For the fan who loves Harryhausen and dinosaurs, comes this exhaustive book.

For the more specialized fan, another recent book about Ray Harryhausen called The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen was published for the first time last year. Written by Roy P. Webber, the 226-page text looks exclusively at Harryhausen projects that included dinosaurs: Evolution, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Animal World, One Million Years B.C., and The Valley of Gwangi. It’s an exhaustive survey from a man who loves Harryhausen and dinosaurs, and it compiles plot summaries, etymological examinations of Ray’s models vis-à-vis real dinosaurs, shot-by-shot dissections of Ray’s animation technique, talent biographies, and production histories. Not for general readers, this is everything — I mean 100% — of what anyone could ever want to know about the great master’s dinosaur pictures.

Clash of the Titans, Ray Harryhausen’s last feature, was released June 12 1981. Two weeks later Dragonslayer came out, and while the latter didn’t obliterate the former’s success it did represent an example of why stop-motion could no longer carry a movie. Animation supervisor Phil Tippett animated Dragonslayer’s dragons using armatured puppets whose moves were carried out in full motion with computer-controlled rods, giving them the critical motion blur necessary to fool the eye. Eyes needed fooling more than ever in 1981, a post-Star Wars age when models were no longer allowed to look like models. For Tippett, who no doubt considered Harryhausen an inspiration, even the name of his new technique in Dragonslayer signaled a shot across his idol’s bow; he called it Go-Motion.

Stop-motion didn’t go away — Tippett himself later used it in Howard the Duck and Coneheads. But never again could it be the star of a feature film, and Ray retired from moviemaking following Clash of the Titans. He still remains an inspiration for animators everywhere, because frame-by-frame model animation didn’t disappear; it only changed media. The brilliant young animation hopefuls of decades to come, now growing up on a diet of Disney DVDs, are in for a nice surprise as they discover the namesake behind the fancy restaurant in Monsters, Inc. The principles of stop-motion are being used every day in computer-animated films, built as they are from virtual models moved a frame at a time like stringless marionettes. The persistence of Ray Harryhausen’s practices will keep students of the medium coming back to his work — meanwhile the soul he bestowed on a cyclops and the sheer storytelling panache of Jason and the Argonauts will keep his catalog alive for everyone else.

Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life by Ray Harryhausen, Tony Dalton and Ray Bradbury. New York, N.Y.: Watson-Guptill/Billboard, 2004. 304 pages including 691 black-and-white illustrations. ISBN: 0-8230-8402-7 ($50.00).

Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection. Sparkhill DVD. 233 minutes, B&W/Color, not rated. ($29.95).

The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects by Roy P. Webber with forewords by Jim Aupperle and Bill Maylone. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2004. 240 pages including 171 photographs & illustrations. ISBN 0-7864-1666-1 ($45.00).

Taylor Jessen is a writer living in Burbank. He would like to apologize for invading Manchuria in 1931, and would like citizens to know that they can have their national currency back if they want it.