Looking for a reason to be excited about Hellboy II? How about this one: It’s not a bunch of crummy CGI. Guillermo del Toro is one of the few directors out there willing to go the extra mile to actually make his special effects look, you know, good. That means using a little bit of CGI mixed with a whole lot of old fashioned, practical, creativity.

In a brand new featurette just released for the film, Del Toro admits that they’re pushing the boundaries of animatronics in this movie… and holy crap are they ever. The featurette shows off some of the work they’ve been doing, and it’s pretty eye-popping. Del Toro’s fantastical characters actually look real, because they are. He builds sets, he has real ten-foot tall monsters running around on them. How cool is that?

Check out the new Hellboy II: The Golden Army behind the scenes video below: