The term ‘suitmation’ describes the technique of using a full-sized suit worn by an actor to portray a non-human character, with Godzilla probably the best-known example.
The line between suitmation and puppetry can be blurry. Many of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop’s puppets are suits worn by a puppeteer who could equally be referred to as a suitmation actor. Big Bird and Godzilla have more in common than we might think.
The original Godzilla suit created for the 1954 film used a bamboo and wire frame with cotton padding topped with a rubber coating. It was very heavy, rigid and hot inside and because of that the filming process was hazardous to the suit actors who had to wear it.
The idea of “a guy in a rubber suit” came to be synonymous with cheesy, low quality, B-grade films after Godzilla, perhaps related to the wider association at the time between the 'made in Japan' label and low quality. The technique of suitmation itself did not receive the same kind of derision when it was employed in American or European cinema. The 1976 American remake of King Kong used suitmation rather than stop-motion, for example, and won an Academy Award for its special effects.
Suits have come a long way since 1954. The invention of synthetic fibres like spandex, and the development of moulding techniques like latex casting, have allowed for much lighter and more flexible suits. Suit actors can be much more expressive in their acting when they are able to move around more freely without the bulk and weight that characterised early suitmation suits.
Australian sci-fi thriller I am Mother (2019) uses classic suitmation for the robot character Mother, but the suit itself represents some incredible advances in construction technology. Created by Weta Workshop, the suit includes more than 700 LED lights and animatronics. Portions of the suit were 3D printed, while other elements were made using laser cutting techniques for detail and precision.
Why Suitmation? The Case of Godzilla
Godzilla drew inspiration from giant monster films King Kong (1933) and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), both made using stop-motion. The decision to use suitmation instead of stop-motion for Godzilla was in part driven by cost. Simply put, stop-motion was too expensive.
There are other drawbacks to stop-motion beyond its expense, though. The smaller a model is, the less detail it can have. The special effects director for Godzilla, Eiji Tsuburaya, chose to use suitmation in part because it allowed for the creation of a miniature Tokyo that was much more detailed.
Tsuburaya had created propaganda films for the Japanese government during the war, including scenes created using miniatures that were so convincing that the Allied Occupation Forces reportedly mistook them for actual battle footage and seized the film.
Tsuburaya and his team’s incredible work with miniatures could not have shone in the same way in a stop-motion production, which would have required the models to be too small for the level of detail Godzilla’s 1:25 scale allowed.
Suitmation also gives a certain weight to the character it is portraying because of its tangibility. Just imagine how different the character Ludo from Labyrinth (1986) would have been if he had been portrayed using a technique other than suitmation!
It’s not that suitmation is realistic in the same way that computer generated images can be; it’s that their physical interactions with other actors and the environment around them on screen has a feeling of concreteness that (at least in my opinion) CGI has yet to fully capture.
There is a certain charm to this tangibility that film directors we often associate with more high-tech special effects such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have praised and described as inspirational. Tim Burton is another high-profile fan of Godzilla’s suitmation, and his recently released Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) makes prominent use of practical (as opposed to digital) special effects.
The Evolution of Suitmation in the Digital Age
Suitmation continues to be used as a technique today (although not in 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, to the disappointment of many fans). In Japan, suitmation remains a staple of children’s superhero franchises Kamen Rider (1971 – ongoing) and Ultraman (1966 – ongoing).
Contemporary suits are often used in combination with animatronics, motion capture and CGI augmentation. Where the Wild Things Are (2009) used suits for the Wild Things that had static faces. Facial expressions were then added using CGI, allowing for precise alignment between facial movements and dialogue.
Japanese film Attack on Titan (2015), a live-action adaptation of an animated series, uses a combination of suitmation, miniature set pieces, actors wearing prosthetics with CGI enhancements, and motion capture CGI to portray its gigantic monsters.
It’s increasingly the small screen where suitmation shines, however, rather than films. The Demogorgon from Stranger Things (2016 – ongoing) blends suitmation and CGI to create a flexible, hybrid approach to portraying a monster on screen.
The Bloater in The Last of Us (2023) was also created using a hybrid approach. The suit itself was created from moulded foam rubber and foam latex, with extensive detailing and regular applications of lubricant to add shine and texture. The suit actor’s performance was then captured, recreated digitally, and edited to allow for a portrayal of super-human movement.
As these hybrid techniques continue to expand, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw a clear distinction between suitmation, puppetry, prosthetics and motion capture. Is Vecna from Stranger Things wearing a suit or prosthetics, for example?
Perhaps it is less important to drawing clear lines between these techniques than it is to simply appreciate the incredible diversity in contemporary suitmation techniques. There are so many technologies being employed to enhance suitmation, but the core feature of a real body inhabiting a concrete world remains at its heart.
– Sophia Staite