How about the 89th Academy Award for Best Visual Effects Film "The Jungle Book"?

Actually, you may not believe it. Before watching the movie, I was not mentally prepared for the level of CG effects in this film. After watching the film, I also read many viewers’ interpretations and thoughts on the film, including discussions on the theme, racial struggle, and dark laws of survival. If I had focused on these before watching the movie, I'm afraid I would also join the relevant discussion at this moment. But I must confess at this moment that I don’t have many ideas about the theme of this film, which may disappoint some friends who came in with such expectations. If I hadn't learned that this was adapted from the 19th century novel "The Jungle Book", I would have concluded without thinking that this is a live-action version of "The Lion King". Different from the metaphors and profound connotations displayed in "Zootopia," a "buddy movie" that was also produced by Disney this year, the story of this film is actually simple. At present, it seems that the film has achieved great success at the box office and word of mouth in the global film market, and this is largely due to its excellent use of CG special effects. Take me personally as an example. I didn’t go there just for the CG, but ended up buying the CG version of this film, and even gave up my habit of exploring the theme after watching the movie. I can’t help but wonder, why is the CG in this film so successful?

It is true that not all films exist solely to cater to the audience's concerns. But for major commercial films with CG special effects, the audience's points of interest are a very important reference for the film production team. This reminds me of a typical negative textbook that all my friends know I "deeply hate" and must be nominated every time I mention bad special effects movies: "Jupiter Ascending". Think back then (actually, it was a year ago), I was indeed attracted by the amazing special effects during the promotion of this movie. Even though the information at that time was that there were a lot of "disappointing" and "mediocre" reviews from abroad, thinking about such a grand "cosmic" CG effect, coupled with such a title that has the charm of a science fiction blockbuster, I always thought that no matter how mediocre it was, it would not be bad. Where can I go, not to mention the blessings of Little Freckles and others? Unexpectedly, the cruel reality gave me a loud slap in the face. This movie that I went to watch for the special effects ultimately proved that it was just a cosmic Mary Sue blockbuster. The cosmic CG special effects that took so much effort to create were nothing more than show-offs. We cannot say that the CG special effects in the "castle in the sky" of Jupiter Ascending are not realistic, but we still have to say that the movie itself is poor. The Wachowski "Sisters" are another big breakthrough in CG history after the Matrix series. No matter how you look at it, it seems like they are just using CG technology to make big news.

Star Wars in "Jupiter Ascending"

So, when we watch CG movies, what are we paying attention to?

1. The world of CG is both real and illusory. Which one is real and which one is fake?

The scenes in Harry Potter used a lot of real-life shooting, and a large number of props have carefully made real models to support real-life shooting. The cabins in the Hobbit series were also modeled in real-life locations in New Zealand and other places. Most successful CG movies adopt the approach of real-location shooting + CG processing of special visual effects. During the movie viewing process, the audience was full of interest in watching and guessing following this transition between reality and reality.

The Cabin of "The Hobbit"

But in this forest fantasy film, we magically found that this process has become much more difficult. From time to time at the same scene, children would throw themselves into their mother's arms and shout, "Don't look at me, you're afraid." After all, when Tiger Sherry Khan launched his first raid, my "big friend" was also shocked. It was only in the state of shock that I realized how sophisticated the current CG technology was. When the animals start talking to the little boy, they are so lifelike that almost every hair of them shakes. Their precise shapes and expressions that fit so well with the script are staggering. For a moment, you can tell whether it is a wolf boy because of the environment in which he grew up. Are you proficient in the language of animals, or are all the expressions of animals anthropomorphized? ?

2. How to achieve successful special effects?

After collecting some materials about CG movies, I learned that "The Jungle Book" can be regarded as a CG movie in a narrow sense: most of the scenes in the entire film are completed by CG special effects. The mysterious and romantic jungle scenery in the title of the film runs throughout the entire plot, but these "sceneries" were actually shot in a studio in downtown Los Angeles. According to reports, the production process of the film is that the animation designer first draws a picture version of the characters and story; then creates a rough version of CG effects, including motion capture; finally, the real-life footage of the little boy is shot, and then produced with a computer Some of the clips were merged into the final film. In the process of live-action filming, the objects of the scene are just stuffed animals of various animals, or the "opponents" made by the director and other staff wearing various animal headgear as guest appearances. Most of the real scenes in the film were completed in front of a blue or green cloth background. Unbelievable? These are the extra fun that a successful CG movie can bring to the audience.

The live-action shooting scene in "The Jungle Book"

3. How much does the use of high-end CG improve the film?

Hey, why does this issue sound like it should be considered by the producers? Why do you say it is the focus of the audience? Watching a movie itself is a wonderful experience. There is no more direct and real audio-visual experience than watching the movie in progress. No matter what the expectations are, the first thing the audience pays attention to when entering the theater must be the content of the movie itself, even for CG movies in the narrow sense. No exceptions. For non-professional film practitioners or non-film enthusiasts, most people actually don’t know much about the essence of CG technology. In fact, few people watch and judge a movie solely for CG special effects, regardless of other factors of general concern. Just like "Life of Pi", the leader among CG movies, it has gained such huge recognition first because of the thought-provoking profound philosophical themes it reveals. The beautiful visual experience created by about 60% of the CG special effects in the film further deepens the presentation of Ang Lee's "double-sided story" and deepens the expression of philosophical thoughts. The use of CG special effects helped the film win many professional awards, and it is also perfect from the perspective of film art.

To be fair, "The Jungle Book" is not a warm and sweet fairy tale. It is a fantasy drama full of dark atmosphere. Such a straightforward look and feel is not the result of repeated exploration of the theme after reading the film, but precisely due to its exquisite CG special effects.

As children grow up, it becomes difficult for us to persuade adults with fairy tales and fables. Because no matter how beautiful scenes like animals talking and plants dancing are, our first reaction is to tell ourselves “this is fake.” Therefore, many excellent animation works can move adults, but few can shock them. Yes, it's shocking. The jungle scene that appears from the beginning of the story is so "real" that it cannot be questioned. At the moment when the tiger suddenly got up and attacked the little boy, the immersive feeling of nowhere to escape was as if there was a pair of invisible hands at the scene, and the realistic roar pushed the audience into their seats. When the giant ape stretched out its giant palm without warning, I was deeply worried about the situation of a "fairy tale" protagonist for the first time. Not to mention that even a fallen leaf or a vine in this fantasy forest makes people believe that they have indeed experienced the baptism of wind and rain, and have truly experienced life, death, prosperity and decline.

Comparison between the version in the CG movie and the cartoon version

This is an amazing experience. Adults who are used to everything in fairy tales and fantasy are no longer real, have the opportunity to re- Feel the process of believing that everything you imagine will come true. This time, we are no longer "on the outside" watching how the little boy makes friends with animals, how he fights against fate, and we don't even have to investigate where he will end up as a human being. Instead, you can "incarnate" into a young protagonist, experience this process yourself, and relive your childhood fantasies.

So the CG special effects of "The Jungle Book" win. From beginning to end, it never shows off special effects technology like a peacock's tail to you, but this exquisite experience has been completely integrated into the whole movie. Everywhere in the film. He didn't show off his skills but won your recognition in a reasonable and reasonable manner.

Rather than saying that the success of this film is due to the fact that the CG technology used has reached the current top level, it is better to say that the use of CG has been raised to a higher level.