Captain Marvel VFX Reel Highlights Crazy Cat & Skrull Transformations

If there was one defining theme to Captain Marvel‘s visual effects, it was transformation. Many of the characters (spoiler alert)—including Goose the cat—are not what they appear. That’s most evident in the film’s would-be bad guys, the Skrulls. Their main ability is to transform themselves into any person (or object, apparently) they see. This could be an old lady on a train, a surfer, or Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson.

As for Goose, well, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson)’s favorite little orange furball is actually a Flerken. This meant Goose transforms into a gruesome, tentacled alien beast when the situation calls for it. As great as some of the stunts are in Captain Marvel, all of the above called for VFX in post-production. A new Captain Marvel visual effects featurette reveals a bit of the post-production process that created these often ghoulish transformations. The video also shows how Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)’s signature photon energy blasts were created.  She’ll be needing those when she faces off against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame on April 26.

VFX Supervisor Christopher Townsend spoke to Earth’s Mightiest Show host Lorraine Cink about how he and his team conjure the necessary visual magic to bring Marvel superheroes onto the big screen. For the Skrulls transformation into other people, Townsend talks about how much time and effort his team put into making sure their skin looks right as they morph for one being to the next. When Captain Marvel unleashes her photo blasts, for instance, what you’re seeing is a combination of practical lighting and CGI effects.

As for Goose, it turns out a huge portion of his performance (there were actually four cats) was created with visual effects. In fact, a full 70% of the Goose you see on screen was made on a computer. Try to figure out which cat is real and which is CGI in the side-by-side comparison in the video. Our guess is you’ll have a very hard time figuring out which is which. While everyone loves Goose, a tip of the hat to the VFX department who did a good amount of the cat’s work is in order.

Check out the VFX reel below. Captain Marvel is in theaters pretty much everywhere.

Featured image: Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN MARVEL. Goose. Photo: Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2019