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More CGI, Please!

by Kasey McDonald April 24, 2008 1:30 PM

As I've been watching a lot of Animal Precinct lately, it surprised me less than it may surprise some that Rocky, the grizzly bear who most recently wrestled with Will Ferrell in February's Semi-Pro attacked and killed its trainer earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reports. The trainer was employed at Predator's In Action, which specializes in training wild animals for work in movies and television--the company has supplied animals to Gladiator and The Last Samurai among other films--and up until the incident had boasted a perfect safety record.

The event is already prompting an uproar from animal activists who are calling for the permanent retirement of all performing animals and suggesting the use of CGI animals in their stead. The way I see it, as soon as special effects houses can figure out a way to create a life-like looking animal without the cold-dead-eye phenomenon persistent in CG animals today, I'm all for the change-over. (And hey, there are five more Narnia movies yet to film guys, so get to work. I want to see an Aslan who, when he's teaching the Pevensie children another thinly-veiled biblical lesson, looks like he really means it.)

While it's tragic that an incident like this one brings about the conversation of replacing real animals with digital ones, perhaps the time has come. The CG bear fight in The Golden Compass would have been impossible with real animals, and let's face it, the end of the fight where (Spoiler alert!) Iorek Byrinson bitch-slaps the jaw off of the usurper polar bear king was awesome. While the ASPCA agents hanging around the craft services tables ensuring that no animals were harmed in the making of Any Particular Movie would assuredly get a little less A-Lister time, my evenings spent watching Animal Precinct make me think they'd be okay with it.

TAGS: narnia, semi pro

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More CGI, Please!

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