking phenomenal. Now maybe the reason behind this is it’s the only one originally in color. At any rate ‘7th Voyage of Sinbad’ was an amazing transfer especially considering the movie is 50 years old. The other three B&W films are brought to us restored and we have the option of switching back and forth between the colorized versions (thanks to Legend Films) or the original B&W versions. ‘It Came From Beneath The Sea’ , ‘Earth vs The Flying Saucers’ and ‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ are presented in 1080P High Def with their 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers. ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ is 1.66:1 in full 1080 goodness as well. On the audio side of things each film utilizes the Dolby TruHD 5.1 track and sounds fine…a movie of these’s age the audio isnt’ going to blow anyone out of the water but its good enough for me!
The real treasure here for Harryhausen fans are the extras available on each of these discs. Over 85 minutes of extras to be exact, not including the commentary tracks for each film. Lets go through the extras disc by disc, for ‘It Came From Beneath The Sea’ we have: Audio Commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects Artists Randall William Cook and John Bruno and Arnold Kunert, ‘Remembering It Came From Beneath The Sea’ Featurette, Director Tim Burton sits down with Harryhausen’ , David Schecter on Film Music’s Unsung Hero, A Present day look at Stop Motion, Digital Sneak Peek of It Came From Beneath The Sea…Again Comic and some Video photo galleries. For ‘Earth vs The Flying Saucers’ we have commentary featuring Ray Harryhausen and company, ‘Remembering Earth vs The Flying Saucers’ featurette, ‘The Hollywood Blacklist and Bernard Gordon’ featurette, Original Screenplay Credits, interview with Joan Taylor and more. ‘20 Million Miles To Earth’ has commentary with Harryhausen and company, sneak peek of the ‘20 Miles’ comic, ‘Remembering 20 Million Miles To Earth ‘featurette, ‘The Colorization Process’ featurette and more. Now the ‘7th Voyage of Sinbad’ BD is also being released by itself as the 50th anniversary edition and has an amazing amount of extras as well: Audio Commentary with Harryhausen and company, Featurettes including: ‘Remembering The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad’ , ‘The Harryhausen Legacy’ , ‘The Music Of Bernard Herrmann’ , Photo Gallery, Music Videos and More.
Final Thoughts: This is the ultimate set to get fans of Harryhausen and his legacy. Not only are these Blu-Ray discs a work of love from the studio itself but down to the individuals involved in the various segments as well. You can tell everyone involved really wanted to pay the highest respects to a legend in movie making. I can’t recommend any set more than this one, the movies were great, the Blu-Rays were fun and had innovative features and all at a fair price to boot.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!