Press Interviews

 


 

Mike Elizalde - Press Interviews and Statements

 


Interview with Mike Elizalde of Spectral Motion

December 1, 1996 by Ed Martinez, Gremlins in the Garage



EM: Did you sculpt them as well?

ME: No, I didn't sculpt them. The cosmetic work was done by ADl's staff of sculptors and character designers. But just before that I was working with Dave Nelson in Agoura Hills at his company called Animated Engineering. That was a great experience working directly with Dave Nelson as one of the mechanical designers. Again, he's one of those people who demands the best.

 

EM: I'm not that familiar with Dave Nelson's career. Can you tell us some of the films that he's done?

ME: He did a film called Fluke, and he did the Yoshi dinosaur puppet for Super Mario Brothers the Movie, and a fake head of Christopher Lloyd for an episode of Amazing Stories while in Stan Winston's employ. He was also a chief mechanical designer for Chucky under Kevin Yagher, so he's done quite a bit of work.



Image
Yoshi from Super Mario Brothers.
Animatronic design by Dave Nelson
of Animated Engineering.



Image
Yoshi with skin. Designed by
Mark Maitre.


EM: So you worked for him on Super Mario Brothers?

ME: Yes, we worked together on Super Mario Brothers. We were really proud of the Yoshi puppet. Dave designed most of that and let us design parts of it. It turned out wonderfully. That's when Dave recommended me to ADI.[...]