...ode to ray.

for those of you looking for less substance but more "wow effects" in movies, just simply watch anything with a bunch of cgi explosions, and alien invasions, ect. and just appreciate it for what it is: some dude sitting in front of a computer for a day or two creating it all in some animation program, then dubbing it into some poor attempt at a plot and character growth story. want to see a great movie, made with blood sweat and tears, countless days and months of creating, and a classic tale of trying to set out for a goal, and learning that it can only be accomplished through honorable means, then sit through "Jason and the Argonauts". this classic tale has it all. action, adventure, hero, heroin, good vs. evil, proper character development through the plot building decisions throughout, and some amazing effects.(especially for it's time.) in a time when there was no use of computers to control camera motion, green-screens, cgi, and ect., film makers had to rely on what they could do with their hands, and out of this necessity was bred the wonderfully amazing art of stop-motion-animation, and a man by the name of Ray Harryhausen made it his goal to use this craft in ways not seen before.
realistic plastic and clay models were made, and photographed manually with a motion of 1 millimeter at a time....hours upon hours of hard, meticulous work, for merely a minute or so of an action sequence.
during world war 2, he was employed by certain military branches to create stop-motion-animation educational film shorts on the dangers and benefits of certain tactics on the battlefield, where it would be impossible to have the proper equipment to document what it was really like.
...wanna watch a good movie? be engaged by the characters, be impressed by the visual effects of "hand-made" hard work? then look up some of his films. you won't be dissapointed.

How to Bridge a Gorge (1942) (producer)
Tulips Shall Grow (1942) (chief animator)
Mother Goose Stories (1946) (producer)
The Story of Little Red Riding Hood (1949) (producer, animator)
Mighty Joe Young (1949) (first technician)
Rapunzel (1951) (producer)
Hansel and Gretel (1951) (producer)
The Story of King Midas (1953) (producer)
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1954) (visual effects)
It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) (visual effects)
The Animal World (1956) (effects technician)
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) (special photographic, animation effects)
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) (visual effects)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) (associate producer, visual effects)
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) (visual effects)
Mysterious Island (1961) (special visual effects)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (associate producer, visual effects)
First Men in the Moon (1964) (associate producer, visual effects)
One Million Years B.C. (1966) (special visual effects)
The Valley of Gwangi (1969) (associate producer, visual effects)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) (producer, visual effects)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) (producer, visual effects)
Clash of the Titans (1981) (producer, visual effects)
The Story of the Tortoise & the Hare (2003) (director, co-producer, animator)
Ray Harryhausen Presents: The Pit and the Pendulum (2007) (executive producer)