The magical material used was plastizote foam, wrapped in a layer of carbon.
The structure of the hands had to be able to withstand all the roughhousing and tree-punching called for in Jonze and Dave Eggers’s script. The paws (and those terrible claws) were articulated through what Brooke calls a “blade mechanism”: the performer’s hands would fit into rings that that would enable them to operate much larger fingers. Consequently, the hip structures were made out of a much more solid foam than anything else. To facilitate freedom of movement, the suits were structured so the weight was primarily resting on the performers’ hips, just like heavy-duty hiking backpacks. Though Brooke’s team made sure to use the most lightweight materials available at every stage, the final suits ended up weighing anywhere from 50 to 70 pounds.
On top of that came the muscles, which were made out of a soft, malleable foam and covered in slick Lycra that separated it from the fur-covered skin stretched over the other the whole thing.Ībove all, the suits had to be wieldy. The rib cages were made of dense sheet foam, which could be patterned into certain shapes, and which could expand and contract naturally. The interior was made of a hard but somewhat flexible material, like synthetic cartilage. They were designed to replicate the layers of real-life organisms and to be treated the way one would treat one’s own body. “They’re like puppets that are puppeteered from the inside,” says Brooke.įrom the neck down, the costumes were made very differently. So they forgot there even was somebody within. Suit designer Nikki Lyons put it this way, according to Brooke: “We’ve got to find a way to lose the performer within the suit,” so that audiences wouldn’t be aware of how the actor fit within. A maquette for "The Bull." *Courtesy of Jim Henson Creature Workshop.*The real challenge was to make the full-sized, eight- or nine-foot-tall suits performable, which required them to be at once flexible, durable, and dexterous: “We had to make these huge suits so flexible and versatile that they could run in the forest, roll down the dunes, and emote with Max.”
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