6

Solo -- Those Alien Dogs Were Real Dogs

Ever since Disney got its white-gloved hands on the series, the Star Wars movies have focused more and more on practical effects, from the puppetry of BB-8 to the animatronic Porgs. Then again, they also literally used computers to raise a man from the dead, so maybe we should call it a wash. The recent Solo: A Star Wars Story similarly employed some pretty old-school techniques. And we're not just talking about how they actually cast a younger dude as Han Solo instead of, say, using CGI to paste in clips of Harrison Ford from Air Force One.

Take those Coreillian Hounds that chase Han Solo around like he's a space-mailman. They're basically the closest we're likely to get to an H.R. Giger remake of Homeward Bound.

Walt Disney StudiosStill cuter than a pug.

5

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom -- The Dinosaurs Were Dudes

The Jurassic Park series has always wowed audiences with its groundbreaking effects, even though some of those shots of dinosaurs hunting children were in fact of guys in raptor shoes probably regretting their Julliard tuition. The most recent entry in the franchise that won't stop until Jeff Goldblum's beach house is fully renovated, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, used similar techniques. Sure, there's a lot of CGI in there, but there are also a lot of random guys in awkward dinosaur costumes. Remember Chris Pratt's raptor BFF, Blue?

Universal PicturesYou remember, the unstoppable maul monster who can somehow be controlled by a stop-hand and the implied threat of a punch in the nose.

4

How Are The Fantastic Beasts Somehow Even Worse In Person?

We're not going to rehash the argument over whether J.K. Rowling should have left the Harry Potter universe alone ... and that even if she didn't, she shouldn't have written prequels ... especially not ones focused on an annoying, floppy-haired zoologist with a suitcase full of equally irritating creatures. We're not going to do that. Somehow, though, the magical animals from the Fantastic Beasts series look even more off-putting behind-the-scenes -- if such a thing is possible.

Take the Zouwu. In the movie, it looked like a cross between Falkor from The Neverending Story and whatever monster dwells in Brad Pitt's shower trap. On set, it was a guy in a leotard holding what looks like a sack of soiled laundry that's sprouted dreadlocks.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. PicturesIn front of fake trees that seem like more of an insult than a set.

3

Christopher Robin Was Less Magical In Real Life

For those who cherish the tales of Winnie The Pooh, but always wished it was more full of crushing regret and existential despair, Disney gave us Christopher Robin. In it, the lovable titular tyke grows up and abandons his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood -- who, by the way, aren't simply figments of his imagination, but actual sentient beings who are discarded like tattered old copies of Playboy.

To simulate the effect of a handful of mistreated childhood toys coming to life, Pooh and the gang were represented on set by stuffed animals propped up on metal rods which are probably metaphors for our childhood or some crap.

Walt Disney Studios"Well it took a massive team of puppeteers, but at last we can realize the magic of a rag doll left in the woods."

2

Ant-Man And The Wasp Was Even Goofier Without CGI

After the previous entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe forced moviegoers to slowly shuffle out of the multiplex in silence with images of galactic genocide dancing in their brains, fans were probably ready for some more lighthearted material. That's where Ant-Man And The Wasp came in. Thankfully set before Thanos got all snap-happy, the movie was full of adventure, humor, and the vague sensation that Paul Rudd is somehow sucking the life force out of all of us in some unholy bid to stay youthful forever.

1

Venom Was A Lot Of Tom Hardy Gyrating

Venom, Tom Hardy's latest attempt to star in a major motion picture while obscuring his face as much as humanly possible, finds him being taken over by an evil gooey alien. (It's an adaptation of Marvel comics, not a promotional tie-in with the mysterious substance on the floor of the movie theater.) Filming the scenes in which Hardy transforms into Venom required him to gyrate wildly on an empty sound stage like he was performing some kind of avant garde modern dance.

Sony Pictures Releasing