The Giant Buffalo of Rick Lazzarini's Character
Shop
By Simon Bacal
Together with his effects company, The Character Shop,
creature creator Rick Lazzarini was responsible for
breathing life into the eight-foot buffalo in Columbia
Pictures RADIO FLYER, Lazzarini, whose previous credits
include HOOK, EXORCIST III and BATMAN, had originally
been chosen to create all of the film's makeup and
creature effects. Zombies and a five-armed worm man were
among a variety of creatures built by Lazzarini, but
eliminated from the project when writer/director David
Mickey Evans was replaced as director by Richard Donner.
Instead, monster maker Kevin Yagher, who had worked with
Donner on TALES FROM THE CRYPT, was brought in to create
a fleetingly glimpsed giant turtle and a bigfoot
creature.
The 8-foot-tall buffalo before final fur
application.
"Originally the buffalo was going to be 12-14 feet
high," recalled Lazzarini. "But I warned [the
producers] that this would be bigger than their set.
We designed the creature so that it could be mounted onto
a camera crane from above or from either side. This way
the crane would be hidden by the bulk of the animal.
Alternatively, it could be mounted onto a stand so that
the poles which supported it should be chest high. If you
wanted to shoot above that, you wouldn't see the
stand."
To prepare for the scene, Lazzarini and his crew
carried out extensive research on real buffalo,
videotaping the animals' habits. "Our buffalo was at
least one and one-half times larger than the biggest
buffalo that you would encounter." said Lazzarini, who
covered the giant animatronic replica with the hides of
real buffalo.
Lazzarini and the crane-mounted animatronic prop.
Below: Mounting the creature on a Chapman crane for a
test drive at the [Canoga Park]-based Character
Shop.
The buffalo's flapping ears were achieved through the
use of air cylinders. Powerful linear actuators, air
pressured hydraulic cylinders, enabled the creature to
move its head up, down and from side to side.
Electronically operated servo motors and a special vacuum
pick-up system allowed the buffalo's jaw to move up. down
and from side to side, to eat marshmallows served by the
boys. Servos also controlled eye, brow and snout
movements and activated the creature's two front legs.
Leg movement was accomplished with the use of a
Lazzarini-devised Waldo system, worn by an off-screen
performer. The creature's back legs were operated by
puppeteers using rods, Waldos were also used for head and
facial movements.
For the scene where the buffalo pushes his head
through the kids' bedroom window, we had our creature on
a rolling stand." explained Lazzarini. "While some grips
pushed the bulk of the buffalo's remaining body towards
the window. I was controlling the head with a Waldo. All
the time I was making sure that there was an inch clear
on either side of the horn, to enable the buffalo's head
to easily fit through the opening." Lazzarini designed
the lightweight head with a ribbed parallelogram
understructure for fluid, realistic neck movement,
covered in soft polyfoam.
Though Lazzarini began the film working for Evans, he
said he enjoyed working with Donner. "Richard is a very
gruff guy," said Lazzarini. He bellows! He yells! My
first thought was. "We're making a film about child abuse
an here's this guy yelling at these people?" But it
turned out that his gruffness was a way of getting
attention. Richard was never angry and was great fun to
work with. He is also the kind of director who wants
things done real quick. He doesn't want to worry about
the technology of something or wait around for a device
to be adjusted. This was a situation of, "Wham bam,
you're on the set. Let's shoot this. Now, let's wrap
it"
Creature concept sketches by The Character Shop for
the initial flight of RADIO FLYER under original director
and screenwriter, David Mickey Evans: the walking undead
(top left), the Arsenia zombie (top center), the boogie
man (top right), and the five-armed worm man (all below),
dropped when Donner took over and cut the
budget.
