When Ray Harryhausen passed away, I was disappointed to find none of his works available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I was able to DVR Jason and the Argonauts recently though, and confirmed that I’d never actually seen it.
The film is famous for a few of Harryhausen’s stop-motion creations. First, there’s Talos, the bronze giant:
D&D geeks should recognize Talos as the model for D&D’s iron golem:
In fact, page 164 of the first-edition Dungeon Masters Guide lists possible destruction means for artifacts and relics, including this gem:
4. Cause it to be broken against/by or crushed by (1) Talos, a triple iron golem, (2) the Gates of Hell, (3) the Cornerstone of the World, (4) Artur’s Dolmen, (5) the Juggernaut of the Endless Labyrinth, (6) the heel of a god, (7) the Crashing Rocks, (8) the foot of a humble ant.
Perhaps even more iconic is the final battle against the animated skeletons:
It turns out that I vividly remembered Harryhausen’s animated skeleton from another film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad — the one with a curved scimitar:
And if you need a backup, the invisible hand provides — download or stream here.