SCENESTEALER

After crushing a jeep in “Jurassic Park,” destroying buildings in “Mars Attacks” and battling Tom Cruise with automated machinery in “Minority Report,” special effects master Michael Lantieri was raring to put his FX superpowers to use for “Superhero Movie,” even if the job was a bit animalistic and unseemly. When Rick Riker, a.k.a. Dragonfly (“Superhero’s” satiric poke at “Spider-Man”), accidentally douses himself with pheromones, hordes of lab animals are hopelessly drawn to him. Lantieri and his team created about 30 cylinder-driven copulating critters to cover actor Drake Bell, incorporating mechanisms that made pelvises thrust and heads bob. The biggest challenge: devising the love-starved beasts’ sexual styles. “The ‘jackhammer’ was a favorite, the ‘low and slow’ and the ‘sneak up behind you,’ ” Lantieri recalls, “plus some you can’t print.” While Bell was being attacked by pulsating plushies, Lantieri’s crew manned air-valve controls to make the animals thrust to the comedic beat. So how’d they stay in top form? “We play games on PlayStation2 and Xbox,” Lantieri says. “It looks like we’re goofing off, but split-second timing is critical.”

–

Ron Magid