Mighty Joe Young: Ray Harryhausen and Mighty Joe Young

This short documentary was made for the DVD release of "Mighty Joe Young". It consists of a couple guys interviewing Ray Harryhausen about his creature, Joe (despite the film being credited to Willis O'Brien, Harryhausen actually did most of the animation of Joe). Harryhausen brings one of his armatures--a stripped down version of Joe Young that let you see the structure underneath the skin. He discusses how they made Joe look as real as they did, what materials were used, difficulties using rubber on the armature, how they made the eyes move, etc.. It's all a bit dull for the average viewer, but for big fans of the film or Harryhausen, it's a wonderful opportunity to see the man discussing his work. Well worth seeing and able to cram a lot into only 12 minutes.

Oddly, I enjoyed this a bit more than the full-length film! Instead of a somewhat schmaltzy film (and "Mighty Joe Young" was), you hear about the technical aspects of the movie and they were pretty interesting.