ROTTEN TOMATOES: 20 CGI Classics - From T2 to Batman Begins to WALL-E

20 CGI Classics - From T2 to Batman Begins to WALL-E

We pick 20 films that employed Pixar's renderer.

by Joe Utichi | August 11, 2008

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RenderMan, a piece of software created by those masters at Pixar, revolutionised computer-generated special effects when it was originally released 20 years ago this year. Designed to take the information in a CG file and "render" it into an image, the software made the creation of visual effects an art limited only by imagination.

"At [the time of RenderMan's release] CG was nowhere in the special effects business," Pixar's co-founder and president Ed Catmull told The Hollywood Reporter, who published a feature on the software's anniversary today. The feature, which explains the history of the software in more detail, includes a timeline explaining the product's milestones.

From infancy in 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes - the first use of the name "RenderMan" didn't happen until the product matured in 1988 - right up to this year's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, WALL-E and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, RenderMan has been an essential part of the summer season for its entire lifespan.

To further celebrate 20 years of RenderMan, RT scoured Pixar's own list of movies that have employed RenderMan to pick 20 visual classics - in chronological order - that wouldn't exist today were it not for the software's creation...

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(1-20 of 166 posts) | Reply

stevegilpin writes:
on Aug 11 2008 10:17 AM

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?
Okay, Rotten Tomatoes, PUT THE BONG DOWN!!!!!

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mouse_clicker writes:
on Aug 11 2008 10:19 AM

Thank you so much for including Sunshine on the list. It was my second favorite movie of last year (behind Ratatouille), and was criminally overlooked. One of the few science fiction films to have extraordinary CG visuals and then the depth and content to back it all up.

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HollywoodJack writes:
on Aug 11 2008 10:30 AM

i agree that Sunshine was visually beautiful and had a very good first half but I think the film was ruined in the second half. It turned into a slasher film. I guess we just disagree though.

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arendr writes:
on Aug 11 2008 11:03 AM

I disagree on Gladiator. I've always had a problem with the CG in that movie. Even when I first saw it in the theater, I thought Rome looked terrible. I like the movie, but the CG wasn't even good for its time.

Glad to see Sunshine and Batman Begins on here. Those are 2 movies that used CG as it's meant to be used.

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Tlin82180 writes:
on Aug 11 2008 11:28 AM

Surprised Transformers didn't make it.

I was severly dissappointed with the movie and its failure to bring back the magic of the cartoon.

But I can't deny the CG recreation of the robots was pretty cool. But whatever.

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eliott256 writes:
on Aug 11 2008 12:00 PM

In reply to this comment (#1970955)
Maybe you should put your bong down and you glasses on so you can read the list

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astrangefish writes:
on Aug 11 2008 12:51 PM

I disagree. If Beowulf, Day After Tomorrow and Attack of the Clones really did have stunning visuals then i would have been able to enjoy them on some level.
P.S. I'm sorry dude, if you think the robots in Transformers were good effects (small empty car transforming into gigantic chunky robot-said robot could have used said car for a hat or codpiece) when a CAR ADVERT had much better transforming effects years before, you are nuts.

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Scorchy writes:
on Aug 11 2008 12:56 PM

Gladiator absolutely doesn't belong. The CGI was obvious and Rome itself looked absolutely horrible.

If you want to see an effective recreation of Rome that doesn't take center-stage, watch HBO's "Rome."

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CoUcH ToMaToE DoUgIe writes:
on Aug 11 2008 01:51 PM

its amazing no matter how beautiful every Pixar film is, their

stories always leave the lasting memory. Thank you, Pixar for revolutionizing

the filming world. If only you could write the stories for some of these

idiot filmakers who constantly waste great opportunities. Still, i wish you

R.T. guys tarted with the Abyss, pretty amazing in every way in my opinion.

Still, big kudos for Cameron for making films that always impress us visually

and for the most part his story telling is pretty fantastic as well. You

know one of the films I think doesn't belong on this list is Begins. I loved

it and all, just don't think of it as a landmark film in Renderman effects.

If any superhero film belongs on this list because of impressive Renderman

effects, I would suggest Spider-man 2 or even Superman Returns more than

Begins. And I agree with, astrangefish, Transformers should never be on any

list of achievement, including visual effects. Not saying it wasn't grand

but thanks to the idiotic camera direction of Bay, any achievement is lost.

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trgdr777 writes:
on Aug 11 2008 02:12 PM

I wouldn't include Gladiator, The Day After Tomorrow, or War of the Worlds. None of those were very convincing for their time in my opinion.

I think Transformers deserves it (if we're basing this list on special effects rather than acting or storytelling) because few people realize how hard it is to make something animated look convincingly large. Plus I can only imagine how many reflections they had to worry about.

Also, even though I didn't like the Pirates sequels very much, I thought Davey Jones was a really cool (mostly) CG character.

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Warheart1188 writes:
on Aug 11 2008 02:52 PM

Where's Tranformers???!!! That's a CGI masterpiece! (and that's the only thing that movie has going for it)

They should replace Final Fantasy: Spirits Within with the much better FF VII: Advent Children.

And honestly, Gladiator? The Day After Tomorrow?? Come on! They should've put the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie instead of the first because Davy Jones is the most realistic CG character I've ever seen. Batman Begins? Not too much CGI there. Gotham was built on a set, not a computer. They used CGI sparsely.

The Spider-Man series has some great CGI. Why weren't any of those there?? Hell, I don't care what anybody thinks of the Hulk movies, but that's a damn good looking CGI Hulk they've used.

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FullMelson writes:
on Aug 11 2008 02:53 PM

Glad to see my favorite action film of all time made #1...seriously if you go back and look at T2 today it still holds up and the movie is nearly 20 years old.

And while I understand that here on RT all thing Nolan must be praised you've got to be kidding me by adding Begins to this list the effects were on par with most done today and there was nothing revolutionary CGI wise in the film.

Either of the Spiderman films would have been a more deserving choice as you
you couldn't have truly realized the charater without those scenes of him swinging through the city...not to mention the fight between Spidey and Doc Ock was one of the best uses of CGI in years.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Aug 11 2008 02:55 PM

I agree on the Transformers bit. I thoroughly enjoyed that and was righteously P*SSED when f#cking 'Golden Compass' won for best visuals (!?!?!?!) at the Oscars.

Nice list. I'm glad they didn't try to put a 'ranking' order on it. That would've killed the whole thing.

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Racer Z writes:
on Aug 11 2008 02:58 PM

"Unfortunately his sense of storytelling had clearly falled off the tracks by that point."

Falled?

You know, if you're going to degenerate into yet another anti-Lucas tirade regarding his script-writing and sense of storytelling, it might do your credibility well to at least know how to write yourself.

Not to mention the fact that every film on this list owes a debt to Lucas and ILM's R&D. At least attempt to show SOME respect!

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vitajex writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:01 PM

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is quite a bit better than The Spirits Within.

How could we possibly overlook the original, the first film to ever feature extensive use of CGI? The grand-daddy of ALL CGI films?

"Tron"

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dalonoman writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:04 PM

Get rid of Gladiator, and put Transformers on (yes the movie itself was trash- but I thought the CG absolutley saved it- imagine the movie with half *** CG- Think about it... think about it.... terrible isn't it?)

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rle4lunch writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:09 PM

I think that the War of the Worlds storm scenes were terrific. Much moreso than NYC frozen. As for Harry Potter, the only one of those that have impressed me (only slightly though) was the most recent one released. The fight scene at the end was quite stunning.

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vitajex writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:11 PM

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is quite a bit better than The Spirits Within.

How could we possibly overlook the original, the first film to ever feature extensive use of CGI? The grand-daddy of ALL CGI films?

"Tron"

(Reply to this)

vitajex writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:14 PM

In reply to this comment (#1971786)
Firstly, respect was shown by including Lucas' film on the list.

As far as not being able to criticize...

I can't carve a canoe out of a tree, but if someone else does and it sinks? I think I have a right to say the canoe stank.

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Joe Utichi writes:
on Aug 11 2008 03:30 PM

Racer Z: Oops, I'd like to say the n and the d keys are quite close to each other, but I think this is a case of writing too quickly and missing it on the read-through. It should, of course, read "fallen."

As for our anti-Lucas tirade, it's more a fun pop at the general impression most have of the prequel trilogy - of course Pixar wouldn't even exist were it not for Lucas' first steps so there's no doubting his contribution.

Though, let's be honest, the critics of Lucas' writing have very little to say about his spelling or grammar...

FullMelson: Please note, while Terminator would appear to be at number one, this is actually a chronological list. We didn't want to play favourites, particularly given how much innovation there's been in this industry over these last 20 years, so instead we chose to simply list the films by year so you can get a sense of that evolution. Though we also didn't choose one movie from each year, preferring instead to choose multiple movies from some years.

Re: Batman Begins - We really wanted to choose a superhero movie that used its CG sparingly. Spider-Man, The X-Men and Superman Returns all feature very powerful visuals, and it was a toss up, honestly, between Spider-Man and Begins, but for this particular item we wanted to showcase a film that didn't overdo the CG and yet was still able to tell a story on the scale demanded of a superhero movie.

It's funny that Gladiator and Batman Begins seem to be the sticking points, though, as they're both of our examples of movies that use CG effectively but sparingly. I know some have criticised the quality of the CG in both movies, but we really wanted to include on the list movies that weren't purely CG effects driven and, at least in my opinion, the work of both of those movies was pretty exceptional.

Re: Transformers - the robots looked great, but given that we already had Beowulf, Kong, Harry Potter 3 and War of the Worlds I wonder if we don't already have quite an exhibit of big-screen monsters, which the Transformers are but metal versions of, after all...

Perhaps Beowulf could have retired its place for Michael Bay's noise factory, though...

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