I'm sure someone's said it before me and better than me but let's give it up for Nope (2022) using CGI for Gordy instead of getting a real chimp. They used real horses to send a message about the complicated and delicate nature of using even domesticated animals for filming, so they could have justified to themselves getting a real chimp to send a message about the evils of exploiting wild, undomesticated animals. But can you send a message about the evils of exploiting wild, undomesticated animals while exploiting a wild, undomesticated animal? No, you can't. And forcing any creature that should be free and in the wild to perform for an audience is exploitation of that animal. The message with the horses is (among other things) that domesticated animals are still animals, still living creatures, and that needs to be considered and respected, but the message with Gordy (among other things) is that expecting wild animals who've been torn from their natural environment to behave the same as trained, domesticated animals is inhumane to everyone involved, animal and human alike.
But they could have used a real chimp, that would have been allowed and they could have gotten away with it. Instead, Gordy the chimp, a real, wild, undomesticated yet still relatively easily exploitable animal was given the same CGI treatment as it's entirely fictitious counterpart Jean Jacket. No saying "it's ok when we do this because we're sending a message", no semi-apologetic explanations after the fact about how 'audiences wouldn't have reacted right to an animated animal', and especially no treating a fictional creature better than a living one just because you can (much to unpack with that sentiment in this film). If you can animate an alien that audiences can accept, you can animate an animal just the same.
And you'd think this would be obvious, that you can't make movies that explore exploitation through symbolism and allegory while participating in real life exploitation to tell that story, but nevertheless, if given the option, filmmakers still choose 'realism' over ethics and then blame audiences for those choices but Jordan Peele didn't and it's perhaps a small thing but the story he was telling with this movie is exponentially improved by demonstrating that he genuinely believes in the message he's sending. Many, many filmmakers cannot say the same.
