The Chiodo Brothers facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Chiodo Bros.
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From left to right: Stephen Chiodo, Charles Chiodo, and Edward Chiodo
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| Born |
Charles Anthony Chiodo
May 24, 1952 Stephen Joseph Chiodo March 2, 1954 Edward Michael Chiodo August 25, 1960 |
| Occupation | Special effects artists |
| Years active | 1982-present |
The Chiodo Brothers are a team of three brothers: Stephen, Charles, and Edward Chiodo. They are famous American artists who create amazing special effects for movies and TV shows. They are experts in many cool techniques like clay modeling, making creatures, stop motion, and animatronics.
You might know their movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. They also made puppets and effects for other popular films like Critters, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Team America: World Police. The Chiodo Brothers even created the awesome claymation part in the "Large Marge" scene from Pee-wee's Big Adventure. They also worked on the stop-motion scenes in the North Pole for the movie Elf.
Besides movies, they made the tiny mouse scenes in the 2010 film Dinner for Schmucks. They also created the Stone Age creatures for Cup Noodles ads in the 1990s. They were even puppeteers on The Thundermans TV show. In 2010, they made a puppet part for an episode of The Simpsons called "The Fight Before Christmas". A band called Chiodos was even named after them!
The Chiodo Brothers' studio has made special clay animation parts for five episodes of The Simpsons:
- A funny version of Davey and Goliath for the episode "HOMR" (2001).
- Parodies of The California Raisins and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town for "''Tis the Fifteenth Season" (2003).
- A "couch gag" with Gumby for "The Girl Who Slept Too Little" (2005).
- A parody of Wallace and Gromit for "Angry Dad: The Movie" (2011).
- A dream scene that made fun of Davey and Goliath for "Ned 'n' Edna's Blend Agenda" (2012).
On August 23, 2019, it was announced that the Chiodo Brothers were working on a stop-motion animated TV special. It was based on the 2006 book Alien Xmas, which Stephen Chiodo helped write. This special, also called Alien Xmas, came out on Netflix on November 20, 2020. Famous director Jon Favreau was also involved as an executive producer.
Contents
Amazing Special Effects by the Chiodo Brothers
The Chiodo Brothers have worked on many movies and TV shows, bringing all sorts of creatures and characters to life. They are known for their unique style and ability to make things look real, even when they are not.
Creature Design and Puppetry
They often design and supervise the creation of creatures. This means they come up with the look of a monster or character and then make sure it's built correctly.
- Critters (1986) – They designed and supervised the Critters.
- Critters 2 (1988), Critters 3 (1991), and Critters 4 (1992) – They continued to design and supervise the Critters for these sequels.
- Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) – They designed the creature effects.
- Masked Rider (1996) – They made the Ferbus puppet and Maggot costumes.
- Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) – They created puppets for characters like Lerigot and Maligore.
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997-1998) – They made the Turtle puppets.
- King Cobra (1999) – They created the creature effects for the cobra.
- Demon Island (2002) – They also handled the creature effects for this film.
- Alien Abduction (2014) – They designed the creatures.
Stop Motion and Clay Animation
Stop motion is a technique where objects are moved tiny amounts between individually photographed frames. When the frames are played quickly, it looks like the objects are moving on their own. Clay animation, or claymation, is a type of stop motion using clay models.
- UHF (1988) – They created the clay animation parts.
- The Stupids (1996) – They did the stop motion animation.
- Elf (2003) – They supervised the stop motion animation.
- Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2021) - They also worked on the stop motion animation for this movie.
Other Special Effects Work
The brothers have a wide range of skills and have contributed to many other projects.
- Flicks (1983) – They made character masks.
- Faerie Tale Theatre (1986, TV series; 1 episode) – They created models and effects.
- RoboCop-6000 SUX commercial (1987, movie) – They worked on this commercial seen in the film.
- Monsters (1988, TV series; 1 episode) – They created the monster for an episode.
- Rubin and Ed (1991) – They created Simon the Cat.
- Zombie Dinos from Planet Zeltoid (1992) - They made the dinosaur characters.
- Crash the Curiousaurus [ABC Weekend Special] (1995) – They made the Curiousaurus puppet costume.
- The Mr. Potato Head Show (1998–1999; 13 episodes) – They built the puppets for the show.
- Team America: World Police (2004) – They supervised the puppets.
- The Bite-Sized Adventures of Sam Sandwich (2012, TV series) – They were the lead puppet fabricators.
- 1982 (2013, Short) – They created special effects for this short film.
