The working title of the film was Jason and the Golden Fleece. On 15 Mar 1961, the LAT reported that producer Charles H. Schneer was planning to make another visual effects spectacle using the “SuperDynamation” process (also referred to as “Dynamation” or “Dynamation 90”), which he and visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen had experimented with in three recent films, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958, see entry), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960, see entry), and Mysterious Island (1961, see entry). The technique involved compositing live action and stop-motion animation sequences, giving the effect of human characters interacting with and battling imaginary, larger-than-life creatures and mythical beings.
       Harryhausen, who also served as associate producer on Jason and the Argonauts, was extensively involved prior to and during production, suggesting locations, assessing potential actors, and taking a directorial role on set. In a 19 Dec 2003 U.K. Guardian article (excerpted from his biography Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life published that same year), he recalled that he and Schneer initially wanted to film on location in Greece, but found the area too distressed and bleak. Various contemporary sources, including the 27 Jun 1961 and 21 Sep 1961 DV, suggested that cast and crew were also headed to Yugoslavia and Spain (including Mallorca), apparently unaware that filmmakers had decided to film entirely on coastal locations in Italy.
       A 22 Sep 1961 DV production chart indicated that principal photography would begin 26 Sep 1961, and a 27 Sep 1961 Var news brief confirmed that production was underway. The 12 Nov 1961 NYT published an account of production activities in Palinuro, Italy, noting that the “rockribbed coastlines, sweeping seascapes, and golden beaches” were suitably “authentic” to the classical Greek legend. Some Palinurian men were recruited to appear as extras in the film, while others ferried members of the film company to and from the “Argo,” the $250,000 prop ship on which many scenes took place. A 3 Dec 1961 LAT article indicated a total budget of $3.5 million.
       Principal photography was finished by Feb 1962, according to a 28 Feb 1962 Var column in which Schneer anticipated a summer 1963 release. The “hold-off” on release was due to the amount of time Harryhausen needed to complete visual effects work. Var noted, however, that neither Schneer nor distributor Columbia Pictures were keen to publicize the painstaking nature of Harryhausen’s work, since that might alert moviegoers to the “gimmick” of what they would eventually see on screen.
       In his biography, Harryhausen stated that he began making and painting model “bodies” in Feb 1962. The film contains five significant Dynamation sequences: the Argonauts’ encounter with the menacing “Talos,” a 100-foot-tall bronze statue who has come to life; the torment of the prophet “Phineas” by the bat-like creatures known as the Harpies; the rescue of the Argo by the benevolent merman “Triton”; “Jason’s” battle with the Hydra, a seven-headed monster; and the climactic fight scene between Jason and the Argonauts and seven skeleton warriors. Stop-motion photography and effects processing took place at Shepperton Studios in England. The skeleton sequence took four-and-a-months to complete, and according to Harryhausen, some days were spent “producing less than one second of screen time.” Regardless of the hard work involved, he claimed that, “Of all the films I have been connected with, [Jason and the Argonauts] continues to please me most.”
       A 28 Nov 1962 Var report on international film activities indicated that the visual effects work was complete. Three months later, a 1 Mar 1963 DV brief announced that the title had officially been changed to Jason and the Argonauts. Prior to the picture’s theatrical release, DV published a generally favorable review on 5 Jun 1963, commending the authentic mythological landscapes and ingenuous special effects animation. However, the day after the 7 Aug 1963 opening at Loew’s State Theatre in New York City, the NYT panned the “absurd adventure,” describing it as “no worse, but certainly no better, than most of its kind.” Over the years, Jason and the Argonauts became a beloved cult classic, and in 1992, Harryhausen was recognized by AMPAS for his technological contributions to the film industry, receiving the Gordon E. Sawyer Award at the Academy Awards ceremony that year.