Farewell To A Fantasy Master!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    No, girls, I am not crossing over into the S and M scene; if you think designer digs cost a lot, you should see the cash some of these leather guys haul out for their regalia!!!!!!!!!  And for what??????  Big deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Ray Harryhausen's passing marks the end of a fantasy era in films.  An era when special effects, or creating them, was an art form, instead of images engineered on a computer, so that, even when finished on screen, they don't look as authentic as their earlier stop animated counterparts.

                                       When, in "Twenty Million Miles To Earth," the baby Mighty Ymir hatched out of the jellied suppository, darlings, I thought it was the cutest thing!!!!!!!!!  And still do!!!!!!!!!!  I wanted one for a pet!!!!!!!!!!!!  Even when it grew to monstrous proportions, and menaced Rome, (I think it was Rome!!!!!!!!) I still thought it was cute, and felt sorry for it--though I would have trimmed that goatee!!!!!!!!!! Puberty doesn't do a number on just humans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Remember the octopus that wrapped itself around San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, in "It Came From Beneath The Sea??????"  A creature that could actually upstage Faith Domergue???????  Both it and that sequence were created by Ray Harryhausen.

                                           And how about when the giant Neptune pops up out of the sea, and separates the rocks for the sailors to pass, in "Jason And The Argonauts?"  Still one of my favorite moments, thanks to the Harryhausen artistry!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             But my absolute favorite was the nightclub scene in "Mighty Joe Young," (the 1949 original!!!!!!!!!!!!) where a glamorous Terry Moore plays "Beautiful Dreamer," on a piano, while on a nightclub  stage, and then the platform is lifted, to reveal, Joe, the gorilla, holding her up!!!!!!!!!!!!  Touching, beautiful, and cute to boot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thanks to Ray Harryhausen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               Not only is he gone, so is the craftsmanship that resulted in his creations!!!!!!!!!  Is there anything to compare with them today????????????

                                               Ray Harryhausen not only created monsters, he created monsters with heart!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                Today, they have no soul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!