Elephant - 20 Million Miles to Earth Discussion

[–] turbo445 17 years ago

Nope. There was no way at the time to "marry" footage of a real elephant
fighting a special effect, i.e., Harryhausen's Ymir creature. The simplest and most effective way was to build a stop-motion elephant as well then animate both characters.

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[–] jdsuggs 16 years ago

They had the technology worked out by the time they made "The People Vs. Larry Flynt". That was totally the real Larry Flynt battling the Harryhausen elephant. Incidentally, the elephant does win in that one- only time I know of.

But in the sequel. "Larry Flynt vs. Mothra", for some reason, they used a miniature Harryhausen Larry Flynt. Looked better, in my opinion.

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[–] TonyDood 17 years ago

Maybe Harryhausen has a thing against elephants since one gets beaten up in "Valley Of Gwangi" too...

Sometimes it's not enough merely to teach. One has to punish as well.

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[–] obit1 16 years ago

same armature.

also, similar pachyderm problems

in the Ymir scenes, the REAL elephant was too small.....(see him GROW like the Yimir during the fight)

and in Gwangi, the elephant was late getting there so they only had time to use him for the parade...all the scenes in the arena were shot without an elephant and Ray dropped the animated one in later in his studio.

http://www.woodywelch.com

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[–] rixrex 16 years ago

Harryhausen didn't dislike elephants. It's just that there was no other actual living land creature big enough to match up against these beasts that would also take commands from a person except an elephant.

There often must be a ferocious battle of some sort between two larger than life creatures in these type of films, since the original King Kong. Kong vs T Rex, Kong Jr vs various dinos, Frankenstein vs the Wolfman, Mighty Joe vs several angry lions, Obrien's unmade Kong vs Frankenstein that became Kong vs Godzilla, also Godzilla vs whatever, T Rex vs Spinosaurus, and dozens upon dozens more.

What would be of particular surprise would be one of these films where the elephant actually won the battle. And why not? That's as good a climax as anything else. But of course it would have to be the larger, more ferocious large-tusked African Elephant who was down for the count and made a last minute heroic effort to save our lead characters or group of kids, and not the smaller, tame Indian Elephant usually used.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

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[–] TonyDood 16 years ago

Good points, all. The final point is probably the best to explain it--the pairing seems odd when it's a slobbering, fanged, mutant descendant of satan in lizard form vs what seems like a gentle pachyderm

Goo is what tape is all about. Goo is what makes it tape instead of *paper*

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[–] rixrex 16 years ago

Right, it would be much better if the Elephant were one like those few poor captive elephants that go mad and on a rampage, and not just a meek, tame one.

There's many stories of elephants destroying homes and killing people in villages throughout Africa and Asia, often at night, and some think it's because of encroachment upon their habitat. The perception of the tame, meek and mild elephant is not always the case.

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The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

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[–] TonyDood 16 years ago

Quite true, should anyone doubt--observe exhibit A:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046951/

Goo is what tape is all about. Goo is what makes it tape instead of *paper*

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[–] jdsuggs 16 years ago

Did Harryhausen animate the Col. Robert Calder character, or was that an actor? If it was Harryhausen, it wasn't one of his more convincing efforts.

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[–] lezardormeurgeant 16 years ago

Strongly suspect that the master is anti-elephant.
Perhaps as a child at the zoo, he was hosed wet by
one and now takes revenge by having them demised on
screen by his mechanical minions.
Anyway, i' d rather have the Ymir and the Gwangi
socking a gorilla instead, i am anti-gorilla.

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[–] schappe1 16 years ago

...The Ymir stubbed his toe. :)

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] spiderrmonkey 16 years ago

I don't know about anyone else, but I found that one elephant that the Ymir fought to be quite the mean sucker. The damn thing wouldn't leave poor Ymir alone.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] jondoe6 16 years ago

One of the saddest photos I've ever seen was one that was from a Georgia newspaper from the 30's (?). A circus elephant trampled his handler, who was busy beating him with a stick, and crashes through the fence, heading for town. The rightious townfolks caught it and hung it with a crane... leaving it out for display. Fkn idiots.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] oscarhjelmgren 15 years ago

That is a really fantastic scene, the best one in the movie. The stop motion effects merge very well with the live action footage of the elephant. As mentioned here earlier, it's funny how often elephants get beaten by huge beasts. 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Valley of Gwangi, and I believe there was a scene involving elephants in Monster from Green Hell as well.

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[–] Jasons_Argonaut 15 years ago

Hilarious observations about elephants from everyone! I haven't seen Valley of Gwangi in a long long time, I need to revisit it!

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[–] jimbo-38 14 years ago

The merging of stop motion and live action happened earlier in the film, as well. The farmer who sticks the Ymir in the back with a pitchfork is stop motion when he's getting beat up.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] jarnoldfan 13 years ago

For a another elephant battle epic, see GUNGA DIN. The pachyderms are packin' Gatling guns!

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[–] laurel-tree 7 years ago

Tell you what though, it was a BLOODY big elephant!  Almost as big as the top of the arch under the bridge that went over the river.

The average height of an African elephant is 10 feet; this one was at LEAST double that! 

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