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Special Effect Failure
- 81 statements
- 13 feature instances
- 82 referencing feature instances
| Special Effect Failure | type |
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Special Effect Failure | |
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| Special Effect Failure | comment |
When special effects look really cheap and dodgy, to the point of pulling the audience out of the narrative, you have a Special Effect Failure. All-too-common prior to 1980, and still with us today despite relatively inexpensive digital effects that can be very convincing and realistic... but often aren't. The audience's expectations for effects have grown up with the media. For example, it is obviously a dummy being thrown from a train in The Great Train Robbery — but since it was filmed when filmmaking itself was in its infancy, people forgave it. If a modern remake had done that, however, they would not have been nearly as kind unless it was for other reasons. Star Wars raised the bar for visual effects so high that only the most advanced pre-1977 effects can measure up. It should also be noted that the modern push to update everything to HD can also result in a retroactive form of this, as a matte painting in a 1980s VHS release looks fine, but on the cleaned up, "remastered" Blu-ray looks like, well, a cheap matte painting in the background. Same for video games when prerendered backgrounds look weird. Sometimes a Special Effect Failure is caused by resorting to Off-the-Shelf FX. Many examples are just plain Bloopers (a literal failure of the effects). In a video game it can be because of Model Dissonance being revealed by a glitch or oversight. In animation, it can be lumped in with Off-Model. Sometimes cheesy FX are regarded as part of the So Bad, It's Good charm of a work. Sometimes authors will intentionally aim for this as a form of Stylistic Suck. See also Prop. Compare Fight Scene Failure. Note that, despite the name, many newer examples may actually be visual effect failures, the difference being special effects are created practically while computer generated imagery are visual effects. |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_2149bb7b | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_2149bb7b | comment |
Mom Can't Cook!: Special Effects in Disney Channel Original Movies are often mocked as being very obvious, although they are occasionally more congratulatory to the creators. In Halloweentown, they make quite a few mentions of the "monsters of varying levels of attention to detail", which range from people in decent costumes to "person in a Shrek mask" and "man in a hat". After Get a Clue has a newspaper article as a plot point, Luke starts looking closely at newspapers shown in other DCOMs to see what the articles say. The one from Get A Clue turns out to feature the same text repeated 3 times, while one from Ready to Run, with a headline about a horse coming to an inspiring finish in a race, has text about the disappearance of a couple in Hawai'i from an area notorious for its drug dealers! One of the podcast's more notable Running Gags is to refer to wonky special effects as "[effect]_notfinal.png" being wiggled around in the shot. The Merch even includes a black T-shirt reading "tshirt-design-NOT-FINAL.png". |
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| Mom Can't Cook! (Podcast) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_25d97c04 | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_25d97c04 | comment |
The "destruction" of the Munich terrorist facility in the James Bond fan film Diamond's Cut seems to intentionally go for the Camp factor with what seems like a really bad photoshop. Absolutely nothing collapses and the only signs of destruction are little tongues of flame with thin tendrils of smoke at the forefront. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_25d97c04 | featureApplicability |
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| James Bond (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_403e35e | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_403e35e | comment |
Parodied by Freefall, where cheesy special effects have been painstakingly re-created by CGI. Sam considers the programmers responsible to be geniuses. | |
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| Freefall (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_459911fc | type |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_459911fc | comment |
The Hatbox Ghost from The Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland remained a legend for decades due to this. He was a skeletal old man with a hatbox in his hand, placed in the attic with the Bride figure, whose heart beat and glowed. Promotional materials said that in the story, the Hatbox Ghost was the groom, whose head faded from his shoulders and reappeared in his box in sync with his bride's heartbeat. (There is evidence that this was part of a murder story in the attic scene, with other hatbox heads in the attic, and the Hatbox Ghost exposing the Bride as the killer with his trick.) The effect was meant to be done with careful lighting- the light would go off above his shoulders, making his head seem to vanish, and go on in his box, revealing the second head inside. However, proximity of the figure to riders made the first part of the illusion fail and the Hatbox Ghost was removed very early in the ride's operation, never made it to the Walt Disney World version, and most riders never saw it, to the point that it was considered a myth until photos of the figure in situ emerged. After, the Attic scene was retooled to make the Bride a lonely, mournful character due to the lack of a victim. After several decades, during which a new murderous Bride story was implemented with more detail, the Hatbox Ghost was finally brought back to Disneyland in 2015 with much more complex effects, with fluid animation, a projected, animated face, and a head-traveling effect that worked while the character was placed right next to the riders' vehicles. (Part of this is due to the new figure being hollow and the head being pulled into the body when the "switch" occurs.) While the new Bride is more obviously murderous, the Hatbox Ghost assumes a similar narrative role to before, likely showing what's in the attic hatboxes, as the hats are on a rack. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_459911fc | featureApplicability |
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| The Haunted Mansion (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_48543323 | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_48543323 | comment |
Through Her Eyes: In-Universe, the Sinister Scythe Ruby can summon with her powers doesn't seem to reflect light at all, and is described as looking like rather sloppy special effects, possibly a jab to the background figures in canon before things picked up or to highlight how unnatural the thing is. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_48543323 | featureApplicability |
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| Through Her Eyes / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_498b77e9 | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_498b77e9 | comment |
Referenced in Skin Horse where UNITY refers to Tip's new wolf form as a plywood shark.◊ | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_498b77e9 | featureApplicability |
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| Skin Horse (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_4991e325 | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_4991e325 | comment |
In Halloweentown, they make quite a few mentions of the "monsters of varying levels of attention to detail", which range from people in decent costumes to "person in a Shrek mask" and "man in a hat". | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_4991e325 | featureApplicability |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_4991e325 | featureConfidence |
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| Halloweentown | hasFeature |
Special Effect Failure / int_4991e325 | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_5088a5aa | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_5088a5aa | comment |
Essentially all of the special effects in the animated version of The End of Ends, but Count Logan's dragon form breathing fire stands out. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_5088a5aa | featureApplicability |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_5088a5aa | featureConfidence |
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| The End of Ends / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_72262aee | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_72262aee | comment |
Most of the Avatar: The Last Airbender fancomic How I Became Yours looks rather poor. Special mention goes to all the copied poses. Diaz copies from everything, mostly the show itself (though she often uses Ichigo as a model for Zuko), and often uses the same artwork over and over (Iroh is depicted in the "holding out the white lotus tile" pose from "The Waterbending Scroll" several different times). He's also depicted in a pose from "The Storm" wherein he is in a dark room and lit from below by a fire, and no attempt was made to change the lighting, despite the How I Became Yours scene taking place in bright sunlight. She also has a nasty habit of making characters change position by rotating their models, which tends to make them look more like mannequins than people. The most infamous example is when Sokka and Zuko carry Aang off after a sparring session, but it also makes the Toph/Aang sex scene unintentionally hilarious when you realize that the characters are in the same position the entire time. When Diaz doesn't copy, the characters tend to look like they belong in the Unintentional Uncanny Valley, like one scene where Aang has a twelve year old's face, a teenager's body, and elongated limbs. |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_72262aee | featureApplicability |
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| Avatar: The Last Airbender | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_8832bf9a | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_8832bf9a | comment |
In Commander Kitty, Mittens and Fluffy's plan for creating a fake teleporter effect involves distracting Ace right before CK himself shows up with an accompanying spray of glitter. The actual execution leaves much to be desired as well. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_8832bf9a | featureApplicability |
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| Commander Kitty / Web Comic | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_a9c54c8d | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_a9c54c8d | comment |
Motu Patlu: In "Motu Banega Don", Motu and Patlu hide in one of the containers in a container yard to hide from John the Don's gang, who are chasing after them. Inspector Chingum notices John's gang entering the container and goes in as well. In the dark insides of the container, the characters can only be seen By the Lights of Their Eyes... but then they start to beat each other up, creating visible hit stars that light up the inside of the container just enough to make it noticeable that their eyes are actually the only part of their bodies that they animated for that scene, with the rest of their bodies nowhere to be seen. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_a9c54c8d | featureApplicability |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_a9c54c8d | featureConfidence |
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| Motu Patlu (Animation) | hasFeature |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_bd310eaa | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_bd310eaa | comment |
In El Goonish Shive, this trope is used intentionally to make Sarah throwing a couch look fake as intended in-universe. | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_bd310eaa | featureApplicability |
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| Special Effect Failure / int_bd310eaa | featureConfidence |
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| El Goonish Shive (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Special Effect Failure / int_bd310eaa | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_d20f687e | type |
Special Effect Failure | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_d20f687e | comment |
After Get a Clue has a newspaper article as a plot point, Luke starts looking closely at newspapers shown in other DCOMs to see what the articles say. The one from Get A Clue turns out to feature the same text repeated 3 times, while one from Ready to Run, with a headline about a horse coming to an inspiring finish in a race, has text about the disappearance of a couple in Hawai'i from an area notorious for its drug dealers! | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_d20f687e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Special Effect Failure / int_d20f687e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Get a Clue | hasFeature |
Special Effect Failure / int_d20f687e |
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