It's great that Harryhausen, one of the elder statesmen of cinema, is preserved commenting on what he regards as his best work; equally shameful that the bureaucratic bean-counters have kept this treasure off the DVD release of JASON (I could be wrong but I think this is the ONLY Harryhausen feature film that features his own commentary, which makes it even more shameful). The commentary track is half JASON-specific, half general reminiscence; but we can forgive Harryhausen for the latter because it's still a treat just to listen to his experiences from a long-lost time. Historian Eder drops in comments whenever there's a gap, ensuring there's no dead air. As the laserdisc was issued in 1992, Harryhausen had yet to see the CGI dinosaurs of JURASSIC PARK, which would have surely warranted a remark on his commentary.

I have not heard this commentary track. However I have heard the newer track with Ray Harryhausen and historian Tony Dalton on the 2010 bluray (and i assume DVD as well), who it seems worked together on a book as well. This is a pretty outstanding track and I would guess there would be a lot of overlap with the older Criterion DVD track. Having said that, there is a reasonable amount of discussion about the subsequent computer graphics era which are not looked upon too fondly. Also, Harryhausen often seems a bit begrudging in revealing his secrets and I actually agree with him that part of the fun is discovering something for yourself through experimentation rather than just asking someone 'how did you do that?' A terrific track but it would have been nice to have heard the Criterion track. Harryhausen has an amazing speaking voice as well, so full of character. This bluray also includes a commentary by Peter Jackson and Randall William Cook!