Episode 33 - The Valley of Gwangi (Jim O'Connolly, 1969) (with Astrid Goldsmith)
The Valley of Gwangi (Jim O'Connolly, 1969).
The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!
Part-Western, part-dinosaur epic, The Valley of Gwangi (Jim O’Connolly, 1969) is a fantasy that combines the icons and images of the frontier myth together with stop-motion animation directed by Ray Harryhausen, a project that he had himself inherited from his mentor Willis O'Brien. Set in Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, and with a plot that involves the capture of a living Allosaurus by a gang of cowboys, The Valley of Gwangi stands as Harryhausen’s final ‘dinosaur film’, one whose effects imagery is the fullest expression of his unique handling of stop-motion creatures. Joining Chris and Alex for episode 33, and to discuss the power of The Valley of Gwangi’s stop-motion puppetry, is award-winning animator Astrid Goldsmith (a.k.a. Mock Duck Studios). Topics include the film’s fantastical treatment (and manipulation) of generic conventions; the organisation of interconnected spatial ‘arenas’ that structure the Western Fantasy narrative; and the interplay of live-action and animated elements during the film’s celebrated ‘rope battle’ between man and dinosaur.
Suggested Readings
Attebery, Brian. 1992. Strategies of Fantasy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Attebery, Brian. 2014. Stories about Stories: Fantasy & the Remaking of Myth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sobchack, Vivian. 2009. “Animation and Automation, or, the Incredible Effortfulness of Being.” Screen 50, no. 4: 375-391.