Owen Wilson has a long filmography, but his more recognizable roles are typically found in comedies or Wes Anderson collaborations, including The Royal Tenenbaums. Throughout his career, Wilson has appeared in commercially successful franchises, notably Night at the Museum and Cars, where he portrayed Jedediah and Lightning McQueen, respectively. However, some of his most beloved performances to date come from Zoolander and Wedding Crashers, as well as the Shanghai movies, where he starred opposite Jackie Chan.

Despite his comedic talent, Wilson has tackled other genres, starring in Armageddon and Behind Enemy Lines, among more projects. In 1999, he appeared as Luke Sanderson in The Haunting, an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s acclaimed novel The Haunting of Hill House, and murderer Van Siegert in The Minus Man, but neither movie was a critical hit. While the same rang true for Anaconda, another horror film, premiering earlier in Wilson’s career, it would go on to have a more significant impact.

Anaconda Gets A Positive Review From VFX Artists

The Cult Classic Impresses, Despite Having Outdated Effects

Now, Anaconda is earning positive reviews from VFX artists, almost 30 years after it originally released. Directed by Luis Llosa, the adventure horror movie revolves around a documentary crew in the Amazon, who stumble upon snake hunter Paul Serone and get roped into fighting a mᴀssive creature. Along with Wilson, the cast of Anaconda includes Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz, Ice Cube, Kari Wuhrer, Jonathan Hyde, and Jon Voight as Paul. After premiering in 1997, the film generated over $136 million, and while it was poorly received at the time, it eventually gained a cult fandom.

In their latest “VFX Artists React to Bad and Great CGi” video, Corridor Crew reviewed scenes from Anaconda. They commented on how practical effects may have been used for certain sequences, including when a character gets his neck twisted, and then, looking at the anaconda attacking a boat, Niko Pueringer revealed: “They actually built a fully articulated robot snake, and it has 120 joints.” For a scene where the creature wraps itself around Wilson, Corridor Crew recognized that it was mostly VFX, and Pueringer explained that “frame blending” was used. Read his comments below:

So, this is actually a slow-motion sH๏τ. But when Owen Wilson’s getting whipped around by the snake, that part is too slow. So, they needed to speed it up. Back in the day, if you want to do speed changes, the only way you can really do that is to either add or move frames. In other words, like duplicate a frame or take some frames out, or you can turn on frame blending in your editor, which will basically just do a small crossfade between your frames. Back then, they didn’t have optical flow for speeding things up and slowing things down. Optical flow is where you study how things, pixels, move from one frame to the next, create vector paths, and you can morph and warp your frames to create those in between frames. But here, they don’t have that. So, in order for them to speed it up, you’re basically seeing a little bit of the frame before and a little bit of the frame after, overlaid on each other, each at like half transparency, and that’s how they’re blending the frames. It looks like garbage.

Corridor Crew also enjoyed a sequence where the anaconda grabbed a man and rolled him as it stayed wrapped around a tree, mentioning the impressive stunt work and how the creature looked. Then, the practical snake catching on fire had Wren Weichman noting it as a “sick sH๏τ.”

Our Take On The Anaconda VFX

They Are Part Of The Appeal Now

Over the years, Anaconda has developed a loyal following and the outdated effects, which are admittedly bad, have become part of the fun. It is interesting to see how VFX artists are reacting to the movie now, and that they were actually impressed by some of the visual elements, as well as the practical ones. Watching Owen Wilson and his memorable death scene, along with the other actors and VFX in Anaconda, can make for a more entertaining revisit.

Source: Corridor Crew/YouTube