Thread: Advice for 2010! Fantasmic!

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Hey guys! I've been chatting up Mr. Chicken's leg for a day or two now about my 2010 haunt. And figured it was time to get everyone's opinion. We are doing a Fantasmic! Theme. Last year we did Peter Pan, so we plan to incorporate a few thigns from then. Right now we are just basically brain storming. We are wanting to do a Maleficent Dragon which I am currently working on, using an animated reindeer. The plan for this year, is not to do an entire dragon, due to time contraints and wanting to do soooo many props. The idea is basically have Maleficient coming out of a chicken wire and paper mache cave, have her rigged up with a moving head and a fog machine. We would love to try for the whole dragon, but we'll see.

Here is a little inspiration given to be by mr. chicken
Verno, The Dragon

Now here is where I need some serious advice. The other three big props were planning our:
Jafar (Snake):

Jafar as snake on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Chernabog:

Villains on parade on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
And Scar:


Scar at this point, I don't believe it going to be very difficult. We planning on using another animated reindeer, buying a lion costume and changing its mane and tail to black. Bulking it up with some foam, and then carving it a face. The other two however, are going to be very challenging.
Our current thought for Chernabog is to basically have him propped up on his volcano mountain. So you would only see him from about waist high. I was thinking a PVC pipe figure, with foam and chicken wire. Then some paper mache. I'm not really sure yet, and poor Jafar I have not a clue as to where to begin.

This creature here has given us some inspiration for the body:

But as for his wicked head, I'm not sure haha. Enough! Any advice or helpful hint would be GREATLY GREATLY appreciated! Thank you! ^_^

Sounds like a cool theme, but I can't help but notice the burning man pic. I look at videos upon videos of creatures and creations that show up at burning man. I have a plan of going once I graduate from college. Lots of cool stuff comes from there and helps get me thinking of things to make. One was a guy who had arm and leg stilts and a steam punk mad max style costume with it. Gonna make a prop for my skinwalker cemetary this year, and the year after that make it my costume.

To answer about Jafar, how about having him like the pic, then have his head come wrapping up around a prop from the ground. Snakes and serpents are very rarely stretched out, so have it wrapping around things. You also buy a huge amount of fabric in bulk like 10-13 yards and make a long cylinder, size will triumph detail in some cases. Then just stuff it and paint it, now you can wrap it around the whole haunt. Lastly, for scar look up on youtube "furry foam head how to", it has lots of helpful stuff for carving foam to look like animals. I used alot of techniques from those things to make a werewolf costume one year.

That is a cool idea.

You could have a pvc base with chicken wire and then paing and foam features for Jafar.

Yeah I have considered both of those options. It may be a trial and error sort of thing lol. And thank you for the youtube suggestion, I think that would be perfect for Scar!! I actually found this

But the guy hasn't updated since 2005. It would be perfect if I new how he did it, it says all of his work his from metal working, I just want to know how he got the shape! (Halloween_Art) Thanks for the replies guys!

well, i can't help you make it, but i must say what you have done is amazing work

Thanks for all the comments and pm's!! Right now here is an updated list, I started working yesterday and have purchased quite a bit of supplies. We do our haunts at a campsite, and went and visited its location for next year. It is a HUGE lot, so we are thinking of adding a few characters. Its going to be a looooong 300+ days ^_^:
Right now we are going to have: Maleficent Dragon (already painting up a nice scary glow in the dark latex mask), Chernabog, Scar, and Jafar all previously mentioned. New additions! The crocodile from Peter Pan, I ordered a costume today I plan on rigging up to a de-legged animated reindeer ^_^, The Hag from Snow White, Oogie Boogie and the Caterpillar and Cheshire Cat from Alice. Wish me luck! This is going to be a gigantic undertaking, but we're already excited! ^_^ Any other advice is again, GREATLY appreciated!

I want to watch your Oogie Boogie prop, I am tempted to make a costume for a friend since his nickname is Oogie.

Originally Posted by Biggie

I want to watch your Oogie Boogie prop, I am tempted to make a costume for a friend since his nickname is Oogie.

Yes, I've found a design I really like. I'm going to make him out of a bright green burlap I picked up at Jo Anns, and give it a light dusting of Krylon Glowz Glow-in-the-dark spray paint. It shows up clear. We shall see, I'll update with some pictures when I really get going!

We did an 8ft tall burlap Oogie for this years Halloween, and he was one of my favorites! We were gonna have him moving but ran outta time, so he ended up stationary...

I've seen the Disneyland Fantasmic live about 150 times (seriously), and have an awesome DVD of it (very high quality). We did a Nightmare before Xmas meets Haunted mansion theme this year, and it turned out really nice considering the small amount of actual time spent on it. I would skip the glow in the dark spray paint though, and just go for a florescent Green and use blacklights if you can. If you have a strong enough blacklight he'll glow super bright!

Catepillar can be made from fabric if you have any sewing skillz. We did Wonderland gone mad last year, and had both a giant Catepillar (he was 12 ft tall) AND just the eyes and mouth of the Cheshire Cat hanging from a Tree... Both turned out really nice and were great focal points...

Sounds like a great theme though. I'm still trying to decide what I'm gonna do next year. I lost my 2 partners after halloween this year. Long story, but I won't be working with them anymore.

Originally Posted by Mandathewitch

We did an 8ft tall burlap Oogie for this years Halloween, and he was one of my favorites! We were gonna have him moving but ran outta time, so he ended up stationary...

I've seen the Disneyland Fantasmic live about 150 times (seriously), and have an awesome DVD of it (very high quality). We did a Nightmare before Xmas meets Haunted mansion theme this year, and it turned out really nice considering the small amount of actual time spent on it. I would skip the glow in the dark spray paint though, and just go for a florescent Green and use blacklights if you can. If you have a strong enough blacklight he'll glow super bright!

Catepillar can be made from fabric if you have any sewing skillz. We did Wonderland gone mad last year, and had both a giant Catepillar (he was 12 ft tall) AND just the eyes and mouth of the Cheshire Cat hanging from a Tree... Both turned out really nice and were great focal points...

Sounds like a great theme though. I'm still trying to decide what I'm gonna do next year. I lost my 2 partners after halloween this year. Long story, but I won't be working with them anymore.

holy cow! I saw your Oogie in your album, that's definitely one of the best I've ever seen!!! I would also like to make him move, but I'm not sure how as of the moment, Oogie is cool no matter what though! ^_^ Thank you thank you for all of the advice, I will definitely look in to sewing up a caterpiller, my seamstress skills are in improving little by little!! Thanks again!