Other Titles • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe • The Chronicles of Narnia
Another challenge for WETA was the film’s climactic battle, for which WETA Workshop complemented costumer Isis Mussenden’s battle gear wardrobe with a spectacular array of more than 1,300 weapons, including swords, maces, shields, etcetera, and armor (150 metal and leather chest plates, patented, handmade chainmail). The magic was in the details. “It’s the final touches that will make it feel like these were all made by craftsmen of Narnia,” Taylor notes. “We all hope that we played a small part in creating a world that feels cohesive and real and alive for audiences to enjoy.”
Working closely with both WETA and Adamson throughout was Howard Berger and his K.N.B. team who make magic out of prosthetics, masks and bodysuits. Berger, who approached the filmmakers early on, fired up to work on the project, was completely in tune with Andrew Adamson’s quest for realism in creating this fantasy world. “I approached it from the start as if we were creating living creatures, bringing them to life with the help of the actor. Ultimately, I think we were responsible for 23 individual species. We created 170 individual characters for the film and shot 150 days with them in New Zealand and Prague,” sums up Berger.
During his six-month prep on the film back in Los Angeles, Berger employed over 100 makeup artists, technicians, fabricators, mold-makers, painters and mechanics. “We recruited the best we have in the makeup business,” he says. “I asked everybody to read the books so that they understood that this was not just a movie. I wanted them to understand the essence of why this film was so important to me. When I talked about Mr. Tumnus, or Ginarrbrik, or the White Witch, everybody knew what I was talking about and what they should be like so we were all on the same page. We all felt like this was a journey unlike any other movie we had done before.”
Among Berger’s favorite creations is the minotaur Otmin, which he calls “the coolest monster K.N.B. has ever made.” Using a radio-controlled animatronic head and requiring multiple puppeteers to operate, Otmin has a personality all his own. “As far as bad guys go, he’s a combination of some of my favorite creatures, a mix of a Where the Wild
Things Are creature with a primate. He’s very real.”
Otmin also required one of the most detailed bodysuits ever made. “It’s a fabricated muscle suit, so it has muscles, fat and even veins, clear plastic tubing that’s been stitched in a pattern,” Berger explains. “The fat is basically water-filled bladders so that his chest and arms jiggle. His biceps also contract. And, once that structure was built, the fabrication department put a spandex skin that’s sewn onto the muscle suit. It was then painted, and all the hair was hand-tied individually. Otmin’s remote-controlled head has lips and jaws that move to mimic dialogue, eyes that blink, moving ears, all the bells and whistles. Coupled with the muscle bodysuit, it added 60 pounds to the actor’s frame. And it took about 45 minutes just to put the suit on.”
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