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OSCAR CONTENDERS www.postmagazine.com 9 POST NOVEMBER 2018 BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM t's hard to visualize the expansive digital world we call the Internet, a global system of interconnected computer networks that link people, places and all things. But for the CG ani- mated feature film Ralph Breaks the Internet, that is exactly what the artists at Walt Disney Animation Studios had to do. Then, they had to build it and bring this massive "invisible" world to life. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a sequel to the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph and is directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston who, along with the rest of the team, transport the lumbering Ralph (John C. Reilly) and feisty but diminutive Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) from the arcade to the ex- panse of the Internet. Throughout the film, Ralph and Vanellope are put to the test. The same can be said of the entire production team, from conceptualizing and bringing the Internet to life on the big screen to building cities and creating a host of new characters. "We've built buildings before, but the scope, scale and density here required us to focus our technology," says Larry Wu, head of environ- ments. "It's orders-of magnitude-larger and more complex than anything we've done — more buildings, more crowds. We had to figure out more efficient ways of doing it." Disney Animation is known for pushing the state of the art in technology and creativity and Ralph Breaks the Internet is no exception! For more on Ralph Breaks the Internet, turn to page 34. — KAREN MOLTENBREY isney-Pixar's Incredibles 2 was released 14 years after the first film, but picks up only a few months later, when superhero stunts are illegal in Municiberg. The Parr family is laying low, raising their kids Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack, and hiding their superpowers. Pixar once again handled the animation, with John Walker acting as producer. Some if the film's visual highlights include Elastigirl's motorcycle, the 3D citiscape, the Parr's mid-century home, complete with Terrazzo surfaces, and the characters clothing and costumes, which were designed from patterns. "The methodology is different, but the goal is the same," says writer/director Brad Bird. "We still have to worry about the audience under- standing the characters; creating the mood; using color, music, and sound; making it clear on the page to the actors so they know when they're going from A to B; communicating with collaborators. That's all the same, and hope- fully each movie makes you less stupid. But, I always feel mystified by the process. The more I understand, the more magical and impossible it seems." rtists at Industrial Light & Magic created CG dinosaurs for the first Jurassic Park (1993) film and, 25 years later, are still creat- ing photoreal CG dinosaurs. The studio has been the lead visual effects vendor for all the Jurassic films in the franchise, including the latest – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which had a huge opening back in June — $148M — and has taken in $416M to date. Directed by J.A. Bayona, Universal Pictures' fifth film in the franchise stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt and James Cromwell. Of course, cloned, hybrid dinosaurs are hard to contain and much of the story revolves around capturing the latest lab-created terror. ILM's David Vickery was the overall visual effects supervisor on Fallen Kingdom, and artists at the company's studios in London, Vancouver and San Francisco did the bulk of the work. ILP, El Ranchito, Scanline and Image Engine also pitched in. NVisible han- dled on-set graphics and helped in post, as well. Surprisingly, animatronics had a place in the film's visual effects. "It was really important for J.A. to have lots of animatronics," Vickery says. "There's a lot of nostalgia around animatronics and the way you remember films that feature animatronics. Jurassic Park was a huge part of J.A.'s life as a teenager and as a filmmaker. So, (executive producer) Colin (Trevorrow) and J.A. wrote scenes into Fallen Kingdom to feature anima- tronics and show them at their best." BEST ANIMATED FILM: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET BEST ANIMATED FILM: INCREDIBLES 2 I D A Ralph Breaks The Internet Incredibles 2 Fallen Kingdom