HEY, HARRYHAUSEN FANS...EVER HEARD OF "THE ANIMAL WORLD?"

[Dick]

You may THINK you own all of Harryhausen's feature films - fifteen of them. And you're anticipating the lineup of Columbia DVD's for the coming year that cover most of the Charles Schneer-produced films. But what about the movie Harryhausen worked on for Irwin Allen, in 1956. Yes, that's IRWIN ALLEN. The film? "The Animal World," released by Warner Brothers. If you're younger than I am, you have almost certainly never seen the film, and in all liklihood have never even heard of it. It is meant to be a documentary of the beginnings of life on earth, containing a "creation" sequence, followed by - and here's where Harryhausen came in - a ten-minute sequence about prehistoric life. I was six when this came out and saw it in a theater. I remember the dinosaurs vividly - and the earthquake that enveloped them. The screen turned blood red and allosaurs and triceratops were sucked into the abyss. It terrified me, but I couldn't look away. It had a profound effect on me, and now I can't watch that sequence again for love or money. Why? because it has never been released to video, never reissued to theaters and, to my knowledge, never even been shown on t.v. Warners has it under lock and key. True, I remember not one detail about the movie after the dinosaurs are killed off, and that may be why the film isn't considered commercial - the bulk of it is simply footage of animals (probably nowhere near the quality of, say, the Disney True Life Adventures) and Harryhausen's contributions are relatively small. Perhaps the evolution aspects of the film offended religious groups of the time. For whatever reason, you cannot see this wonderful sequence anywhere at the moment, except on 21 3-D View Master slides in the "Prehistoric Animals" packet (yes, those are Ray's models, and the scenes are from "The Animal World.") I have emailed Warner and requested their consideration of it, but I don't think enough people remember it to get grassroots petition going. BUT TRUST ME - THE HARRYHAUSEN MATERIAL HERE IS ALONE WORTH THE PRICE OF A DVD!! How might we gather any support for this?