ALL SCI-FI

[Krel]

Well, lets face it, the poor creature was doomed from the start. It was brought to Earth as a specimen of life on Venus. You can make book that if the ship hadn't crashed, then the poor thing was headed for the lab, with it's final destination being an an autopsy table.

Maybe it's fate in the movie wasn't so bad after all.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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David, your analysis of the situation is flawless. You've just been assigned to the next mission to Venus! Your mission is to bring back Mrs. Ymir and all the little Ymirians.

The whole family will reside in the Rome Zoo in complete comfort. Please don't tell them that daddy was killed on Earth — but that we managed to revive him, and that he eagerly awaits the family reunion!

The UN has made them Earth's ambassadors to our Sister Planet!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Fun Facts for 20 MMTE } Ray Harryhausen originally intended the story to be about a Ymir which is a giant primeval being of Scandinavian mythology.

Early titles : "The Beast from Cylinder 29." and "The Space Beast."

The original story was set in America but Ray later changed it to Italy because he hoped it would result in a trip to Europe.

This was the film that producer Charles Schneer would create his independent company Morningside Productions that would produce the future Harryhausen movies.

This was done so that Ray & Charles could continue with their association with Columbia Pictures which provided production funds, studio facilities and distribution while also restricting, to a degree, the studios interference.

Charles wanted to shoot the film in color in order to benefit from the beautiful locations of the Mediterranean.

Ray did not want to film in color because the Eastman Kodak Company had just come out with a brand new 35mm black and white stock that was perfect for his specialized effects. Ray could integrate an original negative with a second generation negative from a background plate with little difference between the two.

A second-generation color reproduction at that time was a very inferior copy of a first generation.

There was only one fully articulated model of the Ymir along with a smaller, second partially articulated model. And there was a third model that was inflexible.

Ray's father created the ball-and-socket armatures.

Sperlonga, Italy served as the Sicilian fishing village with later location shooting in Rome.

Other scenes were filmed in California at the Corriganville Western Ranch as well as Columbia Studios.

Nathan Juran would direct the film and direct other Harryhausen movies. Ray found Juran a very competent and easy director to work with and who also understood complex visual effects.

Juran won the 1941 Oscar as art director on the John Ford classic movie "How Green Was My Valley.''

Ray felt that the hatching of the baby Ymir was the most poignant scenes he has ever filmed.

Ray had requested a 15-foot real life elephant for filming some scenes but ended up with one that was 8-feet.

In order to make the smaller elephant appear larger a 4 1/2 foot actor as a keeper would appear alongside the elephant.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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~ A Question for the Members: Can we really assume that the Ymir was not an intelligent, sentient being?

~ My Theory: Actually, we can't. Consider the facts.

The Ymir hatched out of a gelatinous egg and began growing at an accelerated rate because of Earth's atmosphere.





It's growth rate was said to be abnormal according to the character played by William Hopper, based on what the scientists told him.

By the end of the film the Ymir is only about eight days old — despite being big enough to battle an angry bull elephant and kill it!





Did this eight-day old creature do this (and all the other things we saw) just by animal instinct? Or did it have a keen intellect — despite being a veritable newborn)!

I think it was the Ymir's intelligence which allowed it to —

~ break out of a steel cage,

~ defend itself from an attacking dog (but refrain from killing it),

~ react with both anger and a certain restraint to a man who stabbed it in the back with a pitchfork,

~ realize it was surrounded at the Colosseum and choose to
seek out high ground as the best way to defend itself from its attackers!





I submit that the Ymir's behavior demonstrates evidence of rational thinking, rather than mere animal behavior.

(I just tossed this out to encourage a discussion. I hope we get one.)
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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For God's sake guys, don't any of you think that my case for the Ymir's intelligence has merit?

Consider, for example, my contention that the Ymir's actions in the climax are NOT consistent with those of a cornered animal. Instead of trying to crawl into a dark hole, this desperate Venusian fugitive sought out a defensive position high above its enemies!





The only animal I can think of which seeks high ground when cornered is the raccoon!

But that animal (and others which live in forests) instinctively flee to tree tops when threatened by predators.

The Ymir, however, certainly didn't evolve in forests on Venus — although we don't really know what imaginary version of the Venusian environment this movie's story presented!





However, in addition to seeking a high structure in Rome when cornered by its pursuers, consider the way the Ymir eluded capture when it dove into the river and stayed underwater for as long as it could until being forced to surface!





So. it's defensive behavior when it was pursued in Rome is very consistent with an intelligent being who is analyzing a life-threatening situation logically and attempting to reason its way out of the situation!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

I think it demonstrated some intelligence in it's response to (what to him) was a truly foreign environment, but not to the level of a human. It did seem to learn from its' experiences, especially when you take into consideration how fast it grew. Whether that was its' normal life cycle or not it did mature at a very accelerated rate.

He was killed at such a time that it's hard to judge just how intelligent a full grown adult would be. Obviously its' home environment on Venus was not really conducive to what we would consider "high intelligence". I think, if anything, the Ymir acted and reacted very much like the predator-prey beings natural response.
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Pow]

Looking at the above photo of our beloved Ymir, it is the first time it occurred to me that our Venusian friend bears a strong resemblance to the Kraken from Ray's final film, Clash of the Titans (1981).

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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Let's Create a Sequel!
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~ A Question for the Members: If the Ymir happened to be an asexual creature and its accelerated growth rate caused it to reach the stage in it's lifecycle when it became pregnant . . . then there would be egg-encased embryo inside the dead Ymir!







~ Here's what I came up with.: When the scientists autopsy the Ymir, they retrieve the egg from the body. They discover that the conspicuous bulge in the Ymir's chest was actually caused by the fact that the alien creature was pregnant!

When you think about it, this seems obvious!





During the autopsy of the creature's remains, the doctors discover the embryo. Shortly after the egg is removed, it hatches.

The scientists frantically create a chamber that replicates the atmosphere on Venus, based on the data acquired by the mission to that planet. Despite the fact that the ship crashed into the ocean, divers were able to retrieve the ship's log and its research data.





The artificial Venusian atmosphere in the chamber created for the creature causes the Ymir to develop at a normal rate. In the months that follow, and the scientists soon realize that the young Ymir possesses a significant amount of intelligence, despite its young age.





By the time the Ymir is five feet tall (when it's a year old) it has been taught American Sign Language, and it becomes remarkably fluent — acquiring a much larger vocabulary than the mere 350 words that Washoe the chimp learned between 1967 and 2007.

The young Ymir is soon able to sign over 2,000 words, which is about 10% of the vocabulary of the average adult human — and it's about the size of a five-year-old child's vocabulary.

This is remarkable, since the Ymir is only one year old!

The Ymir also begins to make vocal sounds like its mother did when she broke out of the trailer/cage being towed by the professor and his daughter. That creature was about the size of the young Ymir, roughly five feet high.

Go to the 6:15 mark in the clip below to view that scene.

____________ 20 Million Miles to Earth (Part 4)


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The scientists surmise that the creatures on Venus have a high degree of intelligence and a complex spoken language.

Unfortunately their vocal cords and facial structure make it nearly impossible for the young Ymir to create the sounds necessary to speak English.

And since the young Ymir has no way of learning the Venusian language, its vocalizations remain as inarticulate as its poor, frightened, seven-day-old mother was during the original Venusian's desperate efforts to survive those savage attacks from the Italian military!





During the young Ymir's formative period, one of the scientists is a beautiful, brilliant young women. And her research associate is a handsome young exobiologist.

These two dedicated people develop a bond with the Ymir, talking with it for hours each day in its artificial Venusian habitat while they're wearing pressure suits in the toxic recreation of the Venusian atmosphere.

The two dedicated professionals' job is to educate the alien creature, teaching it as if it were a human child so that it can interact with people more successfully.

Their goal is also to prepare the Ymir to serve as an ambassador who can act on behalf of mankind when a second mission to Venus takes the Ymir back to its home planet and establishes friendly relations between the inhabitants of Earth and Venus!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Keep Watching the Skies! by Bill Warren.

This was Ray Harryhausen's entry in the King Kong type of story: an essentially innocent monster is brought to civilization, where it runs amok and then is killed.

Unfortunately, Harryhausen's exceptionally fine technical work, among the best in his career in some areas, is let down by pedestrian treatment, lack of imagination in handling the monster, and a screenplay with far too many clunker lines. 20 Million Miles to Earth is entertaining, however, and in the animation scenes it's quite exciting.

For a program SF film, typical in most ways of medium-to-low budget films of the period, it's actually reasonably good. But it simply doesn't approach the grandeur and mythic splendor of its model, King Kong.

Harryhausen's work in this film is excellent. The Ymir's first appearance, trotting around on a tabletop, is one of the best sequences in any of his films. The sequence in the barn is the highlight of the film.

Once the Ymir is a giant, however, the film becomes less interesting and more conventional.

The monster battles an elephant in Rome, but we've seen such battles in other cities, and the novelty has worn off. The fight is exciting, and the elephant is pretty good. But the interest of the earlier scenes, in which the people are battling a creature the same size as a man (a rarity in these animated films) had long sense evaporated.

My two cents: Warren's critique about the fact that it is a "rarity" to have stop~motion animated creatures that are approximately the size of humans be the focus of an entire movie is true. Harryhausen had approached producer Howard Hawks, via a friend, about creating the animation for the alien in Hawks' classic SF movie: The Thing from Another World. Ray never heard from Hawks.

In that film, the invading alien is human sized (James Arness is six-foot & six-inches tall, so a very tall human!), so that fact would have resolved Gene Warren's complaint that the stop~motion creatures created for live action films are generally gigantic.

Ray could have created such a model for the Thing. Perhaps one closer to the novel that The Thing is based upon by John W. Campell, "Who Goes There?"

In the novel the alien can reshape itself continually, including as several creatures simultaneously.

I always envisioned that as a terrific project for Harryhausen. Some scenes could only have been done with Jim Arness in makeup, such as the alien being set on fire and crashing through a window in his escape.

However, there were some sequences where a vicious animated creature facing the humans would have worked beautifully. The scene where Captain Hendry opens a door quickly and there stands The Thing looking right back at him; and the film's denouement where the alien is electrocuted would have marvelous as stop~motion moments.

[Bud Brewster]

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Respectfully I must say that the late Bill Warren's criticism of this movie is totally wrong. In fact, it demonstrates a complete lack of understand about this movie's basic premise.

Comparing it to King Kong is huge mistake. King Kong is about a brutal beast with questionable intelligence whose fixation on Ann Darrow never rises above the level of child who refuses to give up his favorite toy!

Seeing King Kong as a love story is completely wrong. They're is no genuine nobility in that movie's premise.

And that's why I was so offended by Peter Jackon's schmaltzy version, with a love story which included scenes of Kong sliding across a frozen pond on this belly with his beloved blond girlfriend clinging to his back, while romantic music filled the soundtrack!

Good God, were we supposed to take that crap seriously?

However, 20 Million Miles to Earth is a serious and dramatic story about a baby alien who is brought to Earth and then hatches out of it's gelatinous egg!

This infant creatures immediately has to battle for its survival on an alien world when faced with threats from every life form it encounters — from a loyal dog to angry Sicilian farmer!

I submit that 20 Million Miles to Earth is better story about the plight of a "Stranger in Strange Land" than King Kong — a story about a lonely gorilla who clings to his "new toy" and can't take no for an answer.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I agree with you, Bud; I enjoy reading Gene Warren's interesting book and passing bits of it along to you & fellow members. But I don't always go along with his opinions on films either.

This is a better film than he gives it credit. It has a serviceable enough script that moves the movie right along.

I find this film one of the saddest of the Harryhausen movies.
The Ymir is snatched from its home planet of Venus, escapes from its captors into a world unknown to it, is attacked by a dog, a man with a pitchfork, soldiers with flame throwers, electrocuted via a huge net, attacked by an elephant. The creature is not truly evil or even hostile. It's frightened and continuously assailed by the very humans that kidnapped him---the egg---the minute he hatches.

He's done nothing wrong and only defended himself.
Heck, the poor dog & elephant are as much victims here as the Ymir. They reacted to the Ymir out of a primal fear.

I think there were scenes that could have been reworked to show that the Ymir was a more sentient being as you suggest.

In the barn sequence wouldn't it have been interesting to see the Ymir rip off the door of the cage they were attempting to force him into? By specifically doing that he could have shown that he knew if the cage had no door on it that it's rendered useless. Sure, they still might drive him into the cage, but what good is a cage with no door to it? How long could they realistically keep him inside such an enclosure?

The scene where the Ymir has the net dropped onto him could have been another opportunity to show the humans that the alien was more intelligent than they first presumed.

What if he caught on to the fact that the helicopter was attempting to ensnare him with the net? The Ymir could have pulled a large tree out of the ground and hurled it towards the helicopter. Perhaps he could have quickly taken hold of a fallen tree on the ground and raised it high over his head. The net falls onto the raised tree, becomes snarled in it, and the Ymir hurls it towards the troops on the ground from the second helicopter.

The humans cannot use the net to render the Ymir unconscious. Aha, they had a backup plan all along in case they encountered Murphy's Law. The food packets dropped for the Ymir to eat are heavily laced with a drug to make the alien fall asleep.

The humans are now aware that this creature has some serious gray matter and knows how to use it.

I do wish that the scriptwriters had not used Venus as the planet that the astronauts had landed on & found the Ymir creatures roaming about. Even back in 1957 scientists were aware that the conditions on Venus would be intolerable for human life, or any life form, given its intense heat and poisonous atmosphere.

Perhaps they did that just to avoid using Mars because that planet had been featured too many times in films as being able to support astronauts, as well as having alien beings inhabit the red planet?

Maybe in this case, the astronauts could have been returning from a planet outside our solar system that was unknown to Earth, a world where humans inside spacesuits could survive for a time. A world aliens call home.

Naturally the plot would have to establish that such a spaceship had to possess faster-than-light speed capability.

Another idea would be to have had Ray & his effects team construct some kind of alien space craft. It is this vessel we see at the beginning of the film that comes from out of the clouds and crashes into the ocean. The fishermen board it and discover that it is fully automated and has never had any alien crew on it. It is a highly sophisticated drone sent out by an unknown civilization. Its mission: to explore the galaxy and learn and grow in knowledge. It also has landed upon other planets and collected specimens along the way.
The fisherman grab the tube containing the egg. They are savvy enough to realize they'll need proof for the authorities that they were indeed inside a star ship. A star ship that will soon sink forever beneath the waves of the sea.

[Bud Brewster]

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Great ideas, Pow! You've definitely come up with some great concepts.

I watched 20 Million Miles to Earth again today with my nephew, Nathan, who didn't even know who Ray Harryhausen was. But he's now a fan.

This second viewing in two days (it was the Chat Room feature last night, and I wish you'd been with us) convinced me even more that the movie is actually packed with clues that the Ymir had quite a lot of intelligence . . . for an infant!

As a matter of fact, your comment below brings up something which proves that the Ymir was considerably smarter than the people who were trying to capture it!

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

The military wouldn't know for sure that the drug they would include in Ymir's food pouches would work, Bud, being that the Ymir is an extraterrestrial. They are probably figuring some form of drug that would work on an earth animal of roughly the same size and weight. It's a calculated gamble, for sure.
But they also don't want to enter into a capture mission without having a plan A and B. So they are primarily hoping the net they use will do the job in the first place, but military missions---like anything in life---can quickly go south.