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- Santa Gorilla Spreads Holiday Cheer to Hollywood
- Amalgamated Dynamics’ Mission
- Celebrating the Art of Practical Creature Effects
Santa Gorilla Spreads Holiday Cheer to Hollywood
To celebrate the holiday season, we joined the Oscar-winning Creature FX geniuses from Amalgamated Dynamics in Hollywood, where they showed off their state-of-the-art "Santa Gorilla" (aka Bernie from The Zookeeper). He sang Christmas Carols, listened attentively to Christmas wishes, and generally blew people's minds.
(Amalgamated Dynamics co-founder Alec Gillis puppeteers Santa Gorilla outside the famous Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd.)
(Santa Gorilla (aka Tom Woodruff, Jr.) spreads holiday cheer in Hollywood.)
Amalgamated Dynamics’ Mission
Our collective mission was clear: 1) To spread holiday cheer. 2) To remind Hollywood (and movie fans) that nothing beats the interactivity of a "real" creature. Well, Santa Gorilla achieved both objectives with flying colors (red and green, naturally), and we filmed the whole thing!
(Santa Gorilla welcomes all, human and canine alike.)
(Santa Gorilla poses with Superman, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Spider-Man.)
(ADI's Connor Woodruff, Dave Penikas, and Garth Winkless bring Santa Gorilla to life to the delight of a young child.)
Celebrating the Art of Practical Creature Effects
Watch the video above for a peek at some of the highlights of Santa Gorilla's visit to Hollywood. And remember, this Christmas, forget the milk and cookies—Santa Gorilla prefers bananas.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Stan Winston School!
- Matt Winston
