Film Milestones in Visual and Special Effects from 1990 to 2004

Film Title/Year and Description of Visual-Special Effects	Screenshots
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) George Lucas' fourth film in the series undoubtedly contained more computer animation and special effects than any previous film - over 90%. Only 12 minutes of the 133 minute film had no special effects. There were over 2,000 digital visual effects in the film, and over 60 different digital characters. It also featured a completely CGI-generated (all digital), fully-articulated main humanoid character named Jar Jar Binks (voice of Ahmed Best), a widely-derided aspect of the feature film. Jar Jar was a "Gungan", an alien indigenous to the planet Naboo. [The annoying character was reprised in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).]
Star Wars: Special Editions (1997 and after) George Lucas decided to add CG - digital effects to hundreds of shots, mostly in his original Star Wars trilogy, including: in Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), a new CGI version of Jabba the Hutt (originally a latex puppet), and a modified "Cantina Scene" in which Greedo shot first in Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), a fully computer-generated Yoda replaced the original puppet (Frank Oz) from earlier episodes	The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Attack of the Clones (2002)
Stuart Little (1999) This live-action film, derived from the children's book, featured the CGI character of Stuart Little (voiced by Michael J. Fox), another CGI character integrated seamlessly. It also featured the same animal-talking effects as in Babe (1995). Sequel in 2002.
Tarzan (1999) Technologically-advanced animation effects, with extensive use of the "deep canvas" animation effect, creating a remarkable 3-Dimensional depth.
The Cell (2000) Director Tarsem Singh's stylish and innovative sci-fi thriller (his first feature film) told about the empathic journey of a child psychotherapist Dr. Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) into the minds of comatose individuals, including sadomasochistic, blond-haired, psychopathic serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio). Due to director Singh's former music video and TV commercial background, the film boasted spectacular, nightmare-inspired, brilliantly-colored, surreal images, referenced and metaphorically drawn from many sources: mythological, Biblical, mystical, avant-garde and various art styles (abstract animation in Fantastic Planet (1973), Russian iconography, kabuki costuming, Brothers Quay puppetry, Hieronymus Bosch, Helmut Newton b/w photography, Fellini, S&M, etc.), and more. The film was also nominated for a Best Makeup Oscar Academy Award. Various photographic techniques were used to create a rich visual palette - desaturation, deepened saturation, different film stocks, skipped frames, and traditional CGI. The first beautiful shot of the film, under the credits, was of Catherine inside a comatose kid's mind - she was riding on a dark black horse across a burnt-orange African Sahara desert. She was wearing a white dress (with feathered bodice), accentuated by the brilliant blue sky. Another such image was of a surrealistically beautiful segmented horse - after being suddenly sliced into still pulsating pieces by falling panes of glass. It recalled the painting of English artist Damien Hirst.
Chicken Run (2000) This film used the claymation (clay - animation) process (called plasticene animation in the UK) with special plasticene characters. The film also used some CGI effects (e.g., the explosion of the pie-making machine).
Fantasia 2000 (2000) The sequel to the classic Fantasia (1940), included computer-generated sequences released in the IMAX, giant-screen format. This was the first feature-length animated feature film released in the IMAX format (70 mm) for IMAX theaters.
Hollow Man (2000) Paul Verhoeven's exploitative sci-fi action thriller featured extensive and amazing special effects shots, including the first anatomically-correct, totally working, 3-D computer model of a human body - in this case, the body of actor Kevin Bacon (as brilliant but insane scientist Sebastian Caine, who tested an invisibility serum on himself and became permanently transparent and maniacal). During filming, he wore skin-tight costumes (in solid colors such as green, black or blue) to aid in the addition of special effects. In some instances, the outline of 'invisible' Sebastian was visible when he was covered by blood, water or steam, and it was possible to see the imprint of his feet and hands.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) This was the first feature film to be entirely color-corrected by digital means ("digital intermediate technology"), giving the film a washed-out, sepia-tinted tone, to invoke the feeling of old or antique photographs. In particular, green colors were selectively eliminated or desaturated.
The Perfect Storm (2000) In this adventure/disaster film, the monster wave scene used computer-generated imaging from ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) to approximate the look of a stormy sea with 80 foot waves. In another incredible aerial shot, the camera plunged into the spiraling clouds of Hurricane Grace and into the Atlantic Ocean below.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) Steven Spielberg's fanciful science-fiction Pinocchio-fable starred Haley Joel Osment as the robot boy David longing for his mother's love, and CGI for the final sequences in the film set 2,000 years into the future, including the character of the Blue Fairy, and a life-like Teddy Bear (serving as the Jiminy Cricket character) that climbed up on the bed where David was sleeping - reunited next to his mother. Other CG characters included the 'Specialists' - highly-advanced, translucent, slender and graceful robots with glasslike features.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) This science-fiction tale by director Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the best-selling series of interactive video games that inspired this film) was the first hyper-real, fully computer-generated (CGI) feature-length film based entirely on original designs - no real locations, people, vehicles, or props were used. It took four years to make, advertising itself as "Fantasy Becomes Reality." Its production budget was estimated to be $137 million, with box-office of only $32 million gross income (domestic) and $53 million (foreign) - $85 million total. The massive losses caused the bankruptcy of its production studio, Square Pictures. The film was hailed for having photo-realistic, life-like images. Characters' faces and skin included such details as liver spots, wrinkles, veins in a clenched hand, individual hair strands, and so forth. The most complex CG human character ever created was Aki Ross, who was reported to have 60,000 individual strands of hair. The amount of detail rendered into hair, clothing, skin texture, eyes, and movement was astounding and impressive.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) First CGI feature length film (an animated comedy) -- produced by Nickelodeon and made by DNA Productions of Dallas, Texas, using off-the-shelf hardware and software (NewTek's LightWave 3D® animation software) to create, model, render and texture the film. It was the first computer-generated feature film from a major studio to be created solely with off-the-shelf software that any consumer could buy.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: (2001-2003) This was the three-time Oscar winner for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for three consecutive years. In each of the years of the award, this film series defeated Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), Pearl Harbor (2001), Spider-Man (2002), Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). In the first segment, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), there was an impressive stand-off fight between Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the fiery Balrog (Durin's Bane) on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum in the dark Mines of Moria. Gandalf cried out: "You shall not pass!" and then collapsed the bridge under Balrog, but the creature wrapped its fiery whip around one of Gandalf's legs, taking the wizard down into the chasm with him. As he fell, he called out to the fellowship: "Fly, you fools!" In the second part of the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), CGI-imagery was combined with "motion capturing" (of the movements and expressions of actor Andy Serkis, who also served as the voice) to produce the supporting character of Gollum (originally known as Sméagol) - noted for saying: "Myyy PRECIOUSSS!" A motion capture suit recorded the actor's movements that were then applied to the digital character. A more laborious visual effects process digitally "painted out" Serkis's image and replaced it with Gollum's. [The same technique was repeated in I, Robot (2004), with Alan Tudyk as the robot Sonny.] Another major special-effects character was a talking-walking tree (Ent) named Treebeard - a combination puppet and CGI-character. Also in The Two Towers (2002), AI-driven agents were used to create the digital army scene in which evil wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) surveyed the troops (numbering 10,000 ) at Mordor before him - before they marched and attacked at the climactic battle at Helm's Deep. Even larger numbers of troops were digitally created for the siege of Minas Tirith, the Battle of Pelennor Fields and the battle at the Black Gates of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).