The Monstrous World of Ray Harryhausen Quiz

Answer: Rhedosaurus

"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) was directed by Eugène Lourié and featured a prehistoric monster awakened by atomic testing in the Arctic. The creature, Rhedosaurus, wreaks havoc as it heads towards New York City, and is eventually killed after being shot by a weapon loaded with a radioactive isotope.

It was the first film for which Ray Harryhausen received a full special effects credit, and the creature was animated using the stop-motion process which became his trademark.

Answer: Giant octopus

The 1955 film "It Came From Beneath the Sea" was directed by Robert Gordon, and once again Ray Harryhausen was required to animate a sea monster affected by nuclear testing. On this occasion the creature was a giant octopus, although budgetary constraints meant that the creature only had six animated tentacles in many of its scenes.

In the climax of the film, the octopus arrives in San Francisco and attacks the Golden Gate Bridge, before being destroyed by a jet-propelled atomic torpedo.

Answer: Cyclops, naga (snake woman), roc

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958) was the first of several films based on characters from mythology that were animated by Ray Harryhausen, including two others featuring the character of Sinbad the sailor from the Arabian "One Thousand and One Nights" stories.

The more fantasy-based storylines gave Harryhausen the scope to animate a range of different creatures. In this film, Sinbad and his followers encounter a cyclops, a snake-woman or naga, and the roc, a giant bird.

Answer: Crab, phorusrhacos (giant flightless bird)

The 1961 film "Mysterious Island" was loosely based on Jules Verne's 1874 novel of the same name. Both versions feature a group of soldiers from the American Civil War escaping in a balloon, which then crash-lands on the eponymous island. The character of Captain Nemo, from Verne's earlier "Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" (1870), also appears in both.

The island and its surrounding waters are inhabited by a variety of giant creatures, including a crab, a bee, a flightless bird and a variety of cephalopod, all which are animated by Harryhausen.

Answer: Talos (bronze statue), hydra, skeleton army

"Jason And The Argonauts" (1963) was directed by Don Chaffey and contains some of Ray Harryhausen's most spectacular and iconic animations. The film tells the story of the mythical Greek hero Jason, and his quest to find the Golden Fleece, shorn from the winged ram Chrysomallos. Jason sets sail in his ship the Argo, with his heroic crew of Argonauts, and encounters various trials during their voyage. One of these is the giant bronze statue of Talos, which comes to life when Hercules (one of the Argonauts) steals a giant brooch-pin from a hoard of treasure. Later, in the film's climax, Jason and his men fight seven animated skeletons, in perhaps Ray Harryhausen's most famous animated sequence.

Answer: Moon cows, Selenites

The 1964 film "First Men in the Moon" was based on the 1901 novel by H. G. Wells. It was directed by Nathan Juran and starred Edward Judd, Martha Hyer and Lionel Jeffries. The story describes how three English people travel to the moon in 1899, using an anti-gravity substance named Cavorite.

Here they encounter a group of insect-like creatures living in caverns under the moon, which they name Selenites. The Selenites were animated by Ray Harryhausen, as were some caterpillar-like Moon Cows.

Answer: Pteranodon, Triceratops, Allosaurus

The 1966 film "One Million Years B.C." is fondly remembered for its female star, Raquel Welch, and her animal-skin bikini. It also features some classic stop-motion animation dinosaurs by Ray Harryhausen, including an Allosaurus, a Triceratops, and a Pteranodon which carries off Rachel in its claws.

It is in fact a remake of a 1940 movie "One Million B.C." which starred Victor Mature and Carole Landis.

Answer: Homunculus, goddess Kali, centaur

The second of Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad" trilogy was 1973's "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad". Directed by Gordon Hessler, it starred John Phillip Law as Sinbad, alongside Caroline Munroe as Margiana and Tom Baker as the villainous Prince Koura. In the film, Sinbad voyages to find the Fountain of Destiny, which will bring youth and untold wealth.

In the course of this quest he encounters various creatures animated by Harryhausen, including a six-armed statue of the goddess Kali and a one-eyed centaur.

Answer: Ghouls, minoton, troglodyte

In 1977 Ray Harryhausen provided animation for a third "Sinbad" film, "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger", directed by Sam Wanamaker. This time Sinbad was played by Patrick Wayne, co-starring Margaret Whiting as the evil Zenobia and Patrick Troughton as Melanthius.

The plot requires Harryhausen to animate the usual mix of creatures, including a walrus, a giant wasp, three ghouls, an eight-foot troglodyte, and a mechanical automaton known as the Minoton.

Answer: Pegasus, Medusa, Kraken

Ray Harryhausen's final film as animator was "Clash of the Titans" which was released in 1981. It was based on the Greek myth of Perseus and had an unusually starry cast for a fantasy film of the time, including Laurence Olivier as Zeus, Maggie Smith as Thetis, and Ursula Andress as Aphrodite. Perseus (played by the American Harry Hamlin) is required to defeat various monsters, including the gorgon Medusa and the Kraken, a fearsome sea monster, on his way to rescuing Andromeda.

Harryhausen's stop-motion animation was as fine as ever, although by 1981 it was starting to look somewhat old-fashioned alongside the modern effects used in films such as "Star Wars" (1977) and its sequels. Recognising this, Harryhausen chose to retire after "Clash of the Titans" and enjoyed a happy retirement until his death in 2013 at the age of 92.