From left to right: Stephen Chiodo, Charles Chiodo, and Edward Chiodo
Born
Charles Anthony Chiodo (1952-05-24) May 24, 1952 (age 71) Stephen Joseph Chiodo (1954-03-02) March 2, 1954 (age 70) Edward Michael Chiodo (1960-08-25) August 25, 1960 (age 63)
The Chiodo Brothers (Stephen, Charles & Edward Chiodo; /kiˈoʊdoʊ/; born in
Bronx, raised in
Deer Park,
New York) are an American trio of sibling special effects artists, specializing in clay modeling, creature creation, stop motion and animatronics. Known for their film Killer Klowns from Outer Space and creating puppets and effects for films such as Critters, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Team America: World Police, the Chiodo brothers created the
claymation sequence for the Large Marge scene from Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and the stop-motion elements in the North Pole scenes from Elf.[1] They also created the mouse dioramas featured in the 2010 film Dinner for Schmucks,[2] as well as the stop-motion Stone Age creatures in the
Cup Noodles ads from the mid-90s and were puppeteers on The Thundermans. In addition, they produced a puppet segment for the episode of The Simpsons, "
The Fight Before Christmas" (2010). The band
Chiodos was originally named "The Chiodos Bros." after them, before modifying their title slightly.
Their studio has made
clay animation segments for five episodes of The Simpsons:
On August 23, 2019, it was announced that the Chiodo Brothers were developing a stop-motion animated adaptation of the book Alien Xmas,[3] written by Stephen Chiodo and Jim Strain,[4] for
Netflix with executive producer
Jon Favreau. The adaptation, also titled Alien Xmas, was released on Netflix on November 20, 2020.