The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen: Voume One: 1955-1960

This review is for Blu-Ray version of 'The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen' released in October, 2017.First off, this Blu-ray set is region free and works great on American Blu-ray players or those in region 1.So if you are concerned about these Blu-ray's not working, put your mind at rest.Second, these releases are very similar to the American versions. They have pretty much the same extra's. I will list them below.The packaging is excellent and each movie comes in a separate case and the slipcover encasing all the movies and is thick and solid. It's not flimsy like many others.BLU-RAYS: 'The 3 World of Gulliver' has a 4K restoration.'It Came from Beneath the Sea' and '20 Million Miles to Earth' have a HD restoration and the picture looks the same as in the Sony Entertainment set released in 2014.The pictures of all 3 movies are excellent with no noticeable imperfections.EXTRA'S: These are abundant. The set comes with a beautiful 75 page booklet with lots of photo's and information about the movies and Ray Harryhausen. Other extra's for each movie with most obviously focusing on Ray Harryhausen. All movies have subtitles. The rest of the extra's are as follows:3 Worlds of Gulliver:- Commentary with visual effects artist Randall William Cook and film historians C. Courtney Joyner and Steven C. Smith.- Interview with Peter Lord about Ray Harryhausen- Interview with David Sproxton about Ray Harryhausen- Interview with Dave Alex Riddett about Ray Harryhausen- Theatrical trailer- Image Gallery20 Million Miles to Earth:- Audio commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett and Arnold Kunert- An interview with Dennis Muren called 'Finding Harryhausen'from 2017- A documentary on the making of the film called 'Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth'from 2007.- An interview with actress, Joan Taylor from 2007.- The Colourization Process- '20 Million Miles More' - a sample of pages from the comic book- Super 8 version- Theatrical trailerIt Came From Beneath the Sea:- Audio commentary with Ray Harryhausen, Arnold Kunert, Randall William Cook and John Bruno- 'Tidal Wave of Terror' - A discussion by Joe Dante- Remembering 'It Came From Beneath the Sea' - Interviews with Ray Harryhausen, John Bruno and John Canemaker- 'Tim Burton sits down with Ray Harrhausen'- 'A Present Day Look at Stop Motion'- Original ad artwork- Sample pages from 'It Came From Beneath the Sea...Again' comic book- Theatrical trailer and Ernest Dickerson trailer commentaryPLOT/SUMMARY:3 Worlds of Gulliver: Dr. Gulliver is a poor doctor who wants to go on a voyage around the world in hopes of making a lot of money. He has a fiancee, Elizabeth who doesn't want him to go. Nevertheless he leaves and Elizabeth sneaks on board. While out in the ocean, Gulliver falls overboard during a storm. He washes up on shore in the land of Lilliput, a land populated with tiny people. Gulliver assists the little people with their war with a neighboring land. After the war, not liking what he is hearing from the Lilliputians, leaves. Gulliver ends up on the island of Brobdingnag. This island is populated by giants. He is captures and becomes a 'pet' of the king. Elizabeth has somehow also ended up in captivity by the King. The King marries the two of them and they live in a toy castle. Gulliver is declared a practitioner of witchcraft because he knows a lot more about science than the local giants. From here with assistance, Gulliver and Elizabeth escape and make it back home.20 Million Miles to Earth: At the open of the movie, a space ship crash lands in the ocean off the coast of Sicily. A group of fisherman board the space ship and rescue the one remaining survivor, Colonel Bob Calder. A young local boy discovers a capsule on the beach and hides it. He sells the contents to a zoologist, Dr. Leonardo. Leonardo does not realize that what he is buying will hatch into a creature. His daughter, Marisa discovers the creature walking around. Leonardo locks the Ymir into a cage. The creature grows very quickly.When the U.S. government discovers that the capsule has been found they immediately leave to retrieve it. Once they get to Leonardo, who is on his way to Rome, it is too late. The creature has escaped. The Ymir goes hunting for sulfur and finds it on a farm. Sulfur is it's food source on Venus. The farmer attacks the Ymir and the Ymir kills the farmer. The military captures the Ymir and brings it to the Rome Zoo. The Ymir grows and escapes again and gets loose in Rome. From here, the military has to stop the creature.It Came From Beneath the Sea: A United States nuclear submarine, captained by Commander Pet Mathews (KennethTobey) runs into an unknown large creature deep beneath the ocean surface in the Pacific. The sub is able to disengage but has the remains of the creature caught in the propeller blades. The sub heads back to port.Back on shore, a team of marine biologists, Lesley (Faith Domergue) and John (Donald Curtis) claim that the tissue is from a large octopus.People and ships begin to disappear in the Pacific. Lesley and John theorize that hydrogen bomb blasts have driven the giant octopus from the depths of the ocean. The creature heads in the direction of San Francisco where it eventually ends up at the Golden Gate Bridge. From here the military plots to stop the octopus from causing further fatalities.PRODUCTION/COMMENTS:3 Worlds of Gulliver:This was my least favorite of any Ray Harryhausen movie. I just didn't like the story.The special effects, though good were just ordinary. There isn't a whole lot of Harryhausen's signature stop-motion. That's probably why I don't like it as much. I felt that the characters in the movie behaved in a very unbelievable way considering what they were facing. Of course I know I am over reacting but it just didn't feel like Gulliver was moving around on Earth. It felt like he was just in a fantasy land.This movie stars Kerwin Mathews as Gulliver. He would also star as Sinbad in another Harryhausen movie.Another thing I didn't like is that the title is misleading. Yes, he is in 3 worlds if you consider his home one of the worlds but I was expecting him to visit another fantastical place like he did in the novel. In this movie he really just visits 2 places.20 Million Miles to Earth:Even though this movie was shot in black and white you can watch it in color. This is what I did. I thought it looked very good. This movie was colorized in 2007.This movie was shot in Italy, more specifically Rome. It was shot there because that is where Ray Harryhausen wanted to go. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures.The name 'Ymir' is not used in the movie. It was decided to not use it to avoid confusion with an arabic word.I found it quite unbelievable that the military were using destructive weapons at the Colosseum and in the ancient ruins around Rome.I always thought that this was one of Harryhausen's best jobs. I know he spent more time on some of the others. But I thought the Ymir looked as good as any creature in any of his movies. The fight with the elephant was superbly done. I guess when animals have no fur, they look better than those that do. The Ymir at all sizes looked as lifelike as any creature I have seen with stop motion animation.A personal note.....until now, I had thought that the main star of the movie was Kenneth Tobey!, the star of, 'It Came from Beneath the Sea and 'The Thing' among others. Of course now I know it was William Hopper.It Came From Beneath the Sea:This movie was shot in 1955 and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. It had a budget of around $150,000.This movie was shot mostly in the San Francisco naval yard. The director had to use hand held camera's for the scenes inside the submarine. Some actual navy sailors were used in the movie including the executive officer.A few of the scenes were shot on a sound stage.Harryhausen used an Octopus with only six legs to save time and money. He figured nobody would notice. It really isn't noticeable at all. My only problem with this is that once he revealed this, I took notice and watched the movie with an eye toward the legs and then it bothered me!In order to save even more money, a love scene between Col. Matthews and Joyce was cut. Therefore, their romance never actually takes off in the movie.This movie is my second least favorite of Harryhausen's movies. The movie can be boring at times. I like the look of the Octopus and the scenes with it are impressive. But the overall plot is just lacking. There really isn't a lot of drama. The main characters are for the most part on land and not threatened by the creature because it can't leave the ocean.The film crew was denied permits to film in San Francisco because it is believed they were afraid the movie would undermine confidence in the structural integrity of the Golden Gate Bridge.RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: This is highly recommended for all fans of Ray Harryhausen movies, stop-motion animationand science fiction/fantasy film fans.This is 5 stars all the way. Every movie looks excellent and every movie has an abundance of extra's. There isn't really anything negative to say about this release.The only issue might be that you own these movies already. It's up to you if you want to upgrade. There are a few more extra's but two of the movies have been released before with pretty much the same picture.

This is a beautifully produced and packaged set with abundant interesting special features. The video and sound quality of the discs is excellent. The movies are fun. This is a great buy for anyone with an interest in Ray Harryhausen. The excellent supplemental materials mean that this is also a good buy for someone who would like to learn why Harryhausen is such an important figure in cinema history.

Perfect set

The selection here seems to be a bit of an odd assortment. Much as I enjoy THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER, it seems a bit out of place with IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH. Instead of the fantasy film, you can't help but wonder why the second Ray Harryhausen/Charles Schneer sci-fi classic, EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, wasn't used instead. Nor does it appear in the second volume collected by Indicator/Powerhouse Films. The company has released three sets of three films each for Ray H, which means that FLYING SAUCERS is the only one of the ten films Harryhausen did for Columbia not to be given the deluxe treatment. Would like to have seen that film included here, with Gulliver appearing in that final set. (While that means that would make it a four film package, I don't think that would have been much of a problem...the four title approach is how this company is handling their upcoming Hammer Films releases.) Maybe it was ignored because there were no creatures? (The stop-motion maestro used his skills to bring the UFOs to life, this time around.)

2 of the 3 discs skip so bad it isnt even funny!

Hier sollte sich Koch Media mal ein Bild machen, statt die Filme nur neukomprimiert, auf Blu ray aufzuspielen und nur die Extras der Columbia-DVDs oder Sony-DVDs (70th 7. Voyage of Sinbad) zu übernehmen.Hier gibt es die drei Klassiker, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA-DAS GRAUEN AUS DER TIEFE (Robert Gordon, 1955),20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH-DIE BESTIE AUS DEM WELTENRAUM (Nathan Juran, 1957), THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER-HERR DER DREI WELTEN (Jack Sher, 1960) in nie dagewesener Bildqualität.Die Filme wurden allesamt 2-4K abgetastet und liegen im Originalformat 1:1,66 vor!Die Extras unterscheiden sich nicht nur anhand von mehr Bildern der Bildergalerien, gegenüber der Columbia oder Koch Media-DVDs und Koch Media-Blu ray's es gibt neue Interviews, Dokumentationen und wenn vorhanden die Super-8-Fassung, so wie auch die Trailer in restaurierter Form und ein reichhaltiges, bebildertes Büchlein gibt es obendrauf.Die Blu ray's / DVDs haben nur englische Tonspuren und Untertitel!So sind auch die anderen, beiden Boxen ausgestattet, also nur in Englisch!Fazit: Tolle Sammleredition, besser geht es nicht!!

This set is as expertly packaged and researched as the Sinbad Collection, containing a plethora of fascinatin extras and insights on RAY HARRYHAUSEN and his craft. I don't usually watch colourised B&W movies because, like 3-D, movies don't require gimmicks if they are any good, but the colour is so superb and natural, as well as being endorsed by Harryhausen himself, that one might be watching a movie originally made in colour which, as stated by the great effects artist himself, if they had the money at the time these films would be in colour anyway. The HD picture quality is faultless, the audio is very good, and all the documentaries - especially the one on composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff - are worthy of multiplie viewings, like these films themselves.

Three classic Harryhausen movies, 20 Million Miles to Earth is the stand out, the Ymir is one of Ray's best creatures, up there with the Cyclops, Medusa, Talos, the Skeletons, Kali, oh you get the idea, they're all amazing! IT is my least favourite of his B/W monster movies but still great. Gulliver is great fun as well, only a couple of animated creatures, but the overall effects are still brilliant for the time. A great set, but volume two and the Sinbad Trilogy sets are even better. So go and get the lot! (Followed by Gwangi, Joe Young, Clash, Saucers, Beast and B.C.....!!)And then get the Willis O'Brien movies - King Kong, Son of Kong, Lost World (Newly restored!), etc....

It so good to see these amazing Harryhausen films again at there best yet.The hd upgrades are well worth the wait,the colourised versions very well done.Great bonus content and a very informative 80 page booklet.To some these may look dated but to those of a certain age childhood memories will come flooding back by the bucket load.Can't wait for vol 2 next month.

Great treatment of several of my favorite films. Would have been nice to package with more of a theme between films but not much of a complaint. Glad to have them!