Microbuget alert – Stop-motion magic in Galactic Raiders!

That’s right, some of you older readers may have heard about this thing used before CGI where one actually took small models and painstakingly filmed them one frame at a time while moving them slightly. This was called “stop-motion animation” and was used on such films as King Kong, 1 Million Years BC, and The California Raisins. And now independent filmmaker Larry Arpin has decided to buck the system of computers and continue the trend! Take that, terrible Mac vs. PC commercials!

The Official Website

The plot:

GALACTIC RAIDERS is an independently produced motion picture on 35mm film with Ray Harryhausen style of special effects.The story centers around Rymir (Danny Fehsenfeld), who’s girlfriend, Laura (Erica Howard), is kidnapped by Acastus (Elliot Eddie) and transported to another planet. On this ‘other planet’ is a powerful crystal, sought after by all peoples of the universe, including the Pharilleans, Acastus’ people. Also, on this planet is Rosanna (Moksha McPherrin), wife of…well, I won’t spoil it for you. Following Rymir to the ‘other planet’ are Cyrus (Joseph Arpin) and Bellus (Lloyd Lee Barnett), Acastus’ accomplices.

A sample clip is here and on the official site.

Watching the characters shoot laser guns at the dinosaurs reminds one of Planet of the Dinosaurs, except no one is wearing horrible 1970’s fashion and I doubt this film will have the 1970’s slowness that movies from that era possessed. Because everyone was on drugs then.

Hopefully the film will be done soon (so far the production notes show it has being in development for three years) and will do stop-motion effects proud!

Thanks to Avery for the head’s up!