Animatronics Quotes

I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind, so they don't have to eat... eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.

There's something known as the Uncanny Valley where things look a little too real and you're not quite sure what you're looking at. It becomes weird like it did in 'The Polar Express,' where the eyes seem so realistic, and yet you know it's animated.

'Muppets' was very much an exercise in anti-CG and the anti-effects world. It was very much in camera. We wanted to create a world where tangible puppets walked around and talked to each other. You could touch them. You could meet them.

There's some sort of unspoken license... when outlandish things come out of an inanimate object, somehow it equals humor.

Digital effects have progressed ten thousand years' worth since we shot 'ED 2,' but practicals are still just the same: Blood pumps, rubber latex, glue, the works.

As far as animatronics, I started out in college working for Tom Holman. He was the inventor of the THX sound system. Through him, I got an internship at Lucasfilm.

Typically, with low-budget stop-motion, you can get away with a cartoony style.

Both Adam and I come from a practical effects background.

I'm a dog person, I've had dogs all my life. But you see, it's not really a dog. It's more like a little robot. It's an actor. It displays no emotion whatsoever. I swear that dog doesn't know any of us even though we've done five seasons of Frasier.

There's a limit to what I can do with a makeup or with animatronics.

Actors will never be replaced. The thought that somehow a computer version of a character is going to be something people prefer to look at is a ludicrous idea.

But with The Dark Crystal, instead of puppetry we're trying to go toward a sense of realism - toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive and we're mixing up puppetry and all kinds of other techniques.

As technology improves, on-screen avatars look more and more like real people. When they start looking too real, though, we pull away. These almost-humans aren't quite right; they look creepy, like zombies.

When I used to work in special effects at the model shop, I couldn't imagine having a better job. We made spaceships and miniature cities and I was working on robots. Then the 'MythBusters' opportunity came along.

Euro Disney is not my vibe. I can't really deal with Disney, man. It's not my thing.

I grew up watching movies and being amazed at the animatronics you'd see in stuff like 'The Dark Crystal,' and all those kinds of movies. So, I'm always enthralled with how they can make it all work, behind the scenes, with the visual effects.

I hate puppets so much.

I'm a 'Clash of the Titans'/'Star Wars' baby. I'm not a new 'Star Wars' baby. I'm not an 'Avatar' baby. That full CG doesn't work for me. I need interactivity. I need to feel the goo. I need to feel people coming out of animatronics and just interacting with props.

'Robot Chicken' was one of my favorite shows.

I don't think you can beat a costumed monster. It's brilliant. I'll take that over CGI any day.

I don't know, I'm still a little bit like, when you blend CGI well with real life, it's impressive, but if you remove real life completely, I still get pulled out of the movie a bit.

According to Jewish legend, only the very wisest and very holiest rabbis had the power to make golems, animated servants of clay. Strictly speaking, the golem is not in the same class with Frankenstein's monster, because the golem is neither alive nor dead. He is, rather, the ancestor of all robots.

I could never see myself playing a goblin or gnome, without some serious CGI at least!

I saw the Nutcracker to be a dummy as I thought of its mouth moving like a nutcracker - and also find them pretty scary as they almost have a life of their own.

As a kid growing up in Southern California, I was a frequent visitor to the Disneyland and developed a deep love of the magic and wonder of Disney.