Exposed! The SFX they smuggled in.

Consider the computer animator: none of the fame, none of the glory. They seem to be a separate cultural species that’s never been troubled by the word “auteur”. Much of our multiplex fare is more animation than live action but those responsible are never invited to premieres and only win awards in their own dark world. And yet, in what the National Centre For Computer Animation’s Phill Allen calls “otherwise overlooked creative people wishing to leave their very own personal signature somewhere”, effects artists leave secret marks everywhere.

Keep your eyes peeled for the potatoes slamming into the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back - the pursuing Tie-fighters hit the real asteroids. The Star Wars franchise is riddled with errors. We’ve all seen the Storm Trooper bumping his head in Episode IV, but George Lucas is clearly a moron for not noticing the mincing Storm Trooper, or the Ewoks spouting subversive English in Return Of The Jedi. That’s without even mentioning Han Solo copping a sly tweak of Princess Leia’s breasts as she falls wounded to the floor.

Mischief can also be found in the aftermath of disasters. In Air Force One a mounted deer’s head with antlers can be spotted among the debris from the destroyed refuelling plane. Also, Snoopy and his kennel are featured in Sphere when the spaceship blows up, and, as the telescope falls over the cliff in Batman & Robin, try to spot the clothes iron and the Dalmatian going with it.

While a bodiless Walt sleeps in his cryogenic ooze, the animators of The Little Mermaid rendered a gigantic penis astride a castle spire – a (huge) detail that passed by the Disney exec who rustled up the posters. Even the officiating priest in the wedding scene clearly has a CGI canoe in his pocket.

Rumours encircled The Lion King regarding swearing constellations in the cartoon firmament, but the word “sex” does appear in a dust cloud that surrounds Simba as he falls to the ground. Were the same programmers responsible for the still of a naked woman in the window of a house that Bianca and Bernard shoot past in The Rescuers? Let’s hope so.

Animators actually appear as themselves on a Saint Etienne poster in Notting Hill’s season change sequence - the only good bit in a very dull film. Production folk also seem to have bagged ringside seats in Gladiator. They’re even wearing their own clothes. The same film also reveals that Ancient Rome was plagued with graffiti taggers.

In fact, many animators have their own tag - an industry-known moniker they leave lingering for a few frames as a signal to their peers. So look out for briefly lingering black cats on a screen near you.

We’ll never know if the seven dwarfs really were supposed to represent the fizzy stages of jazz-salt induced euphoria, or if Jessica Rabbit really goes commando - but we should salute those unsung codesmiths whose clever in-jokes occasionally surface and are spotted by us, the uninitiated movie goer. Richard Berger 23 January 04

useful link: national centre for computer animation