The Twilight saga was probably one of the biggest cinema phenomena at the turn of the 2010s and was able to bring in over 3 billion US dollars worldwide with five films (via The Numbers). The fantasy series featured various fantastic creatures and action scenes that required a lot of visual effects and catapulted the production budget into nine figures.
Around 12 years later, some of them reveal a now outdated level of CGI technology. However, one very special effect was just as disturbing back then as it is today: This CGI baby Renesmee.
Twilight baby Renesmee was a real CGI disaster 12 years ago
In Twilight 4: Breaking Dawn – Till the End of the Night – Part 2, the child of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) was unleashed on the teenage audience, growing incredibly quickly as a hybrid between human and vampire and in their respective Development stages should only be seen briefly. The creative minds around director Bill Condon therefore decided not to have Renesmee embodied throughout these different phases of life by a child actress, but rather by means of her visual and practical effects to create.
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As revealed in the bonus material on the Twilight DVDs, Renesmee was initially intended to appear as a mechanical doll. However, this was done by the Breaking Dawn crew Chuckesmee because it bore a strong resemblance to the murderous doll from Chucky and also disturbed the actors. Chuckesmee is said to be according to producer Wyck Godfrey “one of the most disturbing animatronic babies ever to appear in a film”, have been (via The Guardian).
Ultimately, Renesmee had to be created using CGI – which worked only slightly better. Although the figure has features of a real baby and toddler, it differs just enough from a real person that it caused horror and laughter then and now. The responsible VFX team based Renesmee’s appearance on both Kristen Stewart and actress Mackenzie Foy, who embodies the childlike Renesmee from a later point in the film without the help of CGI.
(Hopefully) no Renesmee scare in the new Twilight series
Since we know that the newly announced Twilight series will be animated, we can at least rest assured that a similar CGI accident won’t happen again. Instead, the series has the opportunity to show Renesmee’s developmental stages in animated form according to the figure to represent.
However, it is unclear whether Renesmee should also expect the same Breaking Dawn Part 2 storyline. After all, the mystical imprint of the adult werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) on a baby who is only a few days old has been controversial since Stephanie Meyer’s novel was published.
It is currently unknown when and where the Twilight series will start.