this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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Sure, there's limits. Show enough and even the best has an uncanny valley because our brains are great at picking up subtle clues. But in this example there was little shown outside the head motion, and I'll take most any of Henson's or Weta Workshop's stuff that tries to trick the mind into thinking stuff is real.
Most recent is the work in Project Hail Mary. Not humanoid, but convincingly living.
I think there's different levels of what we call real. CGI might be more realistic, but our brains know that we are looking at something that never existed, whereas even the shittiest puppet is convincingly a real object; I think that to translates us more easily having feelings about the puppet.
Stole this argument from a comparison of Carpenter's practical effect smorgasborg, The Thing, vs its CGI-heavy remake.
Any specific examples? I just remember Farscape being firmly in the "obviously puppets" realm, but that is pretty old by now.
About as old, but the first Yoda out of ESB was incredible in believability, particularly in face expressions (given the topic here of just a talking head on screen). Lucas's later attempts at doing more with Yoda using CGI was nowhere near the level.
From an Avatar themed ride at Disneyworld:
My first thought. That thing blew my mind when I first saw it.