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Hungarian Horntail is the label given to a Dragon species in Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter series of novels. Specifically, one single individual of this monstrous species appears in the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire, as the first trial of the Triwizard tournament. The Dragon guards a golden egg, which has to be obtained avoiding the beast’s fiery rage. In the novel, the task, while certainly difficult, was resolved relatively quickly — with the aid of Harry’s broom; in the film adaptation, the Dragon breaks free from its chain and chases the wizard in a long action sequence, which ends with the beast falling into a chasm. it is unclear if the Hungarian Horntail survived or not.
Both the novel and the script for the film adaptation are not detailed in their description of the Dragon. The most recognizable trait is the creature’s tail — which ends in a spined, club-like protrusion, used for offense — hence the name ‘Horntail’. Paul Catling, designer of most creatures from the Harry Potter series, had considerable creative liberty on the design of the Dragon. The special effects team, however, set out to make a spectacular, surprising creature. “The biggest challenge is to make them not look like what anyone else has done,” said Nick Dudman. “So when you’re doing dragons, werewolves, anything that’s iconic you hit a problem because a lot of the good ideas have already been done, so you have to find a different angle.”
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Concept art by Paul Catling.
In the tradition of DragonSlayer, and in line with the first film of the series, the final Hungarian Horntail features a Wyvern-like configuration, with a total of four limbs. The front hindlegs also served as the creature’s formidable wings. The dorsal region of the creature, starting from the back of the head itself, presents a series of bony thorns, some of which can be moved in a threatening manner — much like a crest or a frill. The namesake thorned club at the end of the tail was kept.
Once again, Nick Dudman and his special effects team took on the duty to bring the Dragon to the screen. Two small scale maquettes were sculpted, created in fibreglass and painted for reference — both for the computer generated model and the imposing, full-size animatronic model. Kate Hill led the creation of the full-size sculpture, aided by Waldo Mason, Andy Hunt and other sculptors. The creature’s skin, created in Polyurethene, was also painted by Hill and Mason. The thorns on the Dragon’s head, neck and back were created in coloured resin, and were of 6 different sizes; a total of 200-300, including ‘backup’ thorns (in case the mounted ones broke) were made. The larger spikes were reinforced with fibreglass matting. Each thorn was individually hand finished, and painted once put in place on the Dragon.
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The finished full-size Horntail animatronic. The thorns on the head and back of the creature were actually sharp and pointed — as you can see, the ones on the head are covered with rubber protections.
The finished Dragon animatronic was mounted on a mobile, wheeled unit — which eased transport of the enormous prop. The head could turn around and roar, the wings could make limited movements and the body was able to move from side to side. Peculiar to this model was an actual fire-breathing function, installed in the neck of the animatronic by John Richardson’s mechanical effects team. Due to that, obviously, the internal and external materials of the head were made fireproof.
In the final version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the practical model was unfortunately left entirely unused, replaced by the computer generated model (created by Industrial Light & Magic) in all the scenes scheduled for its appearence. The practical Horntail would, however, have brief time of glory during the film’s world premiere in London.
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The Horntail animatronic with the flame-throwing feature in action.
Special thanks to Shaune Harrison, who provided most of the information and pictures featured in the article and gallery.
For more pictures of the Hungarian Horntail, visit the Monster Gallery.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
