How Jurassic Park Chose CGI Over Stop-Motion

The movie Jurassic Park premiered 21 years ago this week. But when pre-production began, the plan was to use stop-motion animation for the dinosaurs. Here's the surprising story of how a handful of maverick computer graphics pioneers at Industrial Light & Magic changed the movie's course—and ushered in a new era* of movie history. Enjoy:

See also: Making Dinosaur Sounds for Jurassic Park.

* = If you weren't around when Jurassic Park came out, allow me to explain this simply: the dinosaur CGI was a huge deal. Although it looks a little dated today, my jaw literally dropped when I saw those effects in the theater. Jurassic Park and later Toy Story marked the biggest breakthrough moments for movie special effects in the 1990s. Those technological feats changed cinema (sometimes for the worse, to be fair).

(Via Kottke.)