What was the first movie to feature a CGI lead character?
The origins of computer-generated imagery – CGI – date back to the 1950s when Alfred Hitchock hired John Whitney to create a computer animation for the beginning of 1958’s Vertigo. Although it wasn’t a traditional use of CGI, it still marked the first-ever computer animation.
However, 3D graphics were introduced by Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke in 1972 when they made their short film, A Computer Animated Hand. Catmull drew 350 polygons and triangles on his hand before digitising and animating them into a 3D animation program that he also wrote.
Another early and distinctive use of CGI in cinema came in 1973’s Westworld, which used the technique to show how robots could see. Yet the sequel Futureworld became the first major feature film to use 3D CGI. Images of Catmull’s digitised hand and Parke’s digitised head from his 1974 short Faces and Body Parts are used in Futureworld, which was released in 1976.
It wasn’t until 1985 that the world was introduced to the first CGI character. This was the stained-glass knight from The Young Sherlock Holmes, who took six months to create, despite appearing on screen for a mere 30 seconds. He was the only animated character in the film, which was otherwise live-action.
The first movie to feature a CGI lead character
However, the first CGI lead character was Casper the Friendly Ghost, from 1995’s Casper. The character was created in the late 1930s, with his first animated appearance in 1945’s The Friendly Ghost, released by Paramount. After starring in lots of comics and television shows, a Stephen Speilberg-produced live-action feature containing a CGI Casper was agreed upon, with Brad Silberling acting as director.
Starring Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle, the film was a box-office hit, grossing $287.9 million against a $55 million budget. The four ghosts were created with CGI, with the help of 150 people at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). It was a laborious process, with only five to eight shots created a week. There were over 350 shots that contained a digital character, with Casper appearing for almost 40 minutes of screen time.
A few months later, a new record was set when Pixar released the first entirely CGI-made feature film, Toy Story. Not only was it the company’s first film, but it was also entirely 3D. Each frame took between four and 13 hours to be completed. The lengthy process paid off, and the film made a whopping $394.4 million at the box office. Toy Story was followed by three sequels which were also highly successful.
