GHOSTBUSTERS II-Ghosts not used in the movie
The Frog Ghost, axed when the live-action subway footage didn't work.
Makeup effects creator Rick Lazzarini and his [Canoga Park] based company, [The Character Shop], supplied one
of GHOSTBUSTERS II's most impressive monsters, the "Theatre Ghost." Occupying only five seconds of screen
time, the six-eyed, four-armed, winged creature (complete with stinger) - which chased hoards of panic-stricken
New Yorkers from a movie house and then zoomed hungrily toward the camera-required approximately 14
different articulated parts! Rather than use multiple operators, each working a couple of servo mechanisms,
Lazzarini, who spent a year at Boss Film and was an apprentice to Stan Winston, eschewed standard practice and
used his self-taught mechanical know-how to develop a device which allows a single operator to control up to 16
channels of movement.
Lazzarini (r) with the Facial Waldo and Theater Ghost.
Dubbed the "Facial Waldo," Lazzarini's device consists of a cap-like rig which attaches to a puppeteer's head and
face complete with a chin cup, plastic and Velcro tabs which serve as sensors. These sensors register the
puppeteer's facial movements and send an electrical signal that the servo interprets and duplicates on the creature's
face. If I moved one eyebrow, all six brows on the ghost's face would frown!" said Lazzarini. "At the same time,
my hands were free to control the wings, while other puppeteers operated the arms and stinger." Lazzarini stood
directly behind the "Theatre Ghost," using the Waldo to control nine separate movements, while supporting the
creature with his body. Draped in black velvet, Lazzarini was matted-out of the shot during postproduction.
Lazzarini also used his "Waldo" device for a second delightful demon titled the "Frog Ghost" (eventually edited
out).
NOTE: A nice, brief little mention, though the Frog Ghost wasn't "axed when the live-action subway footage didn't
work", it was "axed" because Ivan Reitman didn't think it was "scary" enough.
