Viral TikTok About Titanic's CGI Effects Leaves Viewers Hysterical

“It’s giving The Polar Express motion capture animation.”
Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic
Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic
20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Given that Titanic was released 25 years ago, you’d be forgiven for thinking that surely we’d have spotted all the tiny mistakes and details by now.

Somehow, though, this isn’t quite the case.

On Tuesday, an eagle-eyed TikTok user noticed a hilarious moment in the film which utilises CGI technology.

Director James Cameron obviously leaned heavily on visual effects to create some of Titanic’s most explosive and cinematically impressive moments, but the scene in question is a little more everyday.

It starts with passengers walking along the ship’s top deck – but as the camera pans across and zooms in, you soon notice something isn’t quite right. In fact, the entire shot is CGI.

Tiktok user Jessveraaa posted a short clip of the scene, in which she can be heard laughing hysterically as a CGI passenger picks up her CGI toddler.

It doesn’t end there, either. As the camera moves on to focus on an observation deck, where a Captain (also fake) is approaching a member of the boat’s crew (yep, he’s also fake too).

“It’s giving The Polar Express motion capture animation,” quipped one user in the comments section.

“It looks like The Sims on a boat,” added another.

Many fans were sympathetic to the fact this type of CGI was actually state-of-the-art technology in 1998, though, as one wrote: “This was legit cutting edge in the late ’90s, I remember watching behind the scenes clips raving about how realistic this was.”

“Our good TVs are ruining movies,” said a fourth person.

The Titanic movie turned 25 in January, and ahead of the milestone anniversary, director James Cameron finally had his say on the age-old question of whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack could have fitted on the floating door which saved Rose (Kate Winslet).

James Cameron at the premiere of Titanic 3D in 2012
James Cameron at the premiere of Titanic 3D in 2012
Christie Goodwin via Getty Images

“We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all,” he told Postmedia.

“We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie.”

“There was no way they both could have survived,” the filmmaker added.

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