Friday, May 29, 2009

Harryhausen's War of the Worlds

I'm still too fuzzy-headed to do any serious posting -- perhaps after the weekend -- but, to tide you over till then, I thought I'd post a video clip I'd never seen before. It's a test animation Ray Harryhausen did in 1949 for a War of the Worlds film that was ultimately never made. Fascinating stuff.

9 comments:

  1. It's the Kraken (Clash of the Titans)!

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  2. I know it's Harryhausen, but until 0:35 I was still expecting to see a Clanger emerge.

    Coat > door > cab

    *sigh* Another one for the "what might have been" file. Good find James, and welcome back to the land of the living.

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  3. Yeah, and I hated that Kraken too. I think they should have had the giant Chicken from Mysterious Island come out.

    I do love the Sinbad movie stuff, and bringing it back to gaming terms, Rey inspired a lot of how I pictured the original D&D monsters when I was a kid (moving all jerky and unreal).

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  4. That was cool, although the Martian appeared to be grousing to himself the whole time.

    "Where the hell am I? Earth? Oh, crap!"

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  5. GAH! It's a good thing those weird little freaks died, how bizarre. I don't care much for marine life or things that look vaguely like marine life.

    And those tales you heard about people weirding out during the radio broadcast in the 30's? My grandfather was one of them and he freaked out with a shotgun and almost shot a bunch of people.

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  6. I don't care much for marine life or things that look vaguely like marine life.HP? Is that you?

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  7. the grinch who stole the octopus body

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  8. That alien looks the closest to what HG Wells described in his War Of The Worlds. It could have been less anthropomorphic (HG Wells') were mutant man sized Octopuses with an exposed audio nerve in the back. They were perpetually sick and lethargic because the Earths gravity was about twice that of Mars and it was too cold and dry compared with what Martians had back home. So, that part of the animation is true to text.

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