Now that Disney has learned they can't waltz their way into dominating the Animated Feature segment of the Oscars, they have moved onto the next closest thing - Dominating Best Visual Effects*
* VFX artists are overworked and underpaid and deserve respect for what they do. They are contracted workers, and the studios often go under after work is done. None of these decisions I'm criticizing the styles and choices are are their fault.
However there's a good chance that their fellows nominate the movies from a shortlist and then the Academy as a whole votes on them so uh....
I cannot attest to 1917 or what they've done. The Irishman made DeNiro, Pesci, and Pachino look younger, a technical talent that has been used in the recent past, with varying results, as
early as 2006 to as recently as...a few months earlier when "Gemini Man" came out.
Did you know that "The Rise of Skywalker" also had de-ageing technology? I had...truly forgotten about it. There were ships, there were animals, there were people updating the gifs of Skype-Speak Palpatine with the blue filter from a CD in the mid 2000s.
"The Lion King"? There was much mass criticism about the soul of the original being all but sapped away to make the animals look 'realistic'. We could have stopped them making it if we didn't let 2016';s "Jungle Book" get over 1$b.
"You're no good, duck! You're just like ya fatha!"
How do we not know what lions look like at this point.
I did not see "Avengers: Endgame", but I suppose making a giant crowd of CGI characters fight a purple man is great.
All of that to say...you know, Lion King? Star Wars? You didn't really need to be here. Here's who did.
This was ole boy's best movie last year lmaooo
Now most of you didn't see it, and you're in plentiful company but there were a shitton of cyborg robots in Alita: Battle Angel, and the robots were also playing Killer Deathball and fighting and well, it's more impressive than lions.
What's more impressive to you? A virtualized savannah with a standard animal model (Not 'standard' but come on, four legs, mane, tail, ears , bigger than a cat = It's a lion!), or cyborgs in a fully built set?
Let's give amazing credit where amazing credit is due: The visual effects were provided by
Weta Digital,
DNEG and
Framestore .
You know what animal we had a vague impression of looking like in the real world?
Pikachu.
I diagnose you with baby.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu (Herby refered to as Det Pika) adapted at least 20 different Pokemon from across multiple generations (But mostly Gen 1).
The Flabebe (floaty things) are not Gen 1 but hey they sill look cool.
Some of them came out worse than others.
Look what they did to my boy :(
But many came out splendidly, including the main mouse himself!
He talks! He runs! He Volt Tackles!
The film's visual effects were provided by the
Moving Picture Company (MPC),
Framestore,
Image Engine,
Rodeo FX, and Instinctual VFX. Fun fact, some of these companies also did work for Lionmageddon up there. It's not the artists, it's the instructions they're given. After all...
He got better.
I mentioned before that LAIKA's "Kubo" was also nominated for Best Visual Effects in 2017, so we could definitely put another animated movie here (That's not LK).
I'm not above giving Disney credit where credit is rightfully due, and I think it's a damn shame Frozen II got ignored for some of these visuals.
Yes, most of them are from the same sequence, that's probably why. It's a lot more impressive that lions 😐 all day, I guess.
They even had to hold back from making it look too realstic,
specifially the bits with the Nokk. It looks realer than the water in "Moana", but not too real against the character models with fist-sized eyes.
What say you, ONTD? Do you think "Cats" should also have been recognized?
Source: Me, The Academy, tumblr for gifs, and
1