Creating the squid for "20,000 Leagues under the Sea"
David Hutchison, David Everitt
Mechanical effects expert Bob Mattey had the job of bringing life to the movement of the giant squid. The squid itself was researched and sculpted by Chris Mueller (one of the most highly regarded artists in the field of ornamental sculpture). Mueller learned that squids have been known to possess tentacles 90 feet long and weigh in excess of 20 tons. Rigging such a creature to move and do battle on a sound stage proved much more difficult than originally anticipated. Bob Mattey remembers: "We had to build the squid twice. We built the first one strictly as a mechanical prop, but Walt didn't like the way it moved. The second one had tentacles that operated by means of vacuum and air pressure."
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