The 2011 documentary film Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan focuses not only on the great special effects filmmaker’s work but mainly on his influence on subsequent films. Among those who praise his inspiration are directors Peter Jackson, Terry Gilliam, Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Tim Burton, John Landis, Henry Selick, John Lasseter, Joe Dante, and Steven Spielberg.

Although the film’s interviews are largely with directors and special effects creators and supervisors, two actors in Harryhausen’s films appear, John Cairney from Jason and the Argonauts and Caroline Munro from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

Author Ray Bradbury speaks of meeting Ray Harryhausen when they were both eighteen. He loved Harryhausen’s dinosaurs and the films he made of them using stop motion animation. Bradbury declared at that moment that they would be friends for life. Harryhausen suggested Bradbury might write a dinosaur story and Harryhausen would animate it. Bradbury said he would pray for that and his prayers were answered when his story from The Saturday Evening Post, “The Fog Horn,” inspired a motion picture, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which Harryhausen animated.

This documentary features explanations of how special effects were achieved as far as combining the monsters, which Harryhausen always called creatures, with live action. It surpasses some other documentaries in this respect. Harryhausen appears with many enlightening comments.

The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation was formed to preserve, protect, and promote Harryhausen’s myriad physical creations which he carefully saved over many years. Harryhausen’s daughter Vanessa appears to relate what it was like to grow up with a father who baked latex rubber creatures in the family oven.

This is a delightful and informative documentary which I highly recommend.