10 Best CGI Movie Characters Ever

7. Davy Jones - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

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First appearing in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie – 2006’s Dead Man’s Chest – Davy Jones managed to do what all great CGI characters should do. He had you second guessing whether or not this really was a computer-generated being.

At first glance – and even to this day – many would presume that Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones was a creation of practical effects and prosthetics. There’s that sense of physical realism to Davy that has you thinking of classics such as The Thing and Alien, and there’s not even the slightest whiff of shoddy CGI to the character.

You have to remember that this is a movie that was released back in 2006, which was a time where CGI was still finding its feet and often churning out some truly horrendous sights. But to the credit of those involved in Dead Man’s Chest, Davy Jones looks just as breathtakingly brilliant today as the character did 13 years ago.

Industrial Light and Magic was rightly awarded an Academy Award in 2006 for its work on Dead Man’s Chest, and a large part of that recognition was down to the sheer brilliance of what the company had done with Davy Jones.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.