Man I love this stuff. I wish we did more practical effects work in today’s films. Can you imagine how good stuff would work with real models and today’s digial compositing technology? Call me a softie for some of the old technologies, but I really think sometimes the old model work looks better.
On the other hand, hearing them talk about how long and how much work some of these shots took is pretty amazing too and you can’t blame filmmakers to some extent for embracing the digital revolution.