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{{trope}}
The inevitable fact that, as franchises go on, they will be given a special effects (very often, CGI) upgrade to compete with the times. Justified in the fact that many of today's sequels are of series from the 1980s or 1990s, where then-new CGI was often ditched in favor of actual explosions and stunts, and CGI is much safer (and cheaper) than, say, blowing up an entire office building. Often results in [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] ==
* The ''[[Pokémon (
* This was one of the actual driving forces of the ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' Rebuild project. It was at its most striking in the first movie, which had a lot of redone original footage.
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* The first ''[[The Terminator|Terminator]]'' film was just a modestly budgeted film, albeit one with a rather convincing (if not in movement) T-800 "skeleton". Then came along ''Terminator 2: Judgement Day'', which had one of the more famous early uses of CGI involving seamless liquid metal effects of the T-1000.
** While it did use CGI, the majority of the effects in T2 were done like the first, using stuns and animatronics. The difference was that T2 could afford better ones...
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* The ''[[James Bond (
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels and the re-mastered originals in comparison to the films from [[The Seventies]] and [[The Eighties]]. So... much [[Scenery Porn]]. (Though that is not always the case)
* Ditto for ''[[Star Trek]]'', which has been in near-constant production with films and TV series since the 1970s.
** The Remastered [[Star Trek:
** The [[Star Trek (
** ''[[Star Trek:
* For the first three ''[[
* Commented on in ''[[Death Proof]]'', where Stuntman Mike bemoans the fact that CGI has put stuntmen like him out of work. It's then fully averted in the final act, which features an epic car chase without a single bit of computer imaging.
* The shift from a simple quad bike to a hovering vehicle as the Mule between ''[[Firefly]]'' and ''[[The Movie|Serenity]]''. [[Word of God]] states that the original intention was something similar for the TV show in the first place, but budget constraints wouldn't allow it.
** Also partially explained, in-story, with the original Mule being destroyed in the episode ''War Stories'', and the fancy new one being bought with the proceeds from the sale of the Lassiter.
* The ''[[Godzilla]]'' series has been going on for over fifty years, and started with men is rubber suits smashing miniature cities to men in rubber suits smashing miniature cities done BETTER!
* ''[[Tron
* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'': The newer version uses computer animation as replacements for the stop-motion effects of the 1981 version.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (
** In the first film, the floating candles in the Great Hall were done with wires. In fact, after Quirrell announces the troll in the dungeon, there's a close-up of McGonagall in which you can [[Special Effects Failure|plainly see the wires which the candles are suspended from]]. An accident with a falling candle prompted them to make the switch to CGI candles for safety reasons.
** For the first six films, the Hogwarts exterior was [[Miniature Effects|a large model built at 1/24th scale]]. For ''Deathly Hallows Part 2'', they switched to a CGI version of Hogwarts in order to properly create the Battle of Hogwarts.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[
** Happened quite a few times in the classic series as well. Particularly noticeable in the last four seasons, which featured a large advance in effects from the previous couple of seasons (a lot of which is still convincing today) and some early CGI. The bump may have been even more noticeable had the budget not been slashed following the 18-month hiatus.
*** It happened more times than that as well - the production team was often able to experiment with some fairly early stuff, but tended to overuse it. What seems now to be a [[Special Effects Failure]] was occasionally a
** The new series has a subtle, but visible evolution continually across the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctor's eras.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'', as mentioned above.
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'', being perhaps ''the'' pioneer of CGI effects for TV science fiction, demonstrated this as part of the process of kicking off the use of CGI. And the difference between their earliest effects and those from the [[TV Movie]]s made after the end of the series is still not terribly profound compared to some of the other examples on this page, given the quality requirements the show had to begin with.
* The effects of ''[[Walking
* [[Tokusatsu]] is an obvious example, given that the genre as such (primarily [[Super Sentai]] and the ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' franchise) have been around since the 1970s. Of course, evolution can be found on the small scale too: compare the transformation effects in 2000's ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]'' to the giant monster versus [[Cool Train]] battles in 2007's ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]''.
** It's especially noticeable during a [[Reunion Show]], when you get to see past characters do their favorite attacks with today's technology. When powers from the 70s or 80s show up in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' and ''[[
** Speaking of new looks for the same tricks, there's a ''world'' of difference between mecha and vehicle action between now and the old days. Used to be, heroes' vehicles vs. enemy air force would be the same three or four swooping movements on either side put together different ways. Villain air forces then largely disappeared for ages. Then the moth-vehicles in Go-Onger arrive. Of course, it happened a lot faster for American fans, where the special effects were a bit spiffier. The three-or-four-motion plane fights in [[VR Troopers]] and [[Big Bad Beetleborgs]] give way to ''[[Star Wars]]'' class dogfighting in ''[[Power Rangers in Space]].''
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Extremely noticeable in the ''[[Duke Nukem]]'' series.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Parodied in the ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' episode "The Curse of Invisibo". One moment, the invisible ancient Egyptian is represented by very-obvious wires holding up the magical staff. After an interruption from the narrator, we see the staff floating "on its own" and [[Power Glows|glowing]].
* ''[[Scooby-Doo]]''.
* In the [[DCAU]], the use of conspicuous CGI backgrounds and vehicles (particularly in the animated films) has continued, but is done much better. Compare the Batwing in [[Batman and Mister Freeze Sub Zero]] to the Batwing in [[Batman: Under the Red Hood]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Special Effects]]
[[Category:Spectacle]]
[[Category:
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