Movies are the natural home of dream sequences. What else are movies themselves but the dreams of artists made real? And using everything from actors to animatronics, CGI to miniatures, directors can put anything they can imagine in front of you, just like your own mind can in a dream regardless of physics, the passage of time, visual and emotional content or logic.

The modeling and concepting done by Nicholson’s team was all early-stage production. Most of the animating was done according to his work in the 6-9 month after his part in Gravity was already over, which meant anything they sent to the animators had to be rock solid.

Blockbuster cinema has morphed into a soulless, clanging gallery of CGI, thin characters and endless marketing tie-ins that just make cynics of us all. When studios invest more in animation software than stories and writers, try to spread the cost by enlisting armies of licensing partners and product placement, no wonder the results are getting blander.