Neal Scanlan

Neal Scanlan is a British special effects artist and make-up artist who has worked on numerous Creature Shop productions from 1985-2005. He started out as one of the puppeteers on Dreamchild before being in the workshop for Labyrinth, The Storyteller, TMNT films, Dinosaurs, and Babe, the latter won him an Academy Award. Neal had the pleasure to work with Jim Henson and other legendary Muppet performers during his time with them, before and after Jim's death. Scanlan must have had a lot of training prior to making animatronic characters for films and television shows over the years. Outside, he is perhaps best-known for working on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and standalone films. He is also the founder and head designer/builder of his own company Neal Scanlan Studios, making costumes, puppets, and animatronics for film and television. Some of the other films Neal Scanlan did include Little Shop of Horrors, Babe: Pig in the City, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. As for television, he worked on Tweenies, LazyTown, Fimbles (and its spinoff The Roly Mo Show), and many more. He's gone from simple effects to a master of animatronics. It must've taken Neal years of experience at the Creature Shop to make animatronic characters look so realistic, like all the animals seen in Babe and its sequel. Some of Scanlan's recent films include Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Project Hall Mary, and who knows, maybe he'll do more in the future. He's such a busy person and all of his hard work paid off with his many awards he won. He sure knows how to make the impossible possible nowadays. Neal Scanlan, from cable control puppeteer to a master of special effects, you've achieved so much in your life. Keep up the fantastic work on films and television shows so that you'll go down in history. And always remember how much fun it was getting to start your career as a designer at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Sweet special-effects Neal. You're the man Scanlan!

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