Spectral Motion's Animatronics Work For Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters Is Impressive

The folks over at Spectral Motion just released quite a bit of test footage regarding the development of animatronics for a troll called 'Edward' in the Hansel & Gretel. Inspired by the level of fidelity that Guillermo Del Toro managed to achieve with the Hellboy franchise (The making of Hellboy II is one of the best I've ever seen), director Tommy Wirkola decided to go with the same company that worked with Del Toro. Following Gustav Hoegen's stellar animatronic work on Prometheus, I wouldn't be surprised if the medium makes a major comeback over CG in years to come.

On a side note, Edward was probably the only redeeming feature that the film had to offer, after going to a screening for that awful, awful movie. Did you know that Hansel (Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye in The Avengers) had steampunk diabetes, called 'the sugar disease' in the movie from eating too much candy? Part of my brain died in that theater, but hey..At least I got to experience some truly amazing animatronics created by a passionate group of folks. Derek Mears manned the final animatronic suit in the feature.