Hybrids in Film - Dobby the House Elf

Dobby the House Elf, Concept Art - David Edward Bryd.

'The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears, and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls.' - Description of Dobby, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets , J.K. Rowling.
Dobby the House Elf stars throughout the Harry Potter series. He is a wholly animated character, which is why I wanted to look at the way the special effects team of the film made him. I have already looked at Mr. Tumnus, who was half makeup/prosthetics and half CGI, so I think that looking at a character that is a completely computer generated image will benefit me when it comes to designing my hybrid, but also in the long run, will add to my knowledge of the industry. The reason I chose Dobby out of so many other CGI characters in the film, is because of his human traits. He is a House Elf, with twe legs, two arms, two ears, two eyes, just like humans. He is about 3 feet tall, and has the average life expectancy of 200 years. Dobby, to me, seems much like a human hybrid as any other magical creature.

Dobby - Concept Art - The Creature Vault.

When making the film, other creatures that the cast had to interact with, such as 'BuckBeak', the Griffin, in The Prisoner of Azkaban, were not there, so the cast had to imagine them. For, Dobby and Kreacher (another House Elf), small men were brought in to play them, and give the actors someone to act to, rather than having to imagine him being there. The reason for this was because they had such a big part to play in the film, and were very animated characters. This does not only give the actor someone to physically interact with, but also someone to verbally react to, as the short actors are needed to know lines of the creatures they play. But their voices are not the ones to be used in editing. Toby Jones is the voice of Dobby, and has to record all of his lines, which are then placed into the film.

“Its skin seemed to be several times too big for it and though it was like all house-elves, there was a quantity of white hair growing out of its large bat-like ears.” – Description of Kreacher, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling.









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