The man behind the most famous galaxy in our universe: John Dykstra.
With CGI in it’s infancy, Lucas had to craft his world entirely by hand, and in doing so created one of the most beloved sci-fi landscapes of all time. Part of George Lucas’ struggle to bring Star Wars to the big screen was that the technology just wasn’t deemed good enough to create a sprawling space epic like A New Hope. Their work impressed Carpenter so much that he scrapped much of the film’s stop motion work that he found to be unrealistic by comparison.Įveryone’s favorite ’70s space opera, the original Star Wars Trilogy, is a joyous celebration of majestic special effects and puppetry. Operating the majority of the film’s astounding practical effects himself, Bottin worked tirelessly on The Thing, but did call in the one and only Stan Winston to work on the film’s terrifying Thing Dog puppet. Unbelievably, special effects maestro Rob Bottin was only 22 when he created the world of The Thing. Though the latter film is memorable for its claustrophobic atmosphere and stellar cast, the incredible practical work and puppetry really bring the horror to life. Chief among his exploits in the field were classic films like Big Trouble in Little China and 1982’s sci-fi horror classic, The Thing. John Carpenter is a master of many things, and one of them is undoubtedly practical effects. Combining state-of-the-art animatronic puppetry with never-before-used CG technology, the team crafted a film that’s to this day one of the best looking blockbusters of all time. The finished film only included 14 minutes of visual effects, and it was the team’s collaboration with the puppeteers from Stan Winston’s company that was revolutionary. That all changed when a group of animators from ILM bought Steven Spielberg test footage of their CGI vision for the dinosaurs. During the production of the seminal dinosaur disaster movie, the creative team were planning on using Harryhausen-esque stop motion to bring their prehistoric protagonists to life. Jurassic Park was one of those landmarks.
#AMAZING PUPPETRY MOVIE#
There are some moments in movie history that really change the path of Hollywood forever. Though the film was a commercial flop at release, it’s since become one of the most beloved fantasy films of recent history due in no little part to the puppetry of Jim Henson and his collaborators. Jennifer Connolly’s erstwhile goblin guide, Hoggle, was controlled by five different puppeteers at any one time. Expanding on the incredible technology that they pioneered in The Dark Crystal, The Jim Henson Company brought to life a world inhabited by some of the most complex puppets ever seen on the silver screen. Jim Henson’s last feature film was a fantasy musical that aside from its two main human stars (one of which being David Bowie in one of his most iconic roles) was predominantly filled with a cast of puppets.
Alongside the physical puppeteers, the film took advantage of completely new animatronic and remote control puppetry technology. It also revolutionized puppetry, featuring entirely new forms of puppetry using mimes, dancers, and acrobats, creating entirely new stages and spaces to enable them. The film utilized many of the iconic Muppeteers–puppeteers from Henson’s Muppet Show– -for the main characters. Brian Froud was the conceptual designer behind The Dark Crystal and its spiritual sequel, Labyrinth, was fantasy illustrator tasked with bringing to life Henson’s vision for these worlds. Where else can we begin but with The Dark Crystal itself? Frank Oz and Jim Henson’s beautiful hard fantasy epic is still as breathtaking today as when it was first released in 1982. With the announcement of Netflix’s upcoming The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series, we’re feeling very high about the wonders of Jim Henson’s world and the joys of practical effects! So to celebrate this momentous occasion, we’ve put together a collection of some of the most magical, mystical, and magnificent puppetry in cinematic history.
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