Ray Harryhausen, a nice man, legend of creative, hand-made, non-digital special effects in movies, died. Age 92. He learned from Willis O'Brien, and added art, humor, and warmth to his mentor's visual inventions. Low-cost, humanly imperfect, Ray's effects made the films accessible to kids and adult audiences in way that perfect photo-realism can never do....
Now that film, film pioneers, and hand-hewn story-telling are virtually extinct, it is sad, but fitting, that Ray goes on to have fun in imperfect Heaven. He leaves new scientific technology to more greedy, less talented, and certainly less charming Hollywood feature videogame entrepreneurs.
