The bevy of extras spread across these two discs will provide hours of entrainment for even the most familiar Harryhausen fan.
Audio:
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo tracks sound wonderful, the 5.1 doing a great job in presenting the magnificent Mischa Bakaleinikoff score.
Extras:
The bevy of extras spread across these two discs will provide hours of entrainment for even the most familiar Harryhausen fan. For those new to his work, it´s a great starting point for the man who inspired countless filmmakers, including Tim Burton and Peter Jackson. The feature-length commentary with Harryhausen, visual effects artists Randall William Cook ("Lord of the Rings") and John Bruno ("Titanic"), and producer Arnold Kunert is so full of interesting tidbits that it warrants multiple listens.
"Remembering It Came From Beneath the Sea" is a dry, yet pleasant twenty-two-minute documentary that while informative is slightly redundant in the face of the film´s commentary. Its major drawback, though, is the use of the newly colorized footage from the film instead of the original black-and-white. The best special feature to be found on the second disc is "Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen," a twenty-seven-minute featurette where the "Mars Attacks" director interviews one of his childhood idols. Burton wears his adoration for Harryhausen on his sleeve, and the genuine love he has for the man and his creations makes the interview extremely enjoyable.
"David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero" is an interesting twenty-two-minute look at the film´s composer, Mischa Bakaleinikoff, a relatively unrecognized music director with hundreds of film scores to his credit. Another fun inclusion on the second disc is "A Present Day Look at Stop Motion," where a noticeably nervous art student spends eleven-and-half minutes showing the methods in making a stop-motion film.
The three other special features are geared toward the more hard-core fans in the audience. A thirty-minute slide show of ad art and production photos set to the film´s soundtrack and "Digital Sneak Peek of It Came From Beneath the Sea...Again! Comic Book" are fun inclusions but aren´t required viewing. "Original Ad Artwork," on the other hand, is eighteen minutes of bliss for Harryhausen fans. Arnold Kunert shows off multiple original promo items like press books, posters, and other things that many fans would kill for. On a related note, if you possess any of these items and happen to want somebody dead, shoot me an e-mail; I think we can work something out.
Film Value:
New fans to Ray Harryhausen´s films, who were raised on Pixar films and CGI-filled crapfests like "Transformers," will have a hard time sitting through the first half hour of the flick. But once the octopus starts tearing across the Embarcadero, even the youngest viewers in the room will be enthralled with the stop-motion footage. "It Came from Beneath the Sea" won´t go down in the history books as Harryhausen´s best film, but without his work it wouldn´t be in the history books at all.
Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo tracks sound wonderful, the 5.1 doing a great job in presenting the magnificent Mischa Bakaleinikoff score.
Extras:
The bevy of extras spread across these two discs will provide hours of entrainment for even the most familiar Harryhausen fan. For those new to his work, it´s a great starting point for the man who inspired countless filmmakers, including Tim Burton and Peter Jackson. The feature-length commentary with Harryhausen, visual effects artists Randall William Cook ("Lord of the Rings") and John Bruno ("Titanic"), and producer Arnold Kunert is so full of interesting tidbits that it warrants multiple listens.
"Remembering It Came From Beneath the Sea" is a dry, yet pleasant twenty-two-minute documentary that while informative is slightly redundant in the face of the film´s commentary. Its major drawback, though, is the use of the newly colorized footage from the film instead of the original black-and-white. The best special feature to be found on the second disc is "Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen," a twenty-seven-minute featurette where the "Mars Attacks" director interviews one of his childhood idols. Burton wears his adoration for Harryhausen on his sleeve, and the genuine love he has for the man and his creations makes the interview extremely enjoyable.
"David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero" is an interesting twenty-two-minute look at the film´s composer, Mischa Bakaleinikoff, a relatively unrecognized music director with hundreds of film scores to his credit. Another fun inclusion on the second disc is "A Present Day Look at Stop Motion," where a noticeably nervous art student spends eleven-and-half minutes showing the methods in making a stop-motion film.
The three other special features are geared toward the more hard-core fans in the audience. A thirty-minute slide show of ad art and production photos set to the film´s soundtrack and "Digital Sneak Peek of It Came From Beneath the Sea...Again! Comic Book" are fun inclusions but aren´t required viewing. "Original Ad Artwork," on the other hand, is eighteen minutes of bliss for Harryhausen fans. Arnold Kunert shows off multiple original promo items like press books, posters, and other things that many fans would kill for. On a related note, if you possess any of these items and happen to want somebody dead, shoot me an e-mail; I think we can work something out.
Film Value:
New fans to Ray Harryhausen´s films, who were raised on Pixar films and CGI-filled crapfests like "Transformers," will have a hard time sitting through the first half hour of the flick. But once the octopus starts tearing across the Embarcadero, even the youngest viewers in the room will be enthralled with the stop-motion footage. "It Came from Beneath the Sea" won´t go down in the history books as Harryhausen´s best film, but without his work it wouldn´t be in the history books at all.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.