The Las Vegas Monster - Pete Peterson stop-motion test reel

[Themaniacnextdoor]

So, was that ever in a complete film, or what? That looks awesome. My stop-motion could be that good if i had time, but i just don't have a lot of time or money to put into it.

[matbergman]

@Themaniacnextdoor Sadly this is all we have of The Las Vegas Monster. Pete Peterson suffered from multiple sclerosis and passed away without developing this concept further. This clip stands as a testament to his skill.

[BluTrilobite]

It's kinda like Ray Harryhausen meets H.P. Lovecraft, cool!

[gotmilkbob101]

it's a combination of an emir (20000 Miles From Earth), Hell Hound from Hellboy 1, Super 8 monster. i hope i spelled emir right.

[manysocksonfeet]

The reason stopmotion looks so real is because the models are real.

[StevenBSloss]

Interesting early similarities to the Cloverfield monster.

[larjanus]

WOW A TRUNKY MONKEY!

[dltanner99]

Cryptozoology novel see video book trailer

[rolko52]

All this because he didn't get him room "comped" by the casino.

[oprep3]

CGI is lousy.

It always looks exactly the same.

Even bad stop motion is fascinating to watch because it's a tactile process

requiring actual human input. That's why O'Brien's King Kong is still the

best film of it's kind ever made. It wasn't "smooth" or "fluid" but it was truly great.

O'Brien should have gotten a best actor Oscar because his performance will never be forgotten or topped.

[Jesse2K12]

That was really good.

[captainbadd]

Pretty wicked beast!

[super8punk]

Sweet!

[kilgonus]

Stop motion is almost a lost art. Wallace and Gromit are all that's left.

[Taigacan]

what movie?

[hey771]

Marrying this clip to "San Diego Shutdown" by the great Los Straitjackets was a stroke of pure genius! It's stunning how well the two go together!

[voltairenyc]

This is just absolutely fantastic!!! So smooth!

[The1AngelOfFury]

I can make better movie using SPORE!

[chriscross584]

@The1AngelOfFury im just kidding still stopmotion is cool

[DavidFullam]

And this guy had arthritis when he did this? Wow! A shame this man was not head animator on more films. What an unsung hero of FX.

[chriscross584]

@DavidFullam sike

[gusisgr]

This is amazing! If only it had been made a film! That's Annoying!

[mrgears]

Really smooth for stop animation. My guess is that they used 2 or 3 times as many frames as regular stop motion. That's a lot of work.

[cheerok16]

I love stop-motion

[curiouskong]

Looks really good - interesting design, and very smooth animation, although sacrifices speed somewhat in the more active movements like throwing. Not nit-picking, though (tricky thing, stop-motion!)

[politicalanomaly]

its actually a pretty cool looking monster for being as old as it is

it reminds me of cloverfield almost

[DKrules9]

I thought that myself. This is on The Black Scorpion DVD.

[garymirabelle]

Very cool! Very cool indeed!

[4thtroika]

Too bad this was never developed into a full feature. I would've liked to have seen it.

[castlegardener]

wow that is terrific animation...it moves so smoothly...very nice piece of work...

[oprep3]

The armature for the Las Vegas Monster was modified and used for the Great God Porno in Flesh Gordon about 15 years after this film was shot. It still worked very nicely.

[Hetero59]

I am a great fan of W. O Brien , R. Harryhausen, Jim Danforth and all the others!

This is certainly as good as the work of the 3 Stop Motien artists a named before!

I love this little Motion Picture with the Ymir like Creature! Very very good!!

Thanks for uploading!

[DutchWestIndianCo]

This is awsome. Not as good as Ray Harrhausen's movies, but still pretty cool.  What music is this set to?

[matbergman]

The music is "San Diego Shutdown" by Los Straitjackets, from the album SUPERSONIC GUITARS IN 3-D.

[asianmami49]

@matbergman is this a real movie

[finbomartini]

@DutchWestIndianCo I disagree dude, I think this is definitely on par with Harryhausen's earlier work. Of course that's with the advantages of modern technology but still!

[19nisey69]

@DutchWestIndianCo Actually, I think Pete did a better job as far as "smoothness" goes than Harryhausen. The only reason it appears to be off is that every motion is VERY slow to prevent the strobing effect.

[ice9001]

Cool some of the best stop motion I ever seen . Stop motion has a warmth that other mediums just don`t have .

[Thecurbstomper]

awesome. heh, its actually better than some of today's cgi.

[Dinoslay]

@Thecurbstomper The behavior and tangible nature are both better than CGI just because of the touch that the animator of that time was ABLE to give it. In that sense the circle is complete. These days we've lost half of the circle. And to all those who say that CGI "looks better", it's not the looks, it's the performance. The artist is the critical ingredient, not the gadgetry.

[Thecurbstomper]

@Dinoslay

True, but each time computers/graphics get better (which is like every year), then the new looks good and the old looks like a handicapped person made it. Without cgi, the creatures are works of art and are physically sculpted/made into however realistic that the artist wants. There is still some really great cgi artists out there, but i guess i just prefer monsters without it.

[Dinoslay]

@Thecurbstomper

I too prefer the old ways in monster craft. Even when detailed rendering of mesh models gets faster and less expensive every day it doesn't preserve the physical aspect of the animation itself because the only true link to the model still remains in just the mouse. Over twenty years of rendering evolution and they still use just a mouse. Can you believe that? Heck, they even had potential in the DID(digital input device). But it's never been used since the 90's.

[gwangi09]

seems to me "cloverfield" stole this monster from you!

[lavverlylad]

Hell, yeah!

[BoonyBanny]

You read my mind!

[SkyeReynolds]

The animator, Pete Peterson, worked with Ray Harryhausen on Mighty Joe Young. Ray credited Peterson with doing the animation for the truck sequence and pretty much any of the sequences with Joe acting goofy or child-like.

Peterson also worked with King Kong animator Willis O'Brien on The Black Scorpion and the Giant Behemoth. He did most of the work due to O'Brien's declining health.

Sadly, Peterson died in the 60s and his films such as The Beetle Men and Las Vegas monster were never realized.

[partier13]

It reminds me of the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth.

[TwistedAnvil]

Wow! That's some good animation! Whoever did this should give themself a pat on the back!

[jhrunion]

wow! impressive! i have never seen this before. thanks!

[GeneralOlde]

The animation is smooth albeit a tad bit slow.

[Titan752]

Harryhausen's 'Ymir' could eat this thing for breakfast.... after a hearty filling of sulfur, of course!

[snail10000]

hell yes all hail the lizard man from venes

[Mecas92]

Pretty Cool!

Thanks ;)

[JMJ68]

TAKE THAT PLANE DOWN!

[umbungi]

This would have been one the most UNUSUAL LOOKING monsters of the era. Really strange ! Would like to have had some "50's monster movie music instead but thank you for putting this up.A shame we didn't get one more movie like this..

[grazripley]

This guy could have given Harryhausen a run for his money. Just Beautiful! Nice look at what is now a lost art.

[arielterr]

GREAT music, who ,who is this, fun Surf Wave ...

[matbergman]

The song is "San Diego Shutdown" from the outstanding Los Straightjacket's album "Supersonic Guitars in 3-D".

[Timon1979]

Excellent stop-motion animation, wow.

The monster reminds me of Cthullu - pretty scary.

[VonZipIsGood]

This is the shit! I luvz it! Harryhausen lives!

[stinkpotbaby]

WOW! Look at this.

[stopmo101]

cool...;)

[DoowopJohnnyBoy]

Thats Pritty Scary Stuff. If i saw that thing comin towards my front door i would'nt give it the chance. Id Bolt like Hell out the back and keep going. J U Know Worra Mean?

[krafty11]

WoW! This is excellent! How did you get ahold of this? Is there anything else like this floating around? Is it possible to get this and any similar clips on disk? Thanks!

[matbergman]

krafty11: This clip (and others) is on the recent Warner Brother's DVD release of "The Black Scorpion".

[krafty11]

Thanks alot for the info! I gotta run right out and pick that up!

[scarletshade]

impressive...

[mrmctommy]

i wish they made a remake!!

[mothraflr]

AWESOME VID ! Hail to monster movies.

[CultofJ]

that is a scary monster! Very, very cool!

[Critterm8tor]

Old special effects (not BAD. Just OLD!) are the greatest thing that hit my HD TV since Wallace & gromit TCOTWR!

[Faltskogian]

Thanks for the info :) i checked out their website and will be getting some Los StraightJackets tunes soon!

[Faltskogian]

Excellent! love the music who's it by?

[matbergman]

The song is "San Diego Shutdown" from the outstanding Los Straightjacket's album "Supersonic Guitars in 3-D".

[kuhnigget]

Great stuff. Where'd you find this?

I've always thought the Las Vegas Monster was one of the most bizarre designs ever proposed. Also very interesting the way Peterson (and I presume Obie?) started using "dynamation" set-ups after Harryhausen's success with "Beast from 20k Fathoms." Thanks for posting this!

[artboy123]

Actually O'brien created the split screen effect that Ray later called Dynamation (the sinking of Skull Island in SON OF KONG is a really good eample of this) but because of low budgets and fast post production schedules, Obie and Peterson were never really able to use this much...mainly on the daylight rampage scenes in the GIANT BEHEMOTH and the master shot of the train wreckage scequence in BLACK SCORPION.

[kuhnigget]

Yeah, my point was really from the cheapo-producer's p.o.v. Nobody seemed to want to pay for all those gorgeous model sets anymore when they could just send a second unit out to shoot B-roll on location.

I do wonder about the design of that monster, tho. Who actually did the design and what were they thinking?? It's so strange.

[artboy123]

The story behind the test reel concerned a little baboon that was sent into space and the rocket crashed back to earth..the van allen radiation belt contaminated the baboon distorting its features and causing it to grow to 12 feet tall, loose its hair and develop those nasal tentecles...

[artboy123]

as you can see the story they concocted about the monster is sort of a rip off of MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL with a little AMAZING COLASSAL MAN thrown in for good measure.

[yancy59]

Love this guy. Pete Peterson is one of my stop-motion heros. Thanks for posting this

[weprin2]

This creature looks kinda like the Ymir.