Contents Mighty Joe Young: A Gorilla Named Joe: With Mighty Joe Young, director Ron Underwood put a modern spin on the venerable film classic about a lovable giant gorilla plucked from his idyllic home in Africa and given a dose of big-city life. While the original Joe was a triumph of stop-motion animation that astounded moviegoers of its time, the updated ape would be no less remarkable, brought into being through sophisticated animatronics and suit artistry by Rick Baker, in concert with groundbreaking visual effects spearheaded by Hoyt Yeatman of Dream Quest Images. Article by Scott Essman.

What Dreams May Come: The Sweet Hereafter: A metaphysical speculation on the nature of the afterlife, What Dreams May Come, based on a novel by Richard Matheson, chronicles the spiritual journey through Heaven and Hell of a man determined to reunite his family and rescue his soul mate from an eternity of suffering. Guided by director Vincent Ward, whose singular vision of the hereafter infused the project, visual effects contributors Mass.Illusions, POP Film and Digital Domain offered up dazzling technical innovations in the service of an extraordinary aesthetic concept. Article by Kevin H. Martin.

Pleasantville: Color My World.

Antz: Road to Insectopia.

A Bug's Life: An Entomological Epic.

Virus: Building a Better Borg.

Contents Star Trek: Insurrection: Lost in the Briar Patch: Star Trek: Insurrection, the ninth feature film in the venerable science fiction franchise - with veteran cast member Jonathan Frakes again at the helm - had many familiar elements, including prosthetic makeup effects by Michael Westmore, but employed new technologies and new companies in the creation of its abundant visual effects. Santa Barbara Studios crafted spaceship shots entirely in the digital realm - a first for the series - while Blue Sky |VIFX contributed a range of predominantly planet-bound illusions. Article by Kevin H. Martin.

The Mummy: Thoroughly Modern Mummy: For his remake of the Boris Karloff horror classic, The Mummy, director Stephen Sommers was determined to present a title character far apart from the bandage-wrapped mummies that lumbered through a variety of decades-old predecessors. Engaged to design and create the mummy Imhotep as both an all-CG character and a digitally altered live actor, plus devise a host of other fabrications involving fearsome sandstorms and plagues, was visual effects supervisor John Berton and the artists at Industrial Light & Magic. Article by Estelle Shay.

My Favorite Martian: Martian Chronicles

T-Rex - Back to the Cretaceous: The Five-Terabyte Solution

Babe - Pig in the City: Mean Streets

Wing Commander: Space Ace Engagement

Contents Return of the Jedi: With the patience of a Jedi master, writer-director George Lucas waited sixteen years before determining the time was right to launch his much-anticipated Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace. Stepping back into the limelight to personally shepherd the project through its four-year production odyssey, the visionary filmmaker shares his insights on the most ambitious effects movie ever made. Interview by Don Shay.

Phantom Visions: An enormous conceptualization effort, headed by design director Doug Chiang, lent form and substance to Lucas' imaginings of The Phantom Menace's fantasy worlds. Initially comprised of just Chiang and another illustrator, the team eventually expanded to include seventeen artists, pumping out endless sketches, paintings, sculptures and models in the Skywalker Ranch art department. Article by Mark Cotta Vaz.

Heroe's Journey: Fittingly, it was Industrial Light & Magic, the much-honored company established by Lucas to produce the revolutionary effects in Star Wars, that would undertake the staggering task of bringing his latest opus to fruition. For The Phantom Menace, ILM would pull out all the stops, calling upon both veterans of the earlier trilogy and a newer generation of digital devotees to advance the art of visual effects to dizzying heights. Article by Jody Duncan, Kevin H. Martin and Mark Cotta Vaz.

Populating Planets Although computer animation would play the more prominent role in populating The Phantom Menace's alien worlds, hundreds of whimsical characters - both background and principal - were constructed for on-set use by creature creator Nick Dudman and his crew of animatronics and makeup specialists. Article by Estelle Shay.

Contents Wild Wild West: A Walk on the Wild Side : With source material plumbed from the popular sixties television series, director Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West offered up a comic saga of Old West
derring-do pitted against outrageous villainy and bizarre gadgetry. Makeup effects by Rick Baker, physical gags by Michael Lantieri and digital creations by Industrial Light & Magic and Cinesite enlivened the proceedings.
Article by Kevin H. Martin.

The Haunting: The House That Roared: In The Haunting, based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, the malevolent spirit of a killer manifests itself in a gothic mansion, turning imagined threats into
nightmarish reality for the unwitting subjects of a psychological study. Director Jan De Bont sought the talents of effects maestro Phil Tippett and production designer Eugenio Zanetti, among others, to inject new life into the eerie tale. Article by Christine Sandoval.

The Matrix: Jacking Into the Matrix: Offering up a mix of stylish martial arts and cerebral science fiction, The Matrix -- the brainchild of writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski -- offered a
singular vision of a world where reality is nothing more than an elaborate computer construct. Visual effects were achieved principally by Manex Visual Effects and DFilm Services, with assists from other firms in both the United States and Australia. Article by Kevin H. Martin.

Deep Blue Sea: Devils in the Deep Blue Sea: Mako sharks, armed with enhanced intellects and super-predatory instincts -- the result of genetic experimentation on board an aquatic research station -- turn on their captors in the Renny Harlin thriller, Deep Blue Sea. Animatronics innovator Walt Conti teamed with visualeffects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun and a host of digital effects facilities to complete the project. Article by Estelle Shay.