The celebration of Return of the Jedi continues as the venerable Fangoria magazine takes a look at the monster menagerie of Episode VI, delving into the work and craft that went in to bringing these creatures to life, and the Creature Shops determination to at least match the groundbreaking work of creature legends Rick Baker and Rob Bottin.
It was always apparent that George Lucas was obsessed with monsters. From the garbage-dwelling Dianoga in Star Wars to the brutal Hoth Wampa in The Empire Strikes Back, the series has always made time for close encounters of the beastly kind. When it came time to make the third film, it was no surprise that Jedi served as a showcase for the legendary artists that made up Industrial Light and Magic’s creature shop. Artists such as Stuart Freeborn, who created the ape makeup for Stanley Kubrick’s “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Phil Tippett, who animated the gigantic AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, and many other names who would become future legends, like Chris Walas (The Fly) and Bob Keen (Hellraiser).
Astonishingly, the crew was creating incredible work within multiple disciplines and strict deadlines, with special effects makeup still in its relative infancy. Rick Baker (who worked on Star Wars’ famous cantina scene) had recently won an Oscar for An American Werewolf in London, and artists like Dick Smith and Tom Savini were constantly pushing the envelope, but with the film’s scale, a range of methods was needed. People in masks were one thing, but there was also puppetry in different scales and animatronic work.
“It was running fast and furious,” Phil Tippett said in J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Return of the Jedi, “and one of the prime motivating factors which kept us going was simply fear—fear of our work being substandard to Rick Baker’s creations or Rob Bottin’s handiwork. That was really scary!”
- Hardcover Book
- Blake, Olivie (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 592 Pages - 08/29/2023 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
