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Next, Rick demonstrates another invention, the
Facial Waldo®. Rick places
the Waldo® on Dave's head, then unveils a large
animatronic head of Paul Schaffer. Dave moves his head
around, and the puppet head does the same. The puppet
mimics Dave's movements. . .now, if he only had moved
it correctly!) (See our Anecdotes page
for a behind-the-scenes account of this
appearance...) Rick sat in the green room with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
and Ron Pearlman on the show. He remembers a
plastic-looking aide grinning widely and urging him with
the comment "ENERGY! Remember, lots of ENERGY!" "What sets Lazzarini apart from other special effects
shops, is the way he is able to make the puppets move."
Lazzarini demonstrates his invention, the Facial
Waldo® with the lion from the Bell Canada spot.
Rick demonstrates movement with the luxo lamp puppet by
using another kind of Waldo®,
connected to his arm. "This puppet was used for a
Oxy-Night commercial." Rick humbly states that he doesn't
consider himself a wizard - "it's really a bunch of
talented people staying up all night developing these
things". Rick explains: "On Operation Dumbo Drop, I was asked
to create two full-size animatronic elephant replicas, to
give the illusion that we're pushing a real elephant out
of a plane". We see Character Shop employees painting one
of the elephant replicas. We see the testing of different
parts of the elephant, the trunk, the eyes, and also a
skinless version of the elephant robot, swaying back and
forth. "To build these elephants, it's going to take
about eleven weeks, and we have about twenty-five people.
We're working ten hour days so its a lot of manpower; a
lot of man hours". Rick nods approvingly as several
workers open up a mold of the elephant head. We see a
finished elephant being tested for movement. "We're going
to push one elephant out of the airplane. We also have to
produce six stand-ins, just static ones for testing",
says Lazzarini. We see six static elephants standing at attention at
the parking lot of the Character Shop. Next we see aerial
footage taken from Thailand. Rick tells us a story of how
the parachute had failed to open on some of the drops.
"As we're watching the parachute come down further and
further, there's a sense of dread, and also a sense of
fun." We see a TCS crewmember sob over a shattered
fiberglass elephant:"My poor baby!" "Out of all the test
drops", says Lazzarini, "we lost three elephants, that's
why we made six." People cheer as we see a parachute open
successfully in one of the drops. The drop was a success.
We see the dropped elephant; fully intact. Doug E. Doug
wraps it up: The elephant had landed safely without a
scratch!" Favorite overblown line: Reporter Steve McPartlin's
authoritative-sounding narration: "HE is one of
Hollywood's top special effects MEN!" "It's Halloween time again and you know what that
means." Reporter Steve McPartlin, has found a man who
does some pretty scary things. Opening on some shots of
spooky creatures from past projects, we are taken
exclusively into the place where it all begins; Rick
Lazzarini's Character Shop. We see various creatures and
short clips from movies like "Ghostbusters II", "A
Nightmare on Elm Street", and "My Stepmother is an
Alien". "You might think that a person who comes up with
all this, may be a strange guy, but actually, Rick is
quite normal. Well, sort of." He demonstrates a bat puppet used for a past NBC
project. Rick explains that, as a kid, he enjoyed reading
comic books and watching monster movies, and wanted to
know how those things were done. Rick says he likes to
come up with different ideas, and likes to get them out
in 3-dimensions and make them work. Rick demonstrates his
invention, the Facial Waldo®. "This is a control
device which is used to manipulate expressions, on
puppets and creatures. Sensors are glued to the
puppeteers face, and once they are in place, they can
actuate the puppet's eyebrows, smile, mouth." It does
whatever Rick's face does, "thus eliminating confusion on
the set." Rick tells us how he tries to stay away from gore.
Although he doesn't mind an old-fashioned scare by a
ghost or creature, Rick doesn't like blood and
dismemberment. "Rick is very much more into the
technology. Films' spooks have come a long way on the
silver screen", narrates McPartlin. While demonstrasting
a very realistic animatronic head, Rick feels that it is
very important to develop new ways to operate puppets,
and that's why he feels that computer control is becoming
more common. McPartlin says "Electronic control is taking
the place of strings and sticks." "They still sometimes
use rods, and string, but there's a lot more computer
chips in there too." agrees Rick. McPartlin notes "Rick
Lazzarini is a man in love with his work, but around this
time of year, he tries to make himself pretty scarce."
Rick clarifies "I have Halloween year-round, so around
Halloween week, I kind of disappear."
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are the property of The Character Shop, Inc. and copyright
1995-98
David Letterman introduces Rick Lazzarini. The
first thing Rick demonstrates is his own invention which
he calls the "Creature Flocker®". It is a device used
to apply hair realistically on animatronic creatures.
Rick attaches an electric cable to Dave's pinky finger,
then sprays some adhesive onto Dave's palm. Rick then
turns on the machine and applies a thin coat of brown fur
onto Dave's hand. What is actually happening is that the
flocker turns the tiny hairs into magnets, and as they
are being sprinkled onto Dave's hand, the positively
charged ends are attracted to Dave's negatively charged
hand. The hairs stand straight up, and the adhesive bonds
them to the skin. The hair is then brushed to give it
direction. Dave asks why "you don't just dump a bunch of
hair on a guy's hand", and Rick has the camera come in
close to view that the hairs are, indeed, all standing up
straight, not in a tangled mass.
Rick, a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, scoffs at the
FOX hullaballoo over the Santilli Alien Autopsy footage.
He points out how some of the incisions were done with a
"blood knife": a knife that never really cuts; it just
has a small tube that lays on a thin ribbon of blood.
Disputing another FX expert who had stated it was
difficult to fake a cut in synthetic flesh and have it
bleed (okay, it was Stan), Rick proceeds to use an actual
scalpel and easily makes an incision in a very realistic
silicone-skinned head. "He's a bleeder!" Rick exclaims as
blood starts to drip from the cut. He proffers his
opinion of the film: "It was a fake. A well-done fake,
but a fake."
Steve Edwards and Tawny Little used to be the
co-hosts of a local Southern California show called A.M.,
L.A. Rick is a featured guest. We see a scene from the
movie A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part V. Rick
shows us a number of things on a table. The first, is the
Freddy face from the clip. He tells us how he got to be
Freddy for two days. He shows us a mutant baby dog head
that an actual Rottweiler wore for A Nightmare on Elm
Street, Part II. Next we see a severed head from
Ghostbusters II, and a cobra from Exorcist III. Next Rick
demonstrates an animatronic desk lamp that he operates
with a device that he invented called The Waldo®.
This lamp was used for an Oxy-NightWatch commercial. Rick
explains that he doesn't just make gory things, but
cutesy things also, like the Duracell toy commercials.
Next Rick demonstrates the Facial
Waldo® on a lion head used for a Bell Canada
commercial. Rick says that although he did study film in
school, "...most of this stuff is self-taught".
"If you've ever been scared by something that
went bump in the local Bijou, then there's a good chance
that the man behind the monster is Rick Lazzarini." Rick
tells his story, how as a child, he would read comic
books and monster magazines. Following in the footsteps
of Lon Chaney and Jack Pierce, Rick decided at an early
age that this was how he wanted to make a living.
Lazzarini has turned his childhood inspiration to a dream
come true. We see various puppets and creatures about
Rick's shop from past projects. Rick demonstrates an
animatronic head that looks incredibly life-like. At The
[Character Shop] they make puppets and prosthetic
effects for movies and commercials. "It's a fantasy
character being brought to life", says Lazzarini. Some of
the past projects that Rick has been involved in are
"Ghostbusters II", and "A Nightmare on Elmstreet, Part
V". We see brief clips from those films. Rick
demonstrates the "unborn baby in the womb" effect. Next,
Rick demonstrates his "Veg Head Man" puppet made for a
salad dressing commercial, and following that, a lion
head for a Bell Canada commercial. We see Rick operating
these puppets, and then see how they actually appeared in
the commercial.
Disney must have spent as much on marketing this
one as they did to make the film in the first place. One
morning, as my clock radio went off, I awoke to the sound
of my name being pronounced (correctly!) and then my own
voice! Disney had bought radio spots wherein I was
mentioned as the animatronics expert on the film, and
even had me delivering little sound bites, lifted from
the "making of" footage they'd shot during manufacture of
the elephants. I don't know about other areas of the
country, but most of the major radio stations in Southern
California ran those ads pretty heavy for a while there.
Free advertising, ya can't beat it!
"How do you make an elephant fly?" We see a
testing of the inner mechanics of the animatronic
structure of the robotic elephant. Doug E. Doug, one of
the actors in the film, narrates: "Since we really
couldn't drop the elephant out of an airplane,
animatronics expert, Rick Lazzarini was brought in to
devise a way to parachute robotic replicas of Tai the
elephant." We see Rick showing preliminary detailed
sketches of the elephant. "Lazzarini has provided movie
magic to some recent films like, "The Santa Clause",
"Casper", and "Batman". If anybody could figure out how
to drop an elephant, Rick could." We see Character Shop
employees taking measurements of the real elephant star
with gigantic calipers.
The L.A.
Times | Theatre
Crafts International |
Entertainment
Tonight | TCS'
press release
Rick's Note:For a special Halloween show
aired in 1989, IE did a rather in-depth report on the
shop. Featured were the Theater ghost and Frog ghost made
for "Ghostbusters II", and Freddy appliance, womb, and
fetus from Nightmare on Elm Street V. Also a very nice
demo of the Facial
Waldo®, used on the animatronic lion head built
for a series of Bell Canada commercials.
"Welcome to the Character Shop." We open on a
few shots of puppets from some of Rick's past projects.
We see Rick touching up an animatronic bust of Paul
Schaffer specially created for his guest spot on the
David Letterman Show. Rick offers as to how it isn't
magic that creates these characters: "It takes a lot of
long hours, it takes dedication, it takes talent." Rick
demonstrates the Arm
Waldo® by puppeteering a desk lamp. Rick shows us
the Facial Waldo® as
he puppeteers a large animatronic lion head. Rick
explains how all of your movements must be exaggerated to
make up for what is lost in the translation. With sensors
glued to Rick's face, every expression that he makes
gives the puppet life. Narrator: "Lazzarini's Waldo®
system makes for startlingly realistic facial expressions
and startling savings for movie makers. The Waldo®
eliminates two or three puppeteers, which were previously
necessary to give the creature expression or body
movement." Rick explains: "Before, you had a bunch of
guys on these joystick boxes, with one guy for each
moveable part. The difficulty comes in when trying to
coordinate all the movements together. So this Waldo®
device integrates it into one operator or as few
operators as possible." Rick says as he puppeteers the
Paul Schaffer head. Regarding the then-current shying
away from special effects, Rick slyly comments:
"Hollywood is learning that with films like Driving
Miss Daisy, you can make a lot of money with a simple
story and no fancy special effects. . . so, get off it,
will you?" At the end, the CNN Showbiz reporter turns to
the camera and says: "Special Effects, indeed!" (Is that
what they call a sound bite?)
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