Every Blu-ray should contain the best special feature from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
It’s no secret that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a film with a lot of visual effects. After all, there are only two human characters, and every other speaking part in the film belongs to a CGI monkey. But just because there are a lot of digital characters doesn’t mean the actors playing them didn’t give full performances. In fact, most of the characters were captured entirely in motion, and the film’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is here to prove it.
The Kingdom of the planet of the Monkeys The 4K set includes a special version of the film called The raw cut, which is a split-screen version of the entire film: one side is the finished film and the other side is stripped of all the film’s visual effects. In other words, it’s just the actors in their mocap suits acting out the scenes as their monkey characters. (The raw cut is not included in the Blu-ray or DVD releases of the film – only the 4K Blu-ray.)
On the one hand, this is probably a very uncomfortable way to watch the film where you are constantly confronted with the fact that the whole thing consists of just a bunch of people pretending to be monkeys. On the other hand, The raw cut is an excellent way to show how much work the actors put in and how incredible their full body performances are.
Presenting the work of motion capture actors has never been easier. First popularized with Andy Serkis’ performance as Enter Gollum The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002, unfinished footage of actors performing in mocap suits has provided insight into how complicated the process is and how complicated the physical performance can be. But this Kingdom A special section shows how filmmakers can show how great the artists in their films are. Therefore, this should become standard for any visual effects-heavy movie.
The 4K UHD Blu-ray version of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will be released on August 27th. The raw cut also includes an optional commentary track with director Wes Ball, editor Dan Zimmerman and VFX supervisor Erik Winquist.