Category: nostalgia

What Ray Harryhausen taught me

While we’re on the subject of stop-motion animation, today just happens to be the birthday of the granddaddy of them all (well, after Willis O’Brien that is).

7th voyage of sinbad poster

Yes, Ray Harryhausen, the man who gave us the wonderful creatures that inhabit films such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Three Worlds of Gulliver, the original Clash of the Titans, and, of course, Jason and the Argonauts, is 90 of the Queen’s years old.

Long before the shiny and sparkly CGI was used to divert the attention from a lack of character development and plot, Harryhausen was providing the special effects that brought to life mechanical Minotaurs, giant Cyclops, towering Krakens and an army of skeletons.

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Tags: doug mcclure, fantasy, ray harryhausen, science fiction, sinbad, stop-motion animation, valley of the gwangi, warlords of atlantis, writing

categories nostalgia, sci fi, writing | | datetime June 29, 2010 5:48 pm | comments Comments (0)

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him…”

Whilst knocking out a post for Head Full of Snow the other day, I had cause to invoke the name of Steve Austin, or The Six Million Dollar Man to give him his more familiar moniker.

six million dollar man vs bigfootJustin Lee Collins persuades Lee Majors to appear on ‘Bring Back… The Bionic Man’

I remember watching the TV series as a nipper and I’m sure we always referred to it simply as ‘The Bionic Man’ – in fact I’d have wagered that this was the UK title (in much the same way that Top Cat was renamed Boss Cat) but I appear to be wrong on that count. Couldn’t find any evidence to back it up, anyway.

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Tags: 1970s, bionic man, cyborg, lee majors, martin caidin, nostalgia, sci fi, six million dollar man, steve austin

categories nostalgia, sci fi, TV | | datetime February 18, 2010 1:25 pm | comments Comments (0)