Exclusive BTS clip from Jurassic World Dominion gets viewers friendly with Beta, a "small but feisty" raptor
The animatronic raptor was a favorite of stars Chris Pratt and Isabella Sermon
Jurassic World Dominion has been in theaters for over two months now, but within a sci-fi blockbuster so large-scale and detailed, there’s always more movie magic to be explored. As the movie releases today on 4K, Blu-Ray, and digital download, a new, exclusive, behind-the-scenes clip from the set of the film introduces viewers to Beta, a “small but feisty” raptor who is veteran park dino Blue’s daughter.
“I like to think that Maisie and Beta are very similar,” Isabella Sermon, who plays Maisie Lockwood in the film, says of the junior raptor.”They’re small, but feisty, and they can fend for themselves. Also, their story arc is quite similar.” Without spoiling too much, Maisie and Beta not only share similar storylines but find themselves in more than a few circumstantial alliances once things begin to run amok.
To create Beta, VFX supervisor David Vickery relied on animatronics as opposed to special effects. Vickery said given Beta’s small size and agility, she presented the opportunity to create “a full scale, animatronic, complete dinosaur that could potentially walk around on sets.” The velociraptor Vickery came up with, which Sermon and Pratt acted with on-set, is as tangible as they come (without, of course, being real).
“When you think about a velociraptor, you see a Jurassic Park velociraptor,” Vickery says with pride.
“The journey of working with an animatronic versus working with something that’s not really there—it’s so much more fun to work with the animatronic,” Pratt gushes in the clip. “You have a team of experts making these things look so amazing, moving, living, breathing, you have something against which to really react.” We can’t help but wonder—when filming was all said and done, what lucky adoptive parent brought Beta home from set with them?
Jurassic World Dominion is in theaters now and out on 4K, Blu-Ray, and digital download today with a special extended edition.