Netflix Releases Behind-The Scenes Look at Okja‘s Special Visual Effects

Netflix has put out a behind-the-scenes featurette for Bong Joon-ho’s Okja, and it’s both fascinating and heartwarming.

Okja is, at its heart, the story of a girl’s relationship with her pet. That pet happens to be a super-pig, technically owned by a mega corporation that cares for nothing but profit and is willing to stoop to any abusive means to achieve it, but still—at its core, the thing that sells the film is the love between Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn) and Okja.

And to sell that relationship, the film needed top-of-the-line visual effects in order to give Okja personality and vivacity. This featurette explores the filmmakers’ techniques—which involve the director of animation running around set encased in foam padding—in making Okja come alive. Watch it above.

You can read an essay exploring the film’s themes here, and our (less positive) review of the film here.