Today, June 29th, is Ray Harryhausen’s birthday! To celebrate I watched The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. This is the first movie in which Ray did the animations all by himself. The story was inspired by The Fog Horn, written by his old friend, Ray Bradbury. The beast is actually a dinosaur called the Rhedosaurus that was frozen in ice for over 100 million years. I thought it was interesting that when the Rhedosaurus ate a policeman, it looked a lot like the T-Rex eating Gennaro in Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg is a big Harryhausen fan. My favorite part is the ending. The Rhedosaurus is destroying an amusement park. The hero scientist and a sniper ride to the top of a roller coaster to get a clear shot. I wanted them to miss. In 1953, it cost $210,000 dollars to make The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which is a fraction of what a monster movie would cost today. Here a link to a little documentary about the making of this classic.
Jen
6/29/2015 04:39:30 am
It is so interesting to see how the special effects were done back then. The movie itself is really fun to watch.
Chuck
6/30/2015 05:41:13 am
Another fun bit of trivia: the dinosaur skeleton in the museum was the same one used in Bringing Up Baby.
Danny
7/5/2015 03:35:49 am
I wanted them to miss too. Why can't the monsters ever win? Comments are closed.
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Nara DuffieTeen fantasy novelist and TEDx speaker. I love nature, books, movies, origami, singing, cooking, knitting, roller coasters, dogs, and a lot of other things. 
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