Rocket and Groot Influenced Dr. Strange
It’s no surprise that 14 films in a singular universe would lead to the various films actually influencing one another. From action scenes, to crossover characters, and more, it’s hard not to draw inspiration from one film and use it in another.
A great example of this is the recent Doctor Strange. In the film, the titular Doctor Strange receives his iconic cloak from the Sanctum Sanctorum. However, unlike in the comics, the cloak is actually alive and sentient. Which lead to some fun uses for the cloak, and some great comedy. Turns out, this was done because of what was done with Rocket Raccoon and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Stephane Ceretti, head of visual effects for the film as well as GOTG, talked about how it came to happen with IGN:
“For most of the cloak shots we used the same company that did Rocket on Guardians,” he said, “because we knew that we wanted the cloak to be a real character. They had done amazing work with Rocket on Guardians so we used them for that. I think it turned out pretty well.”
Another interesting thing she noted was that the effects for the film were at times “too much” and thus they had to put themselves in check and see if it was really needed:
“There’s always stuff that we say, O.K., that’s taking away too much from the characters and the story so let’s just back off a little bit,” he explained. “Like initially the effects on the astral projection were very strong. We had lots of effects happening on the bodies and on the faces and everything and the more we looked into it the more we thought, ‘O.K., that’s too much.’ We have these great actors and these great characters and the last thing we want is to take away from their performance and the storytelling by putting effects on top of them that is going to distract everybody. It’s always about finding that right balance between the effects and the story and the characters and the actors and making sure that everything gels together and does not take the audience away from the film. In the end, it’s the story that counts. We’re there to serve it. We’re not there to take over.”
Doctor Strange is in theaters now, and be sure to check out our review of the film!