The jerky, stop frame visions of Ray Harryhausen have inspired generations of animators to create overacting creature effects. Some of the CG reptilian cast of BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs deserved Oscar nominations for their histrionics.
Although machines also fall foul of animators eager to make the most of their two or three shots in the limelight, it seems science fiction is a self-fulfilling prophecy as this video demonstrates.
In places this video could be a deleted scene from The Empire Strikes Back and the charm of Big Dog’s jerky movements are far more endearing than any of the performances the robots of Transformers have to offer.
I suspect that hidden away in the Boston Dynamics reference library you might just find a copy of Jason and the Argonauts.
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