PETA Uses CGI to Show the Suffering of Film Apes

PETA’s 98% Human is a 34-second video of an ultra-realistic, computer-generated ape pacing around an interrogation room as actor Adrien Brody narrates the existence of primates who perform in films: “Stolen from his mother at birth. Beaten and abused behind the scenes. He’ll end up discarded in a roadside zoo. Could you live this life?” The advertisement implements handgun imagery to insinuate the theme of suicide, but poses a solution to animal exploitation in the film industry through the use of CGI. A white on black caption “No real apes were used in this commercial” appears on screen to emphasize the point. The advertisement effectively parallels the ape’s suffering to a human’s through the use of an animation technique in which 3D artists traced over a human actor’s facial features, giving the primate the countenance of a depressed person, Adweek reports.

Phot credit: Ecorazzi