20 Million Miles to Earth

[Tars]

This is, indeed, a wonderful film and I'm glad to see it's on DVD.  How come you call the creature a "Vesuvian"?

[mbpalme]

Ymir looks like the Kraken from "Clash of the Titans"...

[Jensen]

Ymir's cool. High quality stop-motion!

[Sky Deviler]

Ah yes, another masterpiece from the that stop-motion wizard, Ray Harryhausen. The Ymir is a truly memorable creature(I don't think I'll ever forget the scene where it's being torched by the tanks near the pillars), and back then the plot was not as horrendously overused as it is these days. I've always been a big fan of Harryhausen's work, and this film is something I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching(I taped it off that "Ray Harryhausen Week" event on Sci-Fi) P.S. I read in The Book Of The Subgenius that this is one of the films that Bob appears in. If anyone spots him, let me know where he is!

[John]

I'm with MBPALME on this one. It definitely reeks of the Kraken. Harryhausen did such great animation. Like in the movie "Jason and the Argonauts" or the Sinbad movies.

Great stuff. Thanks for all the time and effort. Badmovies.org is the Mecca of bad movies.

[Steve Bentley]

I have to agree that this is some of Harryhausens best work.  I think the pathos created for the Ymir is just as powerful as O'Brien created for King Kong.  Now that someone has suggested Clash of the Titans for review, I have to ask...Anybody ever see Valley of Gwangi?  I think that one would make for a good review as well.

[Squishy]

Looking at the IMDB entry, I was shocked to see Pepe was played by Bart Braverman, who is still active in Hollywood. He was the annoying reporter who pokes around once too often in "Alligator." (I wanted to put "Pepe" and the Li'l Bastard from "The Black Scorpion" in a bag a whale on them with a stick. Forget the Kenny: the Pepe is the most annoying force in the universe.)

[AlphaWoolf]

As with so many of Harryhausen's films, the animated creature is the best, most believable actor in the picture.  The Ymir is one of his best creations, and the sympathy he invokes undercuts the rest of the "army guys track monster" story.  As presented here, much of the Italian countryside strongly resembles Southern California.  Once things get to Rome, though, Harryhausen sets up many nice shots of Ymir among the Roman ruins.  Harryhausen must have it in for elephants - Gwangi later fights and kills one too.  The ending is a wonderful Roman version of King Kong's finale.  Unfortunately, unlike Kong this movie has to really entirely on Harryhausen's actor for any emotional impact.  After the military-types off the poor creature the "hero" just skips across the street to go on a date!  Feh!  Drop the army guys off the top of the Coliseum and let Ymir go home with the girl - he deserves a break!

[Ludovico]

I haven't seen that movie, but really want you now that I know that Harryhausen worked on it.  And the Ymir does look so much like the Kraken, in fact he looks like a mix between Calibos and the Kraken.  "Clash of the Titans" was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid.  It would be great if someone write a review on it here.  It's one of the great inspired bad movies of all time.  

[gammaray117]

What a way to go. You're walking thrugh the zoo, enjoying yourself, when suddenly a 20-foot reptilian Venusian monster tips an elephant onto you. This happened to at least 3 people. It's gotta suck as much as turning into a paper doll and being eaten by a lime J-Ello spewing rubber snake or flying your jet into a blue space chicken's forehead. Still, this movie is a lot better than REPTILICUS or X FROM OUTER SPACE. Make mine Harryhausen.

[Scarecrow]

There's definitely a Krakken-like look to the Ymir, but that's a reaccuring theme of Harryhausen's monsters, the martians in his version of War Of The Worlds also have the Krakken face. And that troll-ogre thing in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger looked almost exactly like a giant version of Calibos. I almost always sympathise with the monster in these kinds of movies, which is why I appreciate an artist like Harryhausen, who always gives his monsters a soul. BTW, anybody catch the Harryhausen show on TCM tonight? They're having a weekend marathon of his movies, as well as some previously unseen stuff and behind the scenes, so check it out.

[13thWarrior]

 It doesn't matter that the Krakken resembled the Ymir, Mr. Harryhausen creative two completely different stories for each creature, both ranking high on the entertainment scale for their time. And let us not forget his other classics: Beast From 20,000 Fanthoms (Rhedosaur wasn't that the same dinosaur that was used in "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth"?), It Came From Beneath The Sea, and yes... Valley of the Gwangi!
 Thank you BADMOVIES.ORG for creating a website with the classics I grew up watching at the saturday afternoon matinee's.

[Doug]

Elephant was a bad choice as an animated element. Elephants are too familiar to not look phoney next to an unknown critter.
The kid was abnoxiously BAD beyond compare.
BUT...

a pretty cool movie!

[Dave Munger]

Just thought I'd mention that "Ymir" is, in Norse mythology, the name of the primordial giant who is killed by Wotan, who uses his corpse to create the world from. I'm a nerd, you see.

http://davemunger.blogspot.com

[Bruce]

I like this movie. The little 6-inch high monster fresh from the egg is c-u-u-u-te. You had to feel sorry for the "Monster" since all anybody wanted to do is attack him. He got fed up and big enough eventually to attack back - just to go out with a fall from a building in King Kong fashion.