Man, do I love me some Ray Harryhausen. I’ve seen occasional comments–largely from people too young to remember what movie special effects looked like before the advent of CGI–that his creatures look rather clunky, and they are admittedly not as smooth as today’s computer animations. What makes his work so amazing, though, is not only the technical artistry (you guys, stop-motion animation is hard) but also how memorable his characters were. The bit in Jason and the Argonauts when the skeletal Children of the Hydra attack (around 3:25 in this clip) haunted my childhood.

Some kind soul has compiled a collection of all of Harryhausen’s stop-motion work in chronological order, from harpies to giant walruses. They are just splendid.

(via BoingBoing)