Meet the South African who made 'Dumbo' fly

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Hal Couzens, visual effects producer for Disney's latest blockbuster, tells Sue de Groot how he arrived in a world where imaginary creatures are real

For the last three years that impossibility has taken the shape of a big-eared baby elephant called Dumbo. Burton's adaptation of the 1941 Disney film opened in cinemas a week ago, but few of those watching it know that one of the people most instrumental in bringing the baby elephant to life is a South African.

Sunter ran a visual effects production company called The House Next Door, which was part of the Video Lab group, a force on SA's advertising scene in the '90s. In 1996 he moved to London and got work at legendary VFX studio The Mill. It was the heyday of lavish music videos and TV ads, but in 1999, Couzens saw his first total solar eclipse,"a thing of great beauty", and it moved him to change the trajectory of his life.

Opinions of the film might be mixed but praise for its titular star is universal. Even the least effusive reviewers raved."Dumbo is as expressively adorable as any human actor in the film" ..."A CGI creation with big ocean-blue eyes and those lovably floppy ears" ..."Of all the CGI makeovers, this Dumbo is the most textured, sweetest and most soulful of creatures" ..."An adorable CGI flying elephant" ... and so on.

"Somewhat surprisingly, we found at least some of the answers in the most obvious place - elephants swimming, with a touch of the swallow for the faster stuff. 'Float like an elephant, sting like a butterfly' became our motto for the gentle star of this film."

 

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