Comic book fans looking forward to Guillermo del Toro’s second adaptation of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series got an extra surprise Saturday during the New York Comic Con panel for the film, when several creatures took the stage for the duration.
The creatures are set to appear in an otherworldly outdoor bazzar, which will feature in the film.
For del Toro, their appearance at the panel fitted in with his belief that effects produced in the virtual world of the computer have their place, but should never become a crutch for a director to lean on.
“People think that I hate CGI,” del Toro stated. “I don’t hate CGI, but I hate it when it’s lazy CGI. If a director that is making millions of dollars decided to take the easy route when he could have done it physically, I say ‘Fuck you.’
“When the craftsmanship of things like prosthetics and animatronics have been taken as far as we can take them technologically, won’t do then I agree. If something is too small or too big. You can’t fit a performer in or composite a puppet in, then go CG. But that should be a tool, not a tool for just executives changing their mind or directors not working as hard as they should be.”
del Toro explained that when it comes to creating the creatures that inhabit his films, he allows his designers to indulge themselves.
“The only thing I ask them is that they should not look like movie monster creatures,” he explains. “They should have a flair or a flavor that is more unique than that. If it looks like the last Wishmaster movie or the last whatever, I reject it. What I tell them is ‘Show me the best creature, the one you want to do the most.’
