Great Non-CGI Special Effects

[Sionnach Glic]

The thread title explains itself, I'd say. I spent a couple of hours today watching Little Shop Of Horrors again. It's been absolutely ages since I've seen the movie, and the one thing I noticed more than anything else was how well the special effects in it held up. Despite it being 25 years old and using nothing but clever puppetry for the evil alien plant monster, it still looks bloody brilliant. Hell, I'd actually rate it as looking better than many of the CGI creatures we've seen in the last decade or so. In particular, Audrey II's final form (a giant puppet which supposedly weighed over a ton and required 60 people to operate properly), is one hell of an achievement to pull off with no computerised enhancements and still make it look good.

So what old non-CGI movies can you guys still watch today and think "that look's awesome"?

[Captain Seafort]

So what old non-CGI movies can you guys still watch today and think "that look's awesome"?

Waterloo

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

The entirety of the space battle of Endor.

Star Trek II's space fights.

[kostmayer]

The wireframes on the gliders screens in Escape from New York. All done with models.

And a couple by John Frankenheimer, my fave director. The Train - full of train crashes and exploding stations, nearly all done with actual trains as opposed to models. And Ronin, which with the exception of some very very crappy CGI tyre smoke had some very real looking car chases.

[Varthikes]

The entirety of the space battle of Endor.

Absolutely!

[Graham Kennedy]

Most anything by Ray Harryhausen.

[Mikey]

Most anything by Ray Harryhausen.

Beat ne to it. Absolutely groundbreaking.

[Coalition]

Would 2010 count?

Edit - Nope, Jupiter and the Monolith swarm was CGI'd. So was the pen that was knocked away.

[kostmayer]

Would 2010 count?

Edit - Nope, Jupiter and the Monolith swarm was CGI'd. So was the pen that was knocked away.

Also, whilst I loved the scene, that inflatable atmosphere brake looked atrocious

[Graham Kennedy]

Was watching a Harryhausen DVD recently and he said occasionally he had trouble with directors, because he had to tell them what to do a lot so as to make the effects he was going to put on work. One young director especially took this badly, and ended up threatening to fire Harryhausen. Ray looked at him in surprise and said "Well maybe you better go tell the producer that."

So the director steamed off and told the producer he was going to fire the special effects guy. The producer's response was "Fella, when this movie comes out it's going to have a big tag across the top saying 'A Ray Harryhausen Film!'" Now you can push the argument to the point where a firing happens if you like... but I can assure you that if that happens, Ray won't be the one who gets fired."

[mwhittington]

Alien and Aliens. I love those movies, and the special effects were (and still are) great.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

The Dark Crystal. A few slip-ups here and there, but overall... 8)

[Tsukiyumi]

Totally nominating John Carpenter's The Thing.

[Lighthawk]

The Dark Crystal. A few slip-ups here and there, but overall... 8)

Agreed., and hell, just about anything by the Jim Henson creature shop. They can do things with everyday household objects that'll make you gap in awe.

[Captain Seafort]

Another spectacular scene - these days this (2:15 in particular) would be all CGI.