Into the Woods
Rob Marshall directed the silver screen adaptation of this Sondheim fantasy musical. While Into the Woods required a fair amount of CGI, Matt Johnson, the visual effects supervisor, wanted to keep things as "old-school" as possible, only adding digital enhancements and backdrops where necessary. "[Marshall] wanted everything to feel more organic, to feel more natural, and yeah, it's a darker sort of fairy tale," Johnson said. "It's more to the tune of the Brothers Grim rather than, I don't know, Walt Disney."
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Harry Potter film franchise revolutionized special effects. The Quidditch scenes in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment of the series, were done so well that it was hard to tell what was CGI... well, minus the flying, of course.