The Willis H. O’Brien Movies Ranked
Even if you don’t know Willis H. O’Brien’s name, you probably know his work and the influence of it. O’Brien was a film special effects and stop motion animation pioneer, whose achievements are most famously enshrined in KING KONG (1933), THE LOST WORLD (1925), and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949). Additionally, the inventive genius is known for his mentorship of a number of future animation luminaries, most prominently Ray Harryhausen, himself a mark-maker on the landscape of cinema with contributions to films like THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958), JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963), and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981).
Although the movies they worked on, especially Harryhausen, are most often credited as the brainchildren of their special effects orchestrators, O’Brien and his mentee were not the credited directors of all these famed and listed movies. That’s because there was that pesky element of live action scenes and performances, but in any event, O’Brien did (mostly) solely lead a few films, all shorts, in the years before his greatest successes. Five surviving works, deemed “The Willis H. O’Brien Movies” here due to his directorial credits for them, are the subjects of this piece. However, he made a total of eight shorts in the five years from 1915 to 1920, with those remaining three missing today. Perhaps most enticing is an uncompleted concept, of which 20 minutes of test footage is said to exist somewhere, called CREATION (1931); work done on that project was fed into KING KONG. But its very preliminary existence gives an idea of what O’Brien may have accomplished, beyond his great work we are indeed able to watch today, if he was able to lead a feature film project like he did with his earliest shorts.
#5 — R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. (1917)
O’Brien’s “worst” short is still novel and a relative success. A totally stop motion animated work that transplants a Keystone-esque comedy premise involving a fresh postman, the object of his desire, and a jealous rival into a prehistoric setting, R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. features some delightful dinosaur design. However, the moments where we see this creature, and others like it, are few and far between within an only 13 minute short. Instead, R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. trades in a less fantastical, anachronistic look with human models engaging in some slapstick humor. There is an incredible sequence at the end, however, that had me laughing in disbelief. R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. reflects O’Brien’s growing skills of structure and length, but it is ultimately his least resonant piece of animation.
#4 — PREHISTORIC POULTRY (1916)
PREHISTORIC POULTRY shares some of the anachronistic humor that doesn’t sell R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. as a fantasy at the scale O’Brien was capable of, but two things set it apart. First, and less radically, its much briefer runtime (only 3 minutes) doesn’t let any gags go on too long. And second, and most importantly, the wholly animated short revolves around a wonderfully weird creature design and the mayhem it creates. PREHISTORIC POULTRY’s “dinornis” has a tangible personality, with its gangly frame and roving eyes. Its interaction with cavepeople reminds me of a Looney Tune and that’s a high compliment. PREHISTORIC POULTRY is too small in scope to say it’s one of O’Brien’s best-directed films, but it’s a fun watch.
#3 — THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK: A PREHISTORIC TRAGEDY (1915)
O’Brien’s first film is a tremendous and fittingly primeval statement for what he would be able to accomplish. One of my favorite 1915 films, THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK: A PREHISTORIC TRAGEDY is fascinating to watch due to its time’s understanding and reduction of ancient animals and O’Brien’s strange, tactile animation. He didn’t invent stop motion as a principle, and even regarding modeled figures acting out comedic scenes, Ladislas Starevich beat him by more than half a decade. But watching this short, I get the sensation that an art form, or at the very least an art style, was being born. THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK’s titular creatures are so wonderfully designed and move with an uncanny sensibility, making the film a historical milestone and a fantastical experience to this day.
#2 — ALONG THE MOONBEAM TRAIL (1920)
“Co-directed” with Herbert M. Dawley, who acted in and handled the live action segments, ALONG THE MOONBEAM TRAIL was O’Brien’s last directorial credit and the ender of the longest gap between his films (OK, it had only been about two years since 1918’s THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN). Pulled together from some of the “wreckage” of O’Brien and Dawley’s relationship and production of THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN, ALONG THE MOONBEAM TRAIL is nevertheless an ambitious success. Shuttling two boys and their chaperone (Dawley) in a magic airplane past a massive Mars (the Roman god of war, that is), a broomstick-based witch, and dueling dinosaurs, all at the behest of a wish-granting fairy queen, ALONG THE MOONBEAM TRAIL is pure fantasy. The whiplash I experienced viewing so many incredible images (oh yeah, a man in the moon too!) in such short succession was a unique pleasure. O’Brien’s signature look, as applied to prehistoric creatures, doesn’t even come into play until the very end of the (now incomplete) film, but the accumulation of a few different special effects approaches illustrates the technician’s obviously diverse skills (granted they weren’t all Dawley’s inventions). ALONG THE MOONBEAM TRAIL was O’Brien’s last directed film, nearly his best, and regardless, a whimsical journey into a supreme imagination.
#1 — THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN (1918)
Two of O’Brien’s only five surviving directorial credits make their way into my “The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever” list, which should illustrate how dear his work is to me. Along with THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK, THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN is that other movie. Initially created as a short feature at about 40 minutes, producer (but not co-director at this stage) Dawley ordered the movie cut down to 12 minutes, which now runs about 19 with the retrieval of some of the lost footage. This was O’Brien’s first film to combine live action and stop motion animated elements, and while it’s not as convincing as in THE LOST WORLD and especially KING KONG, it’s a remarkable achievement for 1918. Even today, THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN carries a certain uncanny element that makes it an affecting watch. Fusing a magical premise with the more “scientific” elements of O’Brien’s later works, the film follows a man who uses a hermit ghost’s telescope to look at Earth millions of years ago. The lead up to the moment when “Uncle Jack” peers through this magical device can lag with the character’s slinking around, but it’s all worth it for the climactic dinosaur battle. The framing and movement of these terrible lizards make for a remarkable achievement and wholly investing sight for any practical effects nerds like me. THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN may be a compromised vision for O’Brien, but it stands today as his single greatest film in his early days of directorial efforts.
