Via Starwars.com:

For many filmmakers, Ray Harryhausen is one of the most important names in the movie business. He was a pioneer of stop-motion special effects and holds a special place of inspiration in the history of Star Wars. He’s famous for a lot of films, but perhaps the most important would be 1958s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the first film using stop-motion special effects to be shot in full color.

I knew this movie was important to the history of cinema, but it wasn’t until an interview I did with Phil Tippett on Full of Sith that I realized its importance to Star Wars. This was the film that inspired Tippett to get into the business of making films, and his contributions to Star Wars can’t be undersold. He was one of the key the artists who created the holochess game we see played in A New Hope. He was the man behind the go-motion techniques that brought tauntauns and AT-ATs to life in The Empire Strikes Back. He was the man who operated the Rancor’s head in Return of the Jedi.

And none of it would have happened if he hadn’t gone to see the 1958 classic, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This film tells the tale of Sinbad the sailor. Although he’s headed to Baghdad to marry the Princess Parissa, she is shrunken by an evil magician named Sokurah. Sokurah tells Sinbad that if he accompanies him to the monster filled island of Colossa and retrieves his magic lamp, he will be able to return the princess to her normal size. On Colossa, Sinbad and his crew fight cyclopean beasts, the Roc, a Dragon, skeletons, and all other manner of stop-motion monsters.

Click below to read the full article.