Don Chaffey
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced by Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Plot Visuals
The peculiar children of the film's title are certainly unique but you can find plenty of other films in the DNA of "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," particularly skeleton soldiers from "Jason and the Argonauts," the X-Men franchise for making freaks lovable, "Groundhog Day" and even the underappreciated Hayden Christensen film "Jumper," which also has time shifting at its core and the same sort of evil force in Samuel L. Jackson.
Like some of the director's earlier works, this one features some moments of stop-motion animation (or at least computer animation made to appear that way) that are either lifted from other movies (a creepily modified toy battle scene reminiscent of views from "Toy Story") or are moments of homage, including a fun update on the legendary "Jason and the Argonauts" skeleton fight scene (that ends up far closer to Harryhausen's long-ago work than this year's earlier release of "Kubo and the Two Strings" that featured just one giant skeleton).
It’s all the more fun when the monsters finally turn up, with a joyous nod to the Ray Harryhausen skeleton battle from “Jason and the Argonauts” and a dining-room scene with bad guys gathered around the table to feast on a platter of children’s eyeballs.
While the finale pales in comparison to a lot of big-budget Hollywood action productions, it does have the advantage of using stop-motion animated skeletons, which pays homage to the stop-motion animation work of Ray Harryhausen in “Jason and the Argonauts.”
My favorite involves the children in a climactic battle with the monsters while receiving the aid of some reanimated skeletons — reminiscent of “Jason and the Argonauts.”
The piano Victor plays is labeled "Harryhausen," a tribute to the great and still- living animator auteur of Jason and the Argonauts, who visited the Corpse set, and the film's many dueling skeletons march in the footsteps of Ray Harryhausen's bony brigades.
That would be Burton's tribute to Ray Harryhausen, the man who brought stop-motion animation to the level of artistry ("Jason and the Argonauts," "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad").
The Odyssey (2026)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
influenced by Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Visuals Themes Plot
Not only is the humongous puppetry reminiscent of Jason and the Argonauts in its execution…
Meanwhile, Hercules (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts had people of non-Jewish descent playing Ancient Jews.
…though when I left the cinema I only had one fully formed emotion – the desire to watch Jason And The Argonauts again.
Years ago, a staple of weekend matinees were movies based on Greek mythology, whether it was badly-dubbed Italian films about Hercules, or cheesy epics with great stop-motion special effects by Ray Harryhausen, like “Jason and the Argonauts.”
And he has to, because the pair’s script is rather laughable, a melodramatic hodgepodge of ideas liberally borrowing from influences as varied The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars , Flash Gordon , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra and any number of Ray Harryhausen event spectacles ranging from 1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , to 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts , to 1981’s Clash of the Titans .
Experiencing the shot-in-Sydney Gods Of Egypt is a bit like watching Jason And The Argonauts (1963) or Clash Of The Titans (the 1981 original, not the remake), in that the action unfolds with a twinkle in its eye, and you’re either on board or you’re not.
That’s only appropriate for a movie that will make its most lasting impression on children, just as Clash of the Titans , Jason and the Argonauts and The Thief of Bagdad once did on me.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
Directed by Chris Columbus
influenced by Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Visuals
Director Chris Columbus and his crew take a literal approach to spectacle that denies the magnificent use of weirdness and scale that famed stop-action animator Ray Harryhausen brought to such myth-inspired classics as "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963) and "Clash of the Titans" (1981).
The movie uses classic special effects (like the homage to Jason and the Argonauts in the skeleton battle) along with practical special effects.
While the humor mostly works quite well, for me the most enjoyable aspect of “Army” is its unpretentious homages to the low-budget effects extravaganzas of the 60s and early 70s, most especially Ray Harryhausen’s animated skeletons in “Jason and the Argonauts” and the kind of effects favored by Roger Corman when he felt like spending a few extra dollars.
Borrowing a lot from the old Ray Harryhausen classics, especially Jason and the Argonauts, it involves Bruce Campbell getting transported to King Arthur's time in the 14th Century where he raises an army to battle evil.
We follow him as he develops his first crush, and falls in love with the movies after his dad takes him to see Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C.
In Belfast , Buddy watches the flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , and Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. , mouth agape for entirely different reasons.
Tellingly, the moments in which the film springs into living color mostly come at the cinema (where Buddy takes in such Technicolor spectacles as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and One Million Years B.C.) and at a stage production of A Christmas Carol (there is also a hardy-har moment in which Buddy reads a Marvel comic featuring a certain Norse deity).
Star Trek is on TV, One Million Years B.C. is playing at the Saturday matinee picture show, blue-eyed Celtic soul is on every jukebox, and a man just landed on the moon.
Branagh does use the choice to introduce a number of fairly brilliant bursts of color whenever Buddy and his family are at the cinema, watching movies of the time like One Million Years B.C. or even stage plays, which are jarringly, in color.
Color scenes #2 and #3 are both movie clips, with Buddy sitting in a theater with his family watching One Million Years B.C. and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
There's a strange detail where Barry has that Raquel Welch One Million Years B.C. poster on his wall--the last poster Andy uses to cover his escape hole in The Shawshank Redemption and a tribute now to a recently-passed icon.
If Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects are hardly a career pinnacle (director Don Chaffey extracted more personality from the work of Harryhausen in Jason and the Argonauts), a moment in which a pterodactyl snatches up Loana (Welch) in its claws only to drop her in a lake handily encapsulates Harryhausen's not-isolated ability to lift the film out of tedium--and the tendency for every time his creatures disappear to be a rude awakening indeed.
The filmmakers offer obvious nods to everything from Ray Harryhausen ("The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Jason and the Argonauts") to Bruce Lee ("Enter the Dragon") to George Lucas ("Star Wars").
Sure, it’s not an Oscar contender, but if you grew up watching “Jason and the Argonauts” on Channel 11 or caught “Krull” in theaters, this movie will take you back.
And the fantastical creatures of Mars—the green-skinned, 15-foot-tall Tharks, the massive albino apes who take Carter on in gladiatorial combat, and a sort of chubby half-dog, half-dinosaur that Carter adopts as a pet—are appealingly old-fashioned, like a digitally enhanced version of the stop-motion monsters Ray Harryhausen fashioned for movies like Jason and the Argonauts .
“Moana” is guided by “The Little Mermaid” and “Princess and the Frog” directors Ron Clements and John Musker , whose Disney pedigree goes back to “Pete’s Dragon” in 1977.
A Dog's Purpose (2017)
Directed by Lasse Hallström
influenced by The Three Lives of Thomasina (1963)
Themes
If you like this, try: The book by W. Bruce Cameron and the movies “My Dog Skip,” “Marley & Me,” and “The Three Lives of Thomasina”…
This is a huge movie, bearing the DNA of films like "Titanic," "Lord of the Rings" and "Jason and the Argonauts," with huge sets and huge characters, and it's nearly as enthralling as the glorious epics it emulates.
Petersen does streamline the plot by reducing the apparent length of the siege and leaving the gods out of the visible action--forgoing conventions forged by Jason and the Argonauts , The Clash of the Titans, and all previous films concerning classical mythology.
(Borrowings from "Terminator 2" and "Hellraiser," and even the old "Jason and the Argonauts," are easy to spot.)
Harryhausen would go on to perfect stop-motion animation ("Jason and the Argonauts," "Mysterious Island," "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad").
Back to my opening claim, then: most of Ray Harryhausen's films aren't "good", by any objective rules we might have - lucky, then, that the analysis of art is subjective - and even if we were to throw out the question of absolute quality, Jason and the Argonauts still isn't nearly his "best" film - there's more emotional depth in Mighty Joe Young, a far more coherent narrative in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , stronger characters and more sustained world-building in Mysterious Island , Raquel Welch's awe-inspiring cleavage in One Million Years B.C.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Directed by Peter Jackson
influenced by Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Visuals
And not only is Serkis's work surprisingly sensitive and nuanced given the technological wall between him and the rest of the movie, the effects work itself is deservedly legendary: Gollum was easily the best visual effects work in CGI history at his '02 debut, and while he's been surpassed a few times since then ( Avatar , the recent Life of Pi , the Jackson/Serkis collaboration King Kong ), it's shocking how much better Gollum has aged than pretty much any other 10-year-old CGI you could think of - compare, for example, Spider-Man from the same year, which looks absolutely rinky-dink now - not just because his realism remains largely intact, but because of the care and detail put into his visual personality by a very talented roster of effects artists, visual effects made with love that will, for that reason, still look good fifty years on, just like Ray Harryhausen's skeleton warriors in Jason and the Argonauts do today, or going even further back, the parade of wonders in Alexander Korda's production of…
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Directed by Simon West
influenced by Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Visuals
Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould seems to appreciate old-time special effects master Ray Harryhausen; Lara's tussles with the stone statues smack of Harryhausen-designed battles in the old "Jason and the Argonauts" flick of the early '60s.