I actually find that animatronics usually look better on-screen than CGI. And this is coming from a 3D artist looking for work.
I find it's always easy to tell that something is CGI, while animatronics seem to "fit in" better. There's no worry about having to match the lighting or camera or anything. It interacts directly with the actors. And with technology these days, they're getting more advanced.
Just look at the creatures in Lady in the Water. Even in the "making of" feature, when we saw one sitting in the studio, not on set, it looked real and scared me when it moved because it was so natural.
So, yeah. If ever any of my stories make in on-screen in live action, and I need weird looking creatures, I'd spend the extra dough to get animatronics instead of cgi.
