VFX artists break down what scene from Wicked is incredibly impressive. Last year, Wicked stunned critics and audiences with an incredible adaptation focused on the power of friendship between Elpbaha and Glinda. This led to an incredible cultural phenomenon, resulting in a worldwide box office total of $727.8 million, making it the fifth-highest-grossing movie of the year. The movie’s technical mastery has been recognized with an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, where it will compete against Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Better Man, Dune: Part Two, and Alien: Romulus.

Now, VFX artists in Corridor Crew react to the effects in one of Wicked‘s scenes. The scene in question was not the iconic “Defying Gravity,” but rather the scene that shows the Emerald City monkeys’ transition to flying monkeys. While Wren Weichman was a bit thrown off by the lack of realism due to the use of “blue fur,” Jordan Allen was floored by the animation and simulation of the feathers. Niko Pueringer then analyzed the creative possibilities available when putting wings on a non-bird creature. Check out their full analysis below:

Wren Weichman: That right there looks pretty sweet. His face is very realistic. But at the end of the day, he’s got blue fur, and that kind of just makes it off for me. From like a pH๏τorealism standpoint.

Jordan Allen: I mean that being said, they look pretty good.

Niko Pueringer: Yeah, I mean the apes look good. They definitely don’t feel as pH๏τoreal as the animals.

Allen: We enter feather territory, heavily here. And I really like it.

Pueringer: That was really cool, it was really well done, the animation was great. Wings are tough to animate. You can’t just go film yourself in a mirror, flapping.

Allen: Here’s the thing, if you think two wings are tough to animate, how about a whole lot more?

Pueringer: Dang, that is a lot of wing animation.

Allen: Lot of wings, lot of loose feathers. I love those stray feather sims. The little particle sims.

Pueringer: The other thing about giving your characters wings is that if they’re not a bird, you’re truly just making stuff up. The physics are made up, the motion’s made up, the biology’s made up.

Weichman: And the points don’t matter.

Pueringer: And when you can still sell that and make people feel like oh yeah, that monkey’s in pain because of the way he’s flapping his wings. If you can sell that as an animator, you are very good at your job.

Allen: So that’s like a nice little taste of the animal stuff. And that to me is their strongest claim for the throne of this visual effects Oscar. Of course, all their integration and the set extension work is very nice as well, but again those lines get blurred to me with production design.

What This Means For Wicked

2024 Was A Primate-Heavy Year

Before discussing Wicked‘s flying monkey sequence, the Corridor Crew team mentioned how 2024 was the “year of the ape“ because a lot of the year’s major films included CGI that focused heavily on ape and animal movies. By including Wicked into the mix, three out of the year’s five nominees for Best Visual Effects include apes. Even beyond the Oscar nominees, this year included Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which saw an oversized CGI gorilla monster as one of its main characters.

Even though Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Better Man rely on apes heavily throughout their respective films, Wicked sets itself apart by creating a fantasy ape. These animals have wings sprouting from their backs and shed feathers as a whole hoard transforms. the Corridor Crew is so impressed by this moment, which is a testament to how delicately Wicked had to handle the balance of pH๏τorealism and fantasy elements when creating their animal animations. It’s also one of the few cases where the movie had to rely on CGI, given that the director has spoken about the importance of practical effects in creating key moments.

Our Take On Wicked’s Monkey Sequence

“Defying Gravity” Is Its Most Talked About Visual Effects Sequence (But The Monkeys Should Be)

The Corridor Crew’s analysis stands out from the general discourse surrounding Wicked over the past few months. Likely in part because of the iconic nature of the song, the visual moment that is most talked about is Elphaba’s climatic “Defying Gravity.” Though it also relies heavily on production design in its visuals, “Defying Gravity” is not the only time that Wicked is making use of VFX, and perhaps should not even be regarded as the film’s most impressive effect, as evidenced by the Corridor Crew.

Source: Corridor Crew