Hasta La Ideas

Reporting by Terry Persun.

The latest DreamWorks picture out in theaters, Real Steel is about a father and his estranged 11-year-old son who enter the world of robotic boxing, once human boxing has become outlawed. But, professional boxers are still needed because the 2000-pound steel robots are human-trained. Hugh Jackman plays an ex-fighter who decides to become a promoter for the new sport, but is faced with having to scrounge up robot parts, which is not a good way to create the best end product.

After seeing the film on the larger-than-life IMAX screen, you might be interested in some of the work that went into making the cast of robot characters. Many of the robots and robot components were designed and fabricated by San Fernando-based Legacy Effects. With years of experience, the Legacy Effects partners work in live-action effects in films, commercials and television.

Atom prepares to fight Zeus, the greatest robot boxer of all time. DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Zeus, the greatest robot boxer of all time, enters the ring at the WRB in DreamWorks Pictures’ action drama Real Steel. DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC. All Rights Reserved.

“We built all the robots for the film, which included six ‘Hero’ or close-up robots, one partially destroyed robot called Axelrod, and twenty background level robots,” explained John Rosengrant, a partner at Legacy as well as a member of their engineering team. “A few specific ones included Atom, who is 7-feet, 6-inches tall; Noisy Boy, who stands 8-feet, 6-inches; and Ambush who is 8-feet, 2-inches tall.” The company created 19 real-life animatronic robot fighters for the production so that the movie could use a mixture of real and computer generated action. This meant that some of the fighting sequences would involve motion-capture animation.

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