BeetleJuice 2 (2024) - Where is the Stop Motion?

So, BeetleJuice 2 boasts much 'Practical' ('real', not Cgi) special effects. In general with today's big box office movies, they will always use Cgi. My observation with BJ2, although the practical effects which includes, prosthetics, animatronics, rod puppetry, etc which of course, they are present in the film ... however .... in the film crew credits for BJ2, there is Zero, Zip, Zilch, Nada attribution to traditional Stop Motion Animation. Therefore at this time, I can only conclude that there was NO Stop Motion in BeetleJuice 2. In a few of the teasers, you briefly see the Sandworm creature. I am fairly certain that appeared to be CGI.

Here is my evidence Click > BeetleJuice 2 (2024) CREW LIST / IMD  Do you see any screen credits for Stop Motion Animation? I have not yet seen BJ2. IF there was Stop Motion, why was there no screen credit?

I then see this contradictory information which was part of the early media hype for BeetleJuice 2 Click > BeetleJuice 2 to feature Stop Motion

It just grinds my gears 😠 ... a major motion picture that devotes their huge budget for A list actors, all the set builders, practical effects, post production, CGI crew, etc. etc ... but they excluded  & dismissed Stop Motion special effects as used in the original BeetleJuice. Why? You would think the production would pay homage or tribute by using Stop Motion ... but NO. 

"Ladies & Gentlemen of the Jury, I rest my CASE!" 😎

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 9, 2024:  I just received confirmation from (click >) Jim Randall that Stop Motion was included in BeetleJuice 2. I posted on Instagram, then Jim notified me that the UK company Mackinnon & Saunders were responsible for the Sandworm sequence done using classic STOP MOTION!!
👍😎  

Take a look here at this link ...

Mackinnon & Saunders - Sandworm

Okay, that was my short tirade. Moving on  ... perhaps you might enjoy re-visiting some of the original BeetleJuice (1988) scenes. We have the iconic Sandworm creature which was actual stop motion animation and some other scenes which I will post videos below ... ALL Stop Motion.

 Sandworm

 Deleted Hanging & Sandworm scenes

 BeetleJuice as Snake creature

Adam & Barbara, head transformation

Testing head transformation from unfinished documentary

Delia Deetz Sculptures come Alive - The Wedding Scene

Click > Artist Tom Spina, restores Stop Motion puppets 'Delia Deetz Sculptures'

Click > Behind the Scenes Photos, Original BeetleJuice


BeetleJuice 2 is  premiering in theaters, September 6, 2024
in the USA & UK --  I do not know the schedule for
other countries, so you need to research that

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Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

Just a reminder to 'you all' .... the title of this Blog is 'Stop Motion Works & Retro FX'. The 'Retro FX' = Old school general special effects (not just stop motion)! This 1959 film is based on the Jules Verne novel, 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' (1864). Perhaps, this movie is  now a forgotten old classic in the science fiction genre. As an action & adventure story, I enjoyed it as a youngster and now re-visiting, it brought back good memories and I still LIKE it very much! For that time, this movie was long at 2 hours! Great performances from the earlier days of Hollywood  ... Click > James Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl, & Diane Baker. Also, especially, the powerful musical score by ... Click > Bernard Herrmann.

If you want to temporarily escape the current mind numbing news & social media bombardment, perhaps you might want to consider watching.  During the movie, near the end, at time stamp about 1 minute, 40 seconds .... my only small criticism was ... Where was Ray Harryhausen when this movie was made? The studio could not afford him? LOL 😆

It was a bit difficult finding the full movie, however, I scored these few and you can see which works for you. For best viewing: Your computer screen monitor (full screen) or hook-up your laptop to your large TV screen using HDMI cable and you will somewhat get the cinema experience! 📽️ 🍿

 

OR

 

Click > Production info / Cast & Crew IMDb 

Click > This is a Movie Review at Youtube (spoilers)

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Laika Studio - WILDWOOD (2025)

 

LAIKA STUDIO has recently released some very brief teasers of their 'in production' WILDWOOD. It has a very rich look to it. It is STOP MOTION, however (spoiler) after seeing the teaser, it sure has a tremendous amount of digital special effects. This is not a criticism ... just stating a fact. I have no idea what Wildwood is about.  I do like the darker aesthetics of it.  For example, Laika's 'Missing Link' (2019), looked so clean, smooth, bright & pristine almost having a CGI feel to it. IMO, Stop Motion should not compete with CGI. Stop Motion has its own unique organic, tactile & rawness,and a more spontaneous feel to it. They are real puppets and that is what appeals to niche audiences which perhaps maybe are appreciating more, as these A.I. farms will start saturating the market with their cookie cutter produced S#&T!😠

Apparently, the Wildwood story has been in development since 2011. That's 13 years ago!😮 My age is perhaps showing my growing impatience. I'll be pushing up daises, by the time these stop motion movies are released! Also, thankfully this will NOT be a Netflix movie like Del Toro's Pinocchio which was of course, spectacular and an Oscar winner! I am talking about the Netflix distribution model. Wildwood be released to actual theaters, the retro style of watching movies! Netflix and other subscription based movie streamers force you to subscribe to their services ... but ... you only want to watch specific movies. I say, SCREW that!

For those who might not be familiar with the past stop motion Laika films. These Wildwood teasers, have cameo brief appearances of characters from Coraline (2009), Paranorman (2012),  Kubo & the Two Strings (2019), These characters will not be in Wildwood. I see, that it is a unique marketing, promotion strategy.
 

Click > Wildwood, is Laika's 'Hardest Film, incredibly ambitious


Click  > Coraline introduces Laika's Wildwood


Click > WILDWOOD - Production & Crew / IMDb

 

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Beyond T-Rex (1997)

 
Long ago, I actually crossed paths with persons who worked on Beyond T-Rex. Her name Shelley Smith and also her brother Tim Synder, both involved with the the stop motion production for Hall Train Studios in Canada. Years later, Shelley eventually traveled down to Portland, Oregon and then to SF bay area to work on some stop motion projects.

It might surprise you that the dinosaur armatures were WIRE ... NO ball & sockets! Shelley revealed this to me and I think, I might has seen a couple of photos that Tim emailed me. It did not occur to me to ask how the animation was so smooth? They perhaps used some kind of customized home made frame grabber or a  > video lunchbox? I do not know if there were computer stop motion frame grabbers tools back in 1996-97.

Production Crew > Beyond T-Rex IMDb 

This video copy on Youtube, the resolution not so good ... in those days, > old style TV video tape quality. Perhaps, the scenes could also have been intentionally photographed to have a soft swamp-like atmosphere which contributes to its hazy look. In addition, before you judge harshly, again ... wire armatures were used, and therefore full expression & fluidity of the animation perhaps limited (by the wires), however, I thought the feeling of massive size & sense of weight, looked reasonably good! In the overall documentary, the stop motion dino scenes are very few. Just a reminder, from the crew list, only 4 artists were responsible for the puppets, miniature sets, backgrounds, compositing & special effects!

Here are some of the stop motion only scenes from Beyond T-rex

Below, is the entire 1997 Beyond T-Rex documentary (52 minutes). Yes it's 27 years old but I thought it was still an entertaining & informative watch. Try to ignore the obnoxious large video water mark on lower right. The Youtuber who uploaded this documentary implying claim to it (?), but actually, copyright does not belong to him!

Let us not forget about the enigmatic & mysterious HALL TRAIN Studios! I wonder if that is his real birth name? It sure does sound bad ass ... Lol! His portfolio is bulging with past & present projects. Beyond T-Rex was one of Hall Train's earlier works using the stop motion animation technique. Since then, I believe that he has not done any other stop motion projects. He currently does work for natural history & science museums, exhibits, theme mark, film, television, media. 

Click > HALL TRAIN BIO

My reference to the 1999 'Walking with Dinosaurs' was in regards to; that I believe it was one of the first dinosaur documentaries, where the creatures were fully created using CGI specifically for the television market. If you think about it, the movie, Jurassic Park was released in 1993 which was an important cinema milestone back then ...  the first organic realistic creatures on the big screen that were computer generated (& animated). So 6 years later, the Discovery channel first introduced CGI dinosaurs which was perhaps, another milestone for television. Of course, today ... you have overflowing quantities of CGI dinosaur documentaries, with herds & herds of dinos dazzling you ad infinitum. They say bigger & more is supposedly better? 😉  

UPDATE: Apparently, Hall Train Studio also did work on another dinosaur themed documentary which also included Stop Motion,  The Ultimate Guide: T-Rex (1996). This is the full documentary. For the stop motion dino scenes, you will have to fast forward to find them. This video upload to Youtube is somewhat okay and the stop motion scenes have slightly improved resolution.  > IMDb

You want MORE? I just found this ... ALL the Hall Train, Stop Motion scenes from both documentaries!

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Japanese 1990 Documentary - AFTER MAN

This obscure Japanese 1990 documentary revolves around Dougal Dixon's, 1981, illustrated book, 'After Man - The Zoology of the Future' The premise being ... After humankind's domain on earth ends ... the speculation of what would the future creatures look like, evolving and interbreeding of different species.

My understanding is, that this was originally produced only for the Japanese market.The full documentary is a substantial 90 minutes in length. Because it is somewhat rare, it appears that only a few online sources are available to watch the full documentary. If you are an old school stop motion or special effects fan of any sort, you might enjoy it. 

The video quality is old style TV low resolution and no subtitles. The beginning scenes of the documentary starts with borrowed very brief shots from Phil Tippett's, Prehistoric Beast (1984)  My micro review: This documentary's special effects work was not as polished compared to the Harryhausen and Phil Tippett signature styles, however, I think they did reasonably good! 👍 They possibly had a limited budget and less experience but they were successful with their creativity efforts in producing this.'After Man' uses stop motion animation and hand operated puppetry effects. To me, it has a little bit of a Karel Zeman (Czech director) style (mid 1950s)

This is a good summary overview explaining the origins of this documentary 

At Youtube, the video below, you can watch the 90 minutes which is in 13 parts/chapters. Each part/chapter will automatically play ... one after the other in sequence. You can always fast forward, as needed. If you only want to see individual video chapters, Go here >> Playlist / After Man (1990)

At Archive.org you can also watch the 90 minutes which is in 5 parts/chapters. The video quality, about the same but the audio sound is very poor, almost muted. The video below, each part/chapter will automatically play ... one after the other in sequence.You can always fast forward, as needed. Here is direct link >> Archive.org / After Man (1990).

If you do not have time to skim through the entire documentary, this Youtube video below claims to just have, all the Stop Motion & Hand Puppetry special effects.

Here >> After Man (1990) IMDb production information

Here >> After Man original illustrated book still available  

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