List Price: $19.94 Our Price: $17.95YOU SAVE $1.99!
Buy it
DVD Jason and the Argonauts
Arguably the most intelligently written film to feature the masterful stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts is a colorful adventure that takes full advantage of Harryhausen's "Dynarama" process. Inspired by the Greek myth, the story begins when the fearless explorer Jason (Todd Armstrong) returns to the kingdom of Thessaly to make his rightful claim to the throne, but the gods proclaim that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. Consulting Hera, the queen of gods, Jason recruits the brave Argonauts to crew his ship, and they embark on their eventful journey. Along the way they encounter a variety of mythic creatures, including the 100-foot bronze god Talos, the batlike Harpies, the seven-headed reptilian Hydra, and an army of skeletons wielding sword and shield. This last sequence remains one of the finest that Harryhausen ever created, and it's still as thrilling as anything from the age of digital special effects. Harryhausen was the true auteur of his fantasy films, and his brilliant animation evokes a timeless sense of wonder. Jason and the Argonauts is a prime showcase for Harryhausen's talent--a wondrous product of pure imagination and filmmaking ingenuity. The DVD contains an informative interview with Harryhausen by filmmaker John Landis. --Jeff Shannon
This is usually available for a better price than the Amazon one, but it is still good value here at Amazon. The interview with Harryhausen about this project is both enlightening, and entertaining. Landis definitely conveys the fans sense of enjoyment when talking with Ray... worth a watch for the interview alone.
The Film itself is fabulous in visual quality, and also in audio playback on a 5.1 sound system. Some shots show up the lesser quality of the source tape, however these parts are few and far between.The majority of the film is done superbly, and illustrate a way of film making that has been very absence from many films, and it definitely shows that lower budget does not have to translate as lesser quality.
For many people, I suspect they already know the story from this film, and the favorite moments will no doubt be ingrained from previous versions. The aspect ratio brings back more of the original, and instead of the TV edits, the fun of seeing this in it's fullness is great. I Hope to get more of the Signature series, and hopefully the work done by the masterful Ray Harryhausen will be so very evident.
My personal favorite sequence is the warriors brought back by the teeth of the Hydra, and the quality of the DVD definitely exceeded my expectations and my memory.
For those concerned about it, the film is very definitely a Family friendly film, and one I would highly recommend to all fans of films, and especially of the films that were made with such loving care, and acted with a passion for superb drama.
ENJOY
IT STILL "WOWS" ME!!!
Back in the late 1980's i remember driving down Woodward Ave. in Detroit and seeing an old, boarded up movie theater. On the Marquee was "jason & the Argonauts". Now I don't know if the theater had been closed since the 1960's or if maybe they were having a revival but it gave me a smile everytime I saw it because this was one of my all-time favorite fantasy films. Jason, played by Todd Armstrong, is the rightful ruler of the throne of Thessaly which has been usurped. To win the throne Jason and his men must undertake a perilous quest to find the legendary Golden Fleece. It is based strong on ancient Greek myths as Jason and his crew do battle with Winged harpies, the seven Headed Hydra, and Talos, the gigantic iron Golem who somewhat resembles the Colossus of Rhoads. In fact Special Effects wizard Ray Harryhausen stated in reviews that the Colossus was the inspiration from Talos who in myth wasn't that large.
Perhaps the most famous segment is when King Aeetes uses the teeth of Hydra to bring to life several skeletons to battle Jason and his men. The meticulous animation in this part is legendary as the real-life actors battle seemlessly against opponents who were not there and were added in later. The time it had to take to animated all these skeletons moving and interacting with the real actors is mind-boggling. The same goes for the battle with the Hydra which harryhausen stated was particularly hard because you had to move the seven heads each a little bit in every frame and if he got distracted he'd forget if a head was moving back or forward. That attention to detail is just incredible.
It's not a great film in terms of the acting. Not much above, if at all, any of the sword and sandal films of that period. But it's Harryhausen's wizardry that really sets this one a part and makes it a classic.
PRODIGIOUS PRE-CGI HISTRIONICS
Almost every modern special-FX auteur worthy of a magazine interview seems to draw inspiration from someone named Harryhausen. I decided it was time to let curiosity get the better of me and rent this DVD from, gulp, 1963.
Turns out it is an epic Greek adventure, with effects that must quite easily have made it the Lord of the Rings of the sixties. Only more creative, and let me tell you why.
None of its effects are CGI, we were using computers the size of living rooms at the time. No, it makes do with stopmotion action models instead. They're not half as bad as I had expected.
Forty years hence the antics of its protagonists Jason and Hercules may seem rather commonplace as the ilk of Xena the Warrior Princess shake a similar jig on our weekly television shows, replete with all the spicy camp humor, but what absorbs us are the characters of the film's mythic creatures that rise well above their inevitably pasty appearance.
Given the context the acting is pretty non-cheesy and breathes life into fairly tenable set designs. The pace rumbles along just fine, and there's even a stunning cameo from skeletons that defy the times they were created in. A dynamic yet unintrusive score rounds out the package rather nicely.
Shed your reservations about old-hat action adventures, this is a great rental not only for gratification of nostalgic urges but as a testament to how grand films can be made with very little props from technology.
You have a classic tale full of drama, passion, and adventure. A tale of universal archetypes that speak to everyone. A tale that has remained unfailingly popular for thousands of years. Why not spice it up with a wacky mechanical owl? Such was the thinking behind Clash of the Titans. Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, and Harry Hamlin (one of these things is not like the others...) star in a toga-ripper about a valiant hero, capricious immortals, and lots and lots of giant stop-action monsters. Perseus (Hamlin) is the favored son of the god Zeus (Olivier), but he has unwittingly ticked off the sea goddess Thetis (Smith). Just to make things worse, Perseus falls in love with the lovely Princess Andromeda, who used to be engaged to Thetis's son. Soon Perseus is off on one quest after... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.96 Your Price: $6.47YOU SAVE $8.49!
Buy it
A skeleton grabs a sword and slashes viciously at Sinbad. A 9-foot-tall Neanderthal man fights to the death with a saber-toothed tiger. All the while, the boys and girls in the fourth row forget about their popcorn and are hypnotized by the images on the screen. It's hard to believe so many years have passed since the last Sinbad movie held kids spellbound at Saturday matinees. The movies were never perfect, with stories that were sometimes little more than frameworks to drape Ray Harryhausen's special effects over. The performances left a bit to be desired at times, and the direction could be a bit choppy. What they did accomplish, however, was to give countless 8- and 10-year-olds their first taste of the magic that motion pictures were really capable of. Those grade-schoolers, of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kerwin - Wayne - Law - Ray Harryhausen DVD Release Date: Released the 11 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $31.95 Your Price: $28.76YOU SAVE $3.19!
Buy it
Jules Verne's classic adventure is perfectly matched with Ray Harryhausen's timeless movie magic in Mysterious Island. Based on Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this rousing Civil War-era fantasy begins when a band of Union war prisoners (and one Confederate straggler) escape in a hot-air balloon, which crash-lands on the titular island of mystery. Verne's novel doesn't include any gigantic creatures, but Harryhausen's version--under the capable direction of genre specialist Cy Endfield--features giant oysters, bees, a prehistoric Phororhacos (a giant chickenlike bird!), an undersea cephalopod, a giant crab, and enough danger to keep its resourceful ensemble on constant alert. Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom, ably filling James Mason's shoes) is a third-act hero,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Craig - Joan Greenwood Director(s): Cy Endfield DVD Release Date: Released the 29 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.94 Your Price: $17.95YOU SAVE $1.99!
Buy it
When the evil magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) shrinks Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) to roughly half the size of a Barbie doll, only one thing can restore her: the egg of a Roc. The Roc, of course, is a gigantic bird that lives on the remote island of Colossa. Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) hires a crew of mutiny-minded convicts and sets sail, Sokurah in tow, but runs afoul of a fire-breathing dragon, a very ticked off Cyclops, and an equally crabby two-headed mutant Roc. This swashbuckling adventure was the first installment of the Sinbad films, and decades later it still has the power to hold viewers spellbound. Thatcher is terrific as the sinister, shaven-headed Sokurah, mugging perfectly for the camera, and Mathews is suitably dashing as Sinbad.
James Mason plays Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, a scientist hoping to find the world's core in this 1959 adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. He leads his unusual party on an expedition to the center of the earth, by way of a volcano in Iceland. On the way, they encounter enormous mushrooms and giant prehistoric monsters. Produced by Michael Todd with then-spectacular special effects, the story was modernized to 1950s sensibilities. Mason gives this class, while Arlene Dahl and Diane Baker are the romantic interests. And Pat Boone is more palatable than you might expect as a secondary lead. You can watch this with your children and not be bored, and they will surely love it. --Rochelle O'GormanMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Pat Boone - James Mason Director(s): Henry Levin DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $11.24YOU SAVE $3.74!
Buy it
