Was The Giraffe In The Last Of Us CGI?
By Mia Tucker
As for the scene's potency, series creator Craig Mazin even admitted during the "Inside the Episode" that the moment is so strong in "The Last of Us" video game, he changed almost nothing in adapting it. Still, some fans initially claimed they felt the CGI used to create the giraffe was obvious to the point of distraction. And yes, they were pretty gobsmacked when "The Last of Us" team chimed in on the series' official Reddit page to assure fans it was, in fact, a real giraffe.
Upon learning the truth, u/dmbwannabe was among the first to go full face-palm, admitting, "I feel so dumb right now. Because my only criticism of the episode was the giraffe didn't look real enough to me. Nope. It's a real giraffe." Meanwhile, u/lilbug19 was surprised at the truth largely because they thought the CGI giraffe looked great, posting, "my husband and I were like damn the cgi on that giraffe is really good! I feel dumb." And u/Arklytte was kicking themselves in their critique largely because they've seen giraffes up close before.
Elsewhere, u/BrettEskin savvily points out the problem likely wasn't that the giraffe looked fake, but everything around it did, commenting, "I think bc everything else was CGI in the scene it made the giraffe look odd." Whatever the case, with the debate settled, we can now just sit back and bask in the beauty of one of most memorable scenes in the entire first season of "The Last of Us."
