The 10 Worst CGI Film Characters

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In light of the Star Wars revisions coming to blu-ray just around the corner, we thought it’d be appropriate to count down some of the worst CGI Movie Characters Of All Time.

The technology of digital special effects in film has opened up a world of imagination and possibility. Characters, settings, and actions that were never possible before had all suddenly been available with the invention computer generated graphics. Unfortunately, sometimes filmmakers haven’t always used the technology with the most artistic integrity (or have the appropriate amount of money to make it worthwhile). And unfortunately, when CGI characters are bad, they’re real bad. Ranging from laughably embarrassing to painfully cringe-worthy, here’s our countdown of the worst CGI characters of all time to grace the big screen:

10. Scooby-Doo

• - 2002**

Okay, so we understand this one is made to be campy and light-hearted. But the brilliant way that Scooby-Doo’s character just doesn’t fit with his live-action surroundings is a different kind of campy that the filmmakers probably weren’t going for. Unfortunately, not even Matthew Lillard’s inspired performance as Shaggy can save the incredibly poor CGI work on Scooby-Doo. And since Hollywood doesn’t seem to be letting up on films like this, the least we could ask for is some better CGI. Actually, wait, no: could we just not have any more of these childhood-memory-ruining movies?

9. Arnold’s Face
(Terminator: Salvation) – 2009

We know there are people out there who just can’t get enough of the Governator, but this was just too far. To give the animators credit, the modeling of Arnold’s face is pretty dead-on: this is unmistakably Arnold’s face. Unfortunately, it’s also unmistakably CGI. If you’re going to digitally recreate an icon as significant as the Terminator, it better be believable. The fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s noggin gets blown off pretty quickly tells us the filmmakers didn’t feel too comfortable with the CGI either.

8. The Sharks

• - 1999**

This one was just too good to pass up. Before there were snakes on a plane or death by the force, there was this scene from Deep Blue Sea. The sharks look terrible, Jackson’s doll-like body looks terrible, and we won’t even get into things like acting and screenwriting for this movie. Because we decided not to include SyFy original movies on this list, this big-budget version is a must for this list. Oh, and here, you’re welcome:

7. Don Lino

• - 2006**

Because the success of the films rest on the believability of the animation, most completely CGI films (even the terrible ones) work pretty hard to make the character animation and texturing look pretty nice. Shark Tale, though, apparently spent most of their budget on hiring Will Smith, Robert De Niro, and Angelina Jolie to voice-act the poorly animated undersea tale. Not only was this is a sad cash-in on the delightful Pixar film Finding Nemo from the year before, but the thing just looks terrible. We dare you to watch this clip featuring two poorly textured characters named Don Lino and Sykes and tell us this doesn’t look like a cut-scene from a decade-old video game.

6. Hulk

• - 2003**

You know it’s bad when you have to reboot a movie within the next five years. The original Hulk was Ang Lee’s first venture into the world of superhero movies and the hero’s big-screen debut. Unfortunately, the film didn’t live up to the name and a large part of that has to do with the Hulk himself. You’ll notice that in the trailer below, they try to avoid as many direct shots of the Hulk himself, because he looks embarrassingly out of place. We know making a giant, green muscle man look “normal” is a tireless feat, but this thing was in development for more than 13 years! Even his shorts look fake. Oh well… at least we have The Incredible Hulk.