Is it the puppet E.T. that dates this movie?

I'd say it depends. If you are a first-time viewer nowadays and expect the movie to be great (as its praised as a masterpiece) than you could be irritated or dissapointed because obviously puppetry and actors were used to animate E.T..

But then this kind of "limitation" regarding the creature could have given the viewer the feeling of clumsiness and strangeness, and a sort of creepiness about him. That serves a lot to sympathize with him.

But for me he is still the most frightening creature I've seen and I cant stand the mere look or voice of him as it gives me the shivers.
And that exactly why this movie has this impact on me personally.

No I'd say that the lame CGI used in the reissue dates it badly, in that it dates the horrible CGI.

I still think the puppets looked great. It has texture and since it was really in the scene with the boys it actually seems real even if there is the obvious reality that its a puppet.

At the end of the day I get more humanity from a puppet controlled by a human being than some CGI that exudes a kind of emotive quality that was never present in the original. CGI ET is just not ET. Its kind of like how Yoda in the prequel Star Wars films never looked as good as Yoda in the originals even though he could sing and dance and do all that other bollocks.

----------
I like to get loaded and watch Deadwood.

I don't have any issue with the puppet, I can deal with old technology. I'm watching it now, it's the movie to be a bit bland. And no, it isn't a matter of time. Blade Runner, 1982, still gives me the vibes.

I think it's generational. It wasn't really an 'oddity at the time', as The Empire Strikes Back was already 2 years old when E.T was released.

The younger generation have grown up with CGI and are conditioned to it. I'm 35 and did my growing up pre-CGI, and I have no problem with puppet Yoda, puppet ET, and so on. In fact it's the opposite for me: bad CGI can take me out of a story rather than draw me in, while 'bad' puppetry still leaves me with some wriggle room, and I still know the puppet was there, on set, 'performing' with the actor, as opposed to an actor acting against a cut-out head on a stick with an assistant director off-camera feeding lines to the actor. A puppet can react with the moment, while a CGI creatures every moment is meticulously choreographed and lacking any spontaneity. Motion capture helps a bit, but not completely.

This is my line of thinking and may be incomprehensible to some, but again, I suspect it's a generational thing.

I have no idea of your age, by the way, and would be curious to know.




Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

I just watched this again for the first time in years. Netflix is showing it and I was happy to see it's not the CGI E.T. in this one. I only saw bits of the CGI version and it was incredibly annoying, took me right out of it. I'll take puppets any day of the week, especially when done to this high of quality.

On the contrary, a CGI ET is what really looks like sh!t (as evidenced by the special edition). The puppet is a real, tangible thing - it has a life and personality of its own. It's physically onscreen and I think most people bought it. It's not dated at all imo.

Death by stereo

I'd say from a standpoint of story telling it holds up extremely well. As far as the special effects, I was a teenager in the early 80's and I thought they were amazing. Obviously things have changed, but that doesn't always mean for the better. The problem we have now is the opposite situation; movies that have unbelievable special effects, but no soul.

Ladies and gentlemen...Mr.Conway Twitty

Watching it today I think the old stuff like this looks better than the CGI characters which look like they were pasted in from a video game. The new Star Wars which was mostly done with puppets and makeup really shows this because the one CGI character looks out of place.

On the other hand the CGI works much better for action sequences with ships because they can get the geometry and physics right where the model work would often give you not quite right looking angles.