Pete Peterson’s stop-motion animation is greatly underappreciated today. As Willis O’Brien’s production assistant, he was responsible for memorable scenes in Mighty Joe Young, The Black Scorpion, and Behemoth the Sea Monster. The grace of his animations contrasts with the crippling arthritis he developed at the peak of his career. Peterson valiantly worked through his physical pain on the animation set, even while bound to a wheelchair.
The Las Vegas Monster is a test reel created by Pete Peterson for an unrealized motion picture. You’ll recognize the set and low-key lighting from The Black Scorpion. Peterson designed the monster and built the armature. Years later, the monster’s armature became the backbone for the Great God Porno (sometimes called the Nesuahyrrh) in the 1972 feature Flesh Gordon.
The monster – a mutated baboon – creeps along with a four-limbed simian gait that’s a refreshing change from King Kong’s, and the articulated feelers protruding out the nose are effectively bizarre. (They also sell the concept of the monster’s body reacting physically as it swings its body around, particularly at the end of the clip.) I’m also impressed with the monster’s extended pitch when hurling objects – it’s a motion that can’t be achieved by an actor in costume.
This clip’s pace seems slow to me. In contemporary animation, shots of the monster hurling cars and boulders would be photographed in just a few frames for more energetic actiont. But the pacing works with the long duration of each animation cut. This 2:19 clip is made up of only eight cuts (excluding the actor who briefly sticks his head out a door), and the longest is an astonishing 52 seconds, approximately 1,248 frames. Peterson must have been gifted with intense patience and memory.
The Las Vegas Monster demonstrates Pete Peterson’s innate talent for stop-motion animation, and I want to learn more.
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