Rocky’s design by Scanlan was built from the literary groundwork laid out by Weir and his evocative description of the alien’s physiology. Scanlan, a British visual-effects artist, is most famous for his award-winning creature work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens – a film which earned him the BAFTA in Special VFX for spearheading over 100 creature and droid designs – and he has since gone off to work on every subsequent Star Wars film to date. It’s a franchise proliferated with puppets big and small (the Porgs will always have a special place in this writer’s heart) and now Scanlan’s acclaimed craftsmanship brings a tactile reality to Lord and Miller’s own space adventure.
Scanlan’s work making puppets like Rocky can be traced back to his early years as part of Jim Henson’s creature shop, helping to create animatronics for cult-classics like Labyrinth – although most recognised as ‘the man who created the Muppets’, Henson was also a pioneer for making puppetry commonplace within live-action cinema. Because of 1980s Henson movies, namely Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal (the first live-action feature with an entirely puppet cast), we’ve been conditioned to accept puppets as bona fide movie stars in non-animated features; leads capable of carrying films alongside acting royalty like Sir Michael Caine. Without a true thespian of Caine’s calibre, one who commits to his tiny scene partners as straight as it comes – you would think he was performing alongside Olivier rather than Rizzo the Rat in The Muppets Christmas Carol – they would soon be revealed as nothing more than Styrofoam and Antron fleece. Sir Michael said it best himself: “If I am real, it makes the puppets real.”
Without the man or woman behind the puppet, stars like Gosling wouldn’t have anyone to perform opposite – just a tennis ball on a stick. Thankfully, much like his character in the film, Gosling was never truly alone on set. Having found critical success with his diverse puppetry work within the theatre world – his dinosaur designs for the broadway revival of ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ gave Jurassic Park a run for its money – James Ortiz was hired to bring his expertise to physically animate Rocky alongside his crew of “Rockyteers”. Taking over from Ray Porter who narrated the audiobook, Ortiz also provided the dialogue translated from Rocky’s native melodic language of notes and chords. This double duty spotlights that Ortiz truly became Rocky – a challenge that requires just as much creative expression as technical dexterity.
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