8 Family Movies That Were Horror Films Behind The Scenes

7Harry Potter -- Hagrid Was Occasionally A Dead-Eyed Puppet

One of the most beloved characters in all of the Harry Potter saga is Hagrid, the half-giant who first brings Harry to Hogwarts. You'll remember him as the one who looks like Jerry Garcia having a severe allergic reaction to a pair of stilettos.

Unfortunately, Hagrid's actor Robbie Coltrane isn't an actual giant. This means that shots of him towering above his co-stars were mainly accomplished by forced perspective, or green screen effects -- but for some scenes, such as crowd shots, they simply found the tallest guy they could, put him in a giant suit, and shoved a dead-eyed animatronic puppet head on top.

With the puppet head removed, Hagrid transforms into David Byrne at a Renaissance Faire.

And speaking of Talking Heads ... Now that the series has wrapped, Hagrid's disembodied, chattering cranium is on display at the Harry Potter studio tour, primed to traumatize a new generation of children. If Disneyland ever decides that Alan Moore should be a character in the Haunted Mansion, it would probably look something like this:

Even the CGI characters, such as the house elves, had real-life stand-ins. For the last few films they used real actors in leotards ... but back in the second movie, Dobby had a puppet stand-in, who was uncomfortably naked and sculpted with lidless eyes for some unknown reason.

6The Jungle Book -- The Behind-The-Scenes Videos Could Be A Horror Movie

We have visited this well before, but it was more than our minds could process in one article. Lately, Disney has been conserving valuable energy that otherwise would have been wasted thinking up original stories by recycling their library of classic hand-drawn cartoons into new live-action features -- and by "live-action," we mean there's one real boy and a whole bunch of computer-generated malarkey. Meaning that lovable pals Mowgli and Baloo ...

... actually looked like this in real life:

That fun-loving singing bear looks suspiciously like a teamster in a leotard. And apparently, when they weren't just slapping some googly eyes on the knuckles of extras, they made the poor kid playing Mowgli pretend he was having the time of his life while running around with disembodied animal heads.

Other times, he had to crowd-surf among a sea of faceless ghouls -- which, to be fair, is more or less the norm for crowd-surfing.

And then there's this scene where ... well, it's not clear what's going on, but it's probably how every Jim Henson Company Christmas party ended.

5Who Framed Roger Rabbit -- Robots, Unnecessary Costumes, And Half-Naked Women

With the exception of the "burning pig flesh that's been grafted onto your face" deleted scene, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was quite thoughtfully made. A film noir co-starring iconic cartoon characters, Roger Rabbit became an instant classic, and gave hope to everyone who assumed a sense of humor wasn't enough to win the heart of a glamorous nightclub singer.

4Paddington -- On Set, Paddington Was An Adult Woman And A Severed Head

Paddington is the adorably British bear charming enough to spawn a series of children's books and cartoons, but apparently not enough to deserve a name other than that of the filthy train station in which he was found loitering.

3Pete's Dragon -- Befriending A Dragon Looks Awful Without Animation

Because Disney is now firmly in the business of dusting off its old properties and re-filming them for a new generation (see above), and the success of dragon-related properties such as Game Of Thrones and absolutely nothing else ever, they decided to revisit Pete's Dragon, the story of a child slave and his imaginary-but-possibly-real dragon. While the original featured a cartoon dragon, the new one boasts a furry CGI creation as Pete's fire-breathing BFF.

2Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- The Pre-CGI Turtles Looked Like Deformed Cyberpunk Nazis

Shoving a group of actors into rubber heatstroke costumes full of whirring animatronics (and, eventually, their own sweat and urine) was presumably off the table for the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie reboot. So instead, the filmmakers opted to go the CGI route, allowing them to more accurately portray the heroes in a half-shell as roided-out Voldemorts who assembled their outfits from a dentist's prize box.

The performers behind these atrocities were actually on set, sporting turtle-shaped motion-capture suits -- and bizarrely, giant dish-washing gloves and what looks disturbingly like Nazi armbands. This was either to differentiate the characters, or as a subtle reference to Megan Fox's feelings towards Michael Bay.

1Scooby-Doo -- The Making Of The Movie Looked Like An Animal Snuff Film

Scooby-Doo is the classic cartoon about a gang of meddlesome teens who travel the country harassing senior citizens for the crime of dressing up like monsters to steal money and/or real estate from people. Which is probably an actual crime.

Since no popular property is safe from being dragged kicking and screaming into the realm of feature films, Scooby-Doo was naturally made into a live-action movie. Of course, rather than deal with the pain-in-the-ass of an actual dog like those Marmaduke and Underdog movies, Scooby-Doo was (in what has emerged as a disturbing trend) just a puppet dog head mounted on a stick. This casts a whole new light on his relationship with Shaggy.

But that's just the beginning of the insanity that was this movie shoot. On some shots, they apparently used a little person wearing a dog costume on wheels. Out of context, this looks like the world's worst attempt to sneak your friend onto an airplane without a ticket.

Then there's the scene where Scooby dresses like a human woman (we haven't seen the movie in a while, but we assume it was so he could get closer to his kids after a bitter divorce). This scene is insane enough in the finished film, but the making-of looks like a serial killer's diary entry:

JM co-hosts the podcast Rewatchability which can also be found on iTunes.

Also check out 5 Cruel Movie Moments That Were Adorable Behind The Scenes.

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