mermaids

ILM reveals mermaid secrets for 'Pirates 4' Blu-ray

SAN FRANCISCO--Disney spent the last couple of decades making mermaids into friendly, lovely creatures bursting with curiosity and love (see "The Little Mermaid" and "Splash"). It took about a year's work from the visual-effects pros at Industrial Light and Magic to return the fair ladies of the sea to their classical, bloodthirsty ways.

To show off the effects studio's work on the billion-dollar-grossing "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" as it arrives on Blu-ray next month, ILM's Ben Snow (visual-effects supervisor) and Aaron McBride (art director) sat down with reporters at George Lucas' Presidio compound here earlier this month to discuss the challenges of creating mermaids beautiful enough to lure Johnny Depp to water and ferocious enough to devour him.

"Classically, mermaids were beautiful but deadly creatures," Snow said. "We were excited to bring them back to that tradition. But the challenge was developing creative concepts that preserved their beauty while making them scary again." … Read more

The 404 288: Where Natali opens it all up to us

A new kind of Natali Del Conte joins The 404. She references "Octo-pussy" and makes us play Marry/Boff/Kill. We can already tell that HR is going to be on us any second. She brings some big news to the show by announcing CBS will be streaming live online via Ustream.tv "The Early Show" on Saturday morning. It's their first attempt at an interactive, live show. We anticipate a rowdy chat room with Natali on.

On today's show, we chat about the worst kind of fanboys--forgetting the fact that almost all of us are Mac fanboys. (Come on! They just work!) The creators of the costumes from "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Chronicles of Narnia" bring happiness to a woman who lost her legs when she was younger. They turn her into a mermaid! We also discuss Microsoft's move to ban a user who admitted openly she was a lesbian from Xbox Live. Jeff hates on Digg's new StumbleUpon-like toolbar. And Natali discovers "Spanks for Men." It gives Justin the much-needed muscles. Finally, find out who won our "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360.

Episode 288 Download today's podcast… Read more

The 404 288: Where Natali opens it all up to us

A new kind of Natali Del Conte joins The 404. She references "Octopussy" and makes us play Marry/Boff/Kill. We can already tell that HR is going to be on us any second. She brings some big news to the show by announcing CBS will be streaming live online via Ustream.tv "The Early Show" on Saturday morning. It's their first attempt at an interactive, live show. We anticipate a rowdy chat room with Natali on.

On today's show, we chat about the worst kind of fanboys--forgetting the fact that almost all of … Read more

Effects shop fulfills amputee's mermaid dream

Good: double amputee gets prosthetic legs so she can walk. Better: double amputee gets realistic-looking mermaid tail so she can swim. Awesome: it's developed and built by Weta, the special-effects company that did work for the "Lord of the Rings" movies, as well as "King Kong" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series.

Nadya Vessey's legs were amputated below the knee when she was a child due to illness. At one point, reports Stuff, a child asked her what happened to her legs and she told him she was a mermaid. The idea … Read more