My granddaughter loved programs like Blue Planet, Planet Earth, the Wild series, and most others that provided loads of visual stimulation with little to no hunt/kill scenes. There was a program called Bugs! A Rainforest Story that we watched seemingly on an endless loop when she was little. The only animated series she showed interest in were the CGI variety with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.Music shows were always a favorite, if for nothing else than to provide a backdrop to her playing with minimal visual distraction. There were musical programs dedicated to child development available that we often had on.As much as I loved the animated shows like Shaun the Sheep, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, The Koala Brothers, etc., she showed little interest besides the occasional watch.She is nine now and her viewing habits are about 95% animal and earth related shows. Although most of her time is spent in the garden collecting and relocating bugs.She still loves Nature on PBS, most of the Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild shows and the massive amounts available to stream. Although, she has graduated to the hunter and hunted shows, which are, at times, quite disturbing to watch.
These are some of my all time favorites. Some on the list may be considered unconvincing by today's standards but what the heck, these really left a strong impression on me.The mummy from the movie of the same name, released 1999. Both the look and feel of the reanimated corpse of Imhotep was just top notch.T1000 from terminator 2: judgement day. This was just spectacular for its time. I remember being mesmerized as a boy by the melting man :)Every living thing on planet Pandora, from the movie avatar.All the aliens in this movie as well :) Although I only like the CGI work from the first movie though, Every transformer be it Decepticon or Autobot just seemed a little bit more convincing and impressive than the sequels.Yes, yes everyone's favorite veggie coloured mad smasher from the Avengers movie.Davy Jones, this for me still represents one of the highest levels of fictional character design in cinema.Richard Parker, from Life of pi movie.You didn’t seriously think I would end this post without “the precious one” did you.There are still a lot of brilliant CGI works out there though. All images are from google.EDITI just remembered this super cool mech from the movie district 9. Something about it felt believable in a freaky sort of way. A worthy mention are the prawn-like aliens, though the mech is still my favorite CGI piece from the movie.
I saw Dinosaur (2000) when i was 9.If a film had been made in the Cretaceous age, it might have looked a lot like "Dinosaur." The movie is startling in its impact. Against a backdrop of nature, which is clearly real, we see dinosaurs that are scarcely less real. We feel the same sense of wonder that was stirred by "Jurassic Park." These great beasts ruled the earth much longer than we have, their unlikely bodies sketched out in exaggerated Darwinian strokes.The visual look of "Dinosaur" is a glimpse of wonders to come. The movie sends the message that computer animation is now sophisticated enough to mimic life itself in full motion, with such detail that the texture of reptilian skin seems as real as a photograph in National Geographic. The problem, as always, is to match the artistry with the technique.I still remember that day, i saw that Dinosaur movie 3 times a night because we did not have much options like the kids today.