A must for special-effects aficionados and geeky fantasy addicts everywhere.
The king of stop-motion animation lays out his varied career.
Like many kids, Harryhausen was enraptured by the incredible special-effects work he saw in King Kong (1933); unlike most kids, he turned that rapture into a lifelong calling. Back in the dark ages before computer-generated imaging made possible films like Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park (at which Harryhausen takes a mild jab here), the best way to make monsters come to life on film was through the stop-motion animation, a complex, painstaking process involving small, incredibly detailed models, rear-projection filming, and matte shots that merged the models into shots with live actors. In this combination of coffee-table book and career summation, Harryhausen describes how he moved from watching King Kong to actually working with that movie’s stop-motion master, Willis O’Brien, on another ape-gone-amok drama Mighty Joe Young (1950), and then to essentially taking O’Brien’s spot in Hollywood. For the first part of his career, Harryhausen specialized in effects for films about rampaging monsters like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1952) and It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), pioneering examples of shlocky B-movie magic still enjoyed today. But he’s best known for such films as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), which mix and match elements from Greek mythology and Arabian Nights. (A scene showing the Argonauts clashing swords with reanimated skeletons is a Saturday-afternoon TV staple.) Harryhausen is not the most engaging writer; he tends to pull out reviews to attest to his films’ success like an aged movie star mulling over yellowing clippings. But his body of work is interesting enough to justify a thorough read, and his descriptions of unrealized projects offer tantalizing glimpses of what could have been.
A must for special-effects aficionados and geeky fantasy addicts everywhere.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-8230-8402-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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