Even though the animals look incredibly real ... For close-ups, some of the puppets like Lyra's daemon Pan, were sculpted heads. Other slinky-body styles of puppet were used for quadrupedal ...

"Some animals will die on the way," due to high humidity for instance, "just like in real life", Mpofu said. Wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets (AFP photos ...