A Brief History of Movie Special Effects

Young Sherlock Holmes — CGI
It won't come as a surprise that the earliest adopters of CGI were some of sci-fi's greatest films. Yet while Star Wars, Star Trek and Tron were all early adopters of CGI effects, it is Steven Spielberg and Pixar (a part of Lucasfilm at the time) who are credited with the very first realistic yet fully CGI-animated character, seen in 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes. Known as the "stained-glass man," the knight comes to life for a 30-second sword fight that took six months to produce.

• James Cameron's Best Special Effects