Mike Hankin

This is not only a gloriously animated short, but has a back story that is quite unique. Originally begun in the early 1950s by Ray Harryhausen, it was left unfinished after his first teaming with producer Charles Schneer to film It Came from Beneath the Sea. The success of this film heralded the beginning of a partnership that resulted in a total of twelve feature films. It was only after Ray Harryhausen retired from feature films that two enterprising animators, Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero approached him about the possibility of completing The Tortoise and the Hare after seeing the existing footage in the Richard Jones Harryhausen documentary, Aliens, Dragons, Monsters and Me. So in 2002 the film was finally completed, using the original footage carefully matched with new animation by Walsh and Caballero and even Harryhausen himself, using for the most part the original puppets. The matching is so perfect, it is hard to detect original from new.