special effects are too good now because as we left the theater after Project Hail Mary my mom was like "it's really impressive that Ryan Gosling was the only actor on screen for most of that movie" and I was confused for several seconds thinking "what about the giant crab that played Rocky?"
No but like, fr this is the power of puppetry. This is why people are regularly accidentally mic-ing Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy instead of their actors. This is why Labyrinth and Farscape and Little Shop of Horrors hold up. We all spent two and a half hours convinced that that little spider rock dude was real, because James Ortiz and his team created the sort of incredible acting chemistry with Ryan Gosling that can only happen with a real guy who actually occupies physical space
