MIGHTY JOE YOUNG 25th Anniversary Tribute Reel

Happy 25th anniversary to Disney’s remake of the 1949 classic, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. Just like the original, the single aspect that steals the show is Joe himself. The original Joe was a technical wonder from the hands of Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen and crew and Disney thought of no one other than veteran makeup effects artist Rick Baker to bring their supersized simian star to life. Rick has had a lifelong obsession with the great apes and after his work on GORILLAS IN THE MIST completed his goal to create the ultimate gorilla suit, he was done with apes until Disney called in ‘94. "Joe was the other giant gorilla movie that I loved as a kid and I had to do it." His conditions were the time and money he requested and hiring John Alexander and Verne Troyer as the performers for Joe. Disney met them and soon Rick and his team were off amongst other mammoth projects of the 90’s.

Key artists Matt Rose, Eddie Yang and Aaron Sims were leading the charge for different divisions within Cinovation Studios. Matt along with Chad Waters were responsible for the construction of John Alexnander’s suit, Eddie supervising the construction of three full sized animatronic Joe’s and Aaron in charge of the construction of Verner Troyer’s Baby Joe suit. The sheer amount of talent both the artistic and technical minds couldn’t be match when working on MJY, especially key mechanics Mark Setrakian, Mike Elizalde, Jurgen Heimann and puppeteer Steve Sherman who brought Joe to life along with John Alexander.

Digital technology played a crucial role in creating Joe as well from scanning John Alexander in his suit to mill foam sections for the full sized Joe’s as well as for the digital double created by Industrial Light & Magic and DreamQuest Images, who also composited Alexander in the scenes.

The film ultimately fell to similar fate as the original, flopping at the box office due to Disney’s loss in fate after the reception of Sony’s GODZILLA earlier that year, but found new life through home video and television airings where many of my generation including myself first saw it. I still credit MJY as the thing that inspired me to get into makeup effects and made me a lifelong fan of Rick Baker & gang. To Rick, John, Matt and everyone involved past and present, thank you for the inspiration.