By now it should be pretty clear that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro prefers “old school” practical makeup FX over CGI whenever possible — the deliriously organic Troll Market sequence alone is reason enough to see HELLBOY II.
And he fully intends to carry that penchant into THE HOBBIT as much as possible for its various fantastical creatures and dreaded dragon. And he’s on the same page as LOTR overlord Peter Jackson, as he tells IGN they are both “huge fans of ‘old-world’ techniques like maquettes, models, miniatures, paintings – and in the case of THE HOBBIT, I do intend to continue this trend and bring much more animatronics into the mix. We need to keep that art form alive, because it brings a textural power to the movie that ultimately affects the content. The creatures somehow seem more tactile and more tangible than CG.”
As he has done in the past, GdT plans to enhance animatronic creatures with computer animation, meaning we may not be able to tell where the physical Smaug ends and the texture-mapped polygons begin. He does state, however, that Gollum will remain strictly as the CG fabrication established by the LOTR movies.
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