Animation Cut From the Film

[darkglobe]

It seems like somewhere (maybe on Barker's official site) that I read that there was some Ray Harryhausen animation planned for Nightbreed, in particular a scene of Shuna Sassi riding some kind of great beast, smiting humans.

The question I have - has a picture of this ever surfaced in any fan site?

[cobweb]

I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first I remember hearing of it. But wow! That would've been cool! ;D

Maybe there's a reference to it in a Ray Harryhausen compilation or biography somewhere? It's definitely worth keeping an eye out for! Thank you! ;D

~ Cobweb

[darkglobe]

Woops - I should have said Ray Harryhausen-like animation, the kind with complete 3-D models and the like.

And I have no idea how far in the planning the shot was. Rather famously, there was a 3-D model animation sequence that was cut from the Howling that did finally show up in the special edition DVD, so it's very possible that it exists, especially if it was just a short scene.

[Baphomette]

As far as I'm concerned, this information falls into the rumour category because the source has not been verified, but this is a review of Nightbreed that was posted at Amazon on August 30, 2005:

Should this remain ... "BELOW" ?
Reviewer: M. C. Jones "Gothmog519" (UK)

Having worked on this movie as a member of the Image Animation make-up FX crew back in the late 80's I recently revisited this little fella to see if it was as I remember it. It seems you either love it or loath it and have read some conflicting opinions in these reviews ... it's true there was a HUGE amount cut from this movie, most notably and very sadly pretty much all of the stop motion animation sequences which had they been kept it would've stepped this up from it's 'men in masks' reputation - also a lot of the main characters originally slated for the chop at the end were kept back for a potential sequel that never came ... the inclusion of the 'wall' painted by the superb artist Raplh McQuarrie gave the movie some resonance but at the end of the day too many chef's spoiled the broth and good ideas were crudely cut and poorly edited to compact this into a shorter running time. That said this movie has a place in my heart, in an age that was just coming to terms with CG a la Jim Camerons "The Abyss", "Nightbreed" didn't pull any punches and the campy cult status it seems to have earnt by a loving following of hardcore fans is pleasing. For the record, there were a lot of monsters and scenes shot that were never seen and fans would feast on the deleted scenes from what was removed or changed - Eigerman and Ashberry's demise, stop mo' creatures such as giant flying insects, a troll with a mouth for a groin tearing a car apart, a deformed tiger woman riding a huge dinosaur beast through the tunnels of midian and a scorpian woman were all made and never used ... I had heard a sequel was penned that would've had a re-constructed Baphomet WWF'ing it out with the 'old gods' in central park which if done now would be spectacular but times and tastes change, I can only hope that Clive will re-visit this baby at some point and do it justice in the future - my advice, go buy and enjoy ... if only to be taken away for a couple of hours to Midian - the place where the monsters go ...

I had read about the stop-motion dinosaur ride prior to stumbling across this review, but I can't recall where I saw it either.

[Aaron]

Amazing, I never heard any of this before. But then I am not as diligent a fan as I could be.

[Boneyard]

Which is too bad, every movie can be improved by stop-motion dinosaurs. Especially if Shuna is riding it.

[darkglobe]

I think I read it originally at the Clive Barker: Revalations site,but I can't find it now.

IMDB says:
A scene filmed in stop-motion animation, but deleted from the film, has a leopard woman riding a dinosaur-like creature through Median.

Which seems to co-orborate the Amazon review, as does this bit from Scifilm:

(Apparently one of the scenes cut also involved stop-motion and I can hope that Barker will eventually get his planned Director's Cut out there to get a look at it: it involves a leopard woman riding a dinosaur-like creature through Midian).

But it's entirely possible they are all siting the same inaccurate source. I'll keep rooting through the internet's entrails until I find an answer....

[dante]

i heard about this scene too - a long time ago, probably around the early 90's. sounds awesome.

does anyone think we could petition for a Director's Cut? i heard that Clive Barker offered to find the footage and put it back himself... and if the studio execs won't listen to him, well maybe they'll listen to us.

this seems to be the NUMBER 1 Nightbreed Fan-Site - if anyone in the world has the motivation and ability to get this ball rolling it should be us right?
come on guys.....
enough talk, i say we actually DO something about it ...right now, before the stock footage degrades to such an extent that it can never be put back.

surely if anyone is gonna do this it should be ...it MUST be ...us.

[Boneyard]

Online petitions are no guarantee, HOWEVER if there never will be a sequel, a Director's Cut will soothe my dissapointment.