Universal Studios’ magnum opus Sci-fi adventure flick, Jurassic World, the fourth installment of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park franchise is smashing all box office records, swooping past Marvel’s Avengers (2012) with a $511 plus opening weekend. Starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, the dino-adventure tent-pole has already surpassed critics and analysts’ expectation and amassed nearly $600 million in its first week world-wide. Read the review how Jurassic World brings back the lost world of the dinosaurs.
Apart from Chris Pratt’s masculine charm, Jurassic World’s success can be attributed to some over-the-top visuals bringing alive the gigantic-extinct dinosaurs and truly living the fictional reality of a Dino-adventure park. Thanks to the advent of the latest animation and special effects technology, Colin Trevorrow along with various VFX and animation studios was able to build and create some awe-inspiring sequences of the dinosaurs with a mix of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and animatronics.
The American special effects studio, Legacy Effects built some incredible animatronics’ of the set dinosaurs. Animatronics is basically the use of robotics to emulate lifelike characteristics of a human or an animal, in this case, the dinosaurs. 22 years ago, Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park (1993) relied heavily on this mechanism bringing the giant 30 foot Tyrannosaurus Rex alive on the big screen. With subsequent sequels and CGI adding to the director’s creative arsenal, animatronics were sparingly used.
However to bring in the depth in the creature’s characteristics and to shoot the human interaction with dinosaurs as real as possible, Colin relied on the old-school method of animatronics and shot some of the best scenes of the movie with dinosaurs using this method.
Legacy Effects recently shared a video unraveling the making of the animatronic Apatosaurus. (Spoilers Alert) When the 40 foot genetically-engineered Indominous Rex breaks out of its containment and goes on a killing spree, it not only chomps away the humans but also devours all other dinosaurs in its path including the mild-friendly herbivores, Apatosaurus. In one of the most emotional scenes of the movie where a huge Apatosaurus breathes it’s last in Pratt’s arms, the animatronics at play completely soaked the moment with perfection.
Legacy Effects, Co-Owner, John Rosengrant stated that one of their best works that went straight from the set to the screen was that of the dying Apatosaurus. The studios built an animatronic head and neck of the dinosaur that brought out a brilliant chemistry on-screen with the characters. From creating a 3D imagery to sculpting it’s the model with intricate details and following it up with different workable mold pieces using the old-fashioned foam rubber. On the mechanical engineering front, Lead Mechanical Designer, Rich Haugen stated that they went the old-fashioned way of using the cables rather than the hydraulics system and the result was spectacular with the dinosaur being able to emulate all sorts of animal movements, breathing life into the robotic piece.
Here’s a look at the building of the Apatosaurus and also the bust of the Velociraptors.