Award Winning Hollywood Special Effects Artist Todd Masters Wants Us To Get Acquainted with the "Oh Lantern Family." "The Oh Lantern Family," was first released 30 years ago (1986) to wildly popular consumer and media success, even appearing in TIME Magazine.
"The Oh Lantern Family" is comprised of a series of eight funny-faced, orange-colored foam rubber pumpkins, which intrigued people of all ages - and became a HUGE HIT in the late '80s.
The success of Masters' toys was compared to the "Pet Rock" and "The Cabbage Patch Kids," selling millions of copies over a period of two Halloween seasons.
Seth Green, a long-time supporter of "The Oh Lantern Family," was one of the first to jump aboard. He said, "Todd's pumpkin family has always been a good idea. I'm so excited for them to be back."
Along with the Twisted Twins - acclaimed horror filmmakers Jen & Sylvia Soska (American Mary, Hellavator) - Masters announced, "YES, it's true! We're FINALLY bringing back 'The Oh Lantern Family' after a slight-hiatus of only 30 years."
Masters is currently in pre-production on an animated TV project "The Oh Lantern Family Halloween Special" which will be released to air Halloween 2016. The special will be a combination of the studio's FX techniques: Practical puppet FX with a special CGI blend. Todd Masters has also established an "Oh Lantern Family" crowd funding site to help raise funds for pre-production for this TV special, wherein he is presenting several one-of-a-kind offerings on the "Oh Lantern Family" Indigogo site, to entice fan's support.
Masters has already lined up the voice talents of such noted artists as: Comedian Charles Fleischer ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"), Seth Green ("Robot Chicken," "Austin Powers"), Clare Grant, ("CSI", "Walk the Line"), Tristan Risk ("American Mary," "The Editor"), and Laurence Harvey ("Human Centipede"), and John Kassir (Voice Actor of "The Cryptkeeper" from HBO's "Tales from the Crypt").
"Todd Masters and MASTERSFX are known for their incredible ability to bring creatures to life. 'The Oh Lantern Family' is in a lot of ways a crucial missing piece of Halloween. Every household is gonna want them." Squeezing a foam 'JACK' pumpkin, she grins, "And it's been too-long since we've last seen them! I cannot think of a better way to reintroduce a whole new generation, to 'The Oh Lantern Family' than a brand, spanking-new holiday TV special!" said director, writer, producer - and recently, Game Show Host for GSN's Hellavator series, Jen Soska.
MASTERSFX is a multi-award winning character and special FX house with studios in Vancouver, British Colombia, and Los Angeles. MASTERSFX's creative teams produce a unique blend of practical and digital makeup and special FX, prosthetics and animatronics, through a process called dMFX, for hundreds of hit feature films, TV shows, and commercials.
Included among the TV projects to which MASTERSFX has contributed its work are True Blood, Six Feet Under, Tales from the Crypt and Fringe. Among the company's film credits are RoboCop, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Haunting in Connecticut, Star Trek: First Contact, The Horse Whisperer, Slither, Snakes on a Plane, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Look Who's Talking, and many more.
"The all star cast and astoundingly talented team we've already brought together for this special demonstrates just how truly unique this project will be. Next Halloween is sure to belong to 'The Oh Lantern Family.' Her equally talented, identical twin sister, Sylvia, adds, "The all star cast and astoundingly talented team we've already brought together for this special demonstrates just how truly unique this project will be. Next Halloween is sure to belong to 'The Oh Lantern Family.'"
Todd Masters won an Emmy Award in 2003 for the 2001/2002 Season of Six Feet Under in the category "Best Special Effects Makeup." MASTERSFX is also the winner of a 2006 "Saturn Award" for "Best MakeUp FX" for its work on the film Slither.
