Animatronic St. Bernard puppet from Beethoven II (Screen Used) Missy snarl head

  

Animatronic Saint Bernard Dog Puppet from Beethoven II Movie. Peter Knowlton Effects and David Miller Creations. This animatronic puppet is one of 3 made for the films.

They would set this lighting stand-in dog head on a couple of apple boxes set at the correct height and then pre-adjust their lighting and cameras for the shot. Then, the lighting head rig is quickly removed and replaced by the actual animatronic puppet.

The stand-in head was built as a quick mockup. There are no animatronic parts or fur. The eyes are painted on. The ears are simple felt patterns glued onto the head.

The tongue is also a piece of felt. It is simply a "Mock-up" of the real head.

It does however add a little more to the display. I just wanted you to know everything about it so you know what your getting. For a mock-up, it's pretty impressive in it's own right! Note: These stand-in heads were cast from the original puppet molds.

Please read the following story about these puppets. I think it's interesting!

When the motion picture "BEETHOVEN" was given the green light in 1991, The animal trainer for the film, Karl Miller had told the producers that, although Saint Bernards can be trained to a degree, they would more than likely not do some of the more subtle things on command. He had previously worked on the film "CUJO" 1983. Cujo was also a Saint Bernard.

Having had that experience, he knew what was necessary and recommended that some realistic mechanical puppets be made to replace the real dogs on set for certain scenes. Since Cujo was based on a Saint Bernard, He recommended Special Effects/ Mechanical designer Peter Knowlton be contacted for the task of building the animatronic versions of these dogs. Knowlton was the man responsible for all of the dog puppets and costumes for "CUJO" in 1983. Knowlton was hired and he in turn hired some of his key people from Cujo to build the animatronic dog effects needed for the Beethoven movie.

Sophisticated mechanical parts and mechanisms as well as top quality fur work was needed to make these dogs believable. There were 15-20 or so people building the puppet version and effects for Beethoven. They turned out so well and so realistic that they ended up using them for quite a few scenes more than anticipated.

Fast forward a couple of years and the producers called on Peter Knowlton yet again for Beethoven's 2. This time there was another Saint Bernard called Missy. Also, there were little Saint Bernard puppies. Also, the producers wanted to upgrade the Beethoven animatronic to do more in the 2nd film. Knowlton determined that it would be easier and better to build a new Beethoven that would do everything they needed.

Because of the enormous workload on the new film, Knowlton asked me if he could base this new project Beethoven's 2. In my 10,000 square foot shop. And that's how all of these puppets came to be in my possession.

I have had these 3 dog puppets in my storage for nearly 30 years. That's why the heads are missing. I believe I still have molds for the dog heads, but they are in deep storage and I haven't got there yet. They are only the molds, not the animatronic heads. The one good thing about not having the heads, is that you can see the brilliant mechanical work that went into making these puppets realistically move.

Not so much by today's standards. There was 10-12 mechanical technicians, 6 costume designers (fur work) and misc. Crafts people/ finishers all working for a few months.

If you ever wanted to learn mechanics completed with NASA precision, this is the way. They are works of art in their own right. All the parts are professionally and meticulously machined out of aluminum. Own a part of movie history! If you have any questions, please message me.

See our other ad for the Beethoven dog puppet.