DICK TRACY's opening camera pan across an art deco metropolis of twinkling skylights and Bauhaus skyscrapers, linking Tracy's apartment to a gangland nightspot, is framed with the precision of comic book panels. The shot instantly establishes the film's pop art universe in the most remarkable one-take opening since Orson Welles' camera magic in A TOUCH OF EVIL. Never before has matte artwork played such an integral role ina film. The primary-colored Gotham of DICK TRACY is as bizarrely tangible as any of the film's deformed villains or straight-jawed heroes.
For 41-year-old matte supervisor Michael Lloyd, the work is the culmination of a career at Walt Disney, begun as an apprentice in the studio's animation department. Lioyd has contributed mattes to Disney's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, CAPTAIN EO and RETURN TO OZ, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination. Lioyd said he got the promise of an Oscar when Warren Beatty hired him.
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