I am regularly amazed at how the line between fiction and reality is blurring, thanks to digital technology. Case in point: the current remake of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The film has been hailed as a magnificent achievement, partially because it isn’t animated like the previous version was. I look forward to seeing it.
But I was stunned to learn that all the life-like animals that populate the jungle are computer generated. These animals are voiced by famous movie stars, but there isn’t a real lion or tiger or bear in the project. Mowgli, the child raised in the wild, is real; but I’m guessing he could have been digitally produced too.
This isn’t the first time Hollywood has created fictional worlds; think the galaxies of the Star Wars movies or Matt Damon’s life on Mars.
Here’s another case in point closer to home: My own enhanced photographs where my teeth are pearly white, my wrinkles are airbrushed, and my hair has a halo effect. I look thin too.
If someone landed from another planet, what would that extra-terrestrial think if my photo and I were side-by-side? I don’t know, but I’m suspecting that fake is the new reality.
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