The Films of George Pal
After pioneering stop motion animation with his Puppetoon shorts, for most of the 1950s and the early 1960s, George Pal produced ( and later directed) some of the finest and most memorable Science Fiction and Fantasy Films. Working with directors like Irving Pichel, Rudolph Maté, and Byron Haskin, Pal brought intelligence, realism ( of a sort, anyway), and visual flair to what was then a B movie ghetto of poor budgets, poor special effects and poorer scripts. Working first for Paramount and then MGM, Pal did wonders with his limited resources and made films that seemed far more extravagant than they actually were. In a time when CGI would have been considered science fiction, Only Ray Harryhausen and his special effects work even came close to Pal at his best - 4 of Pal's movies won Oscars for special effects: "Destination Moon", "When World's Collide", "The War Of The Worlds", and "The Time Machine."
avg. score: 3 of 14 (19%)
required scores: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
