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When I walked out of my screening of Disclosure Day with my husband, sister and brother-in-law, there were two main things we wanted to talk about. First, did Disclosure Day’s ending stick the landing? Secondly, how did we feel about the CGI animals? Personally, I felt they had an uncanny valley feel that put me off in the moments they appeared onscreen, but the Internet is a lot more defensive of the animated creatures than I would have guessed.
Note: Some minor spoilers for Disclosure Day can be found in this article!
A lot of people went to see Steven Spielberg’s latest summer adventure when it hit the 2026 movie release schedule this weekend, and it ended up making nearly $93 million at the box office globally, and $44 million domestically. Which subsequently means people had a lot of thoughts about the CGI animals that were prominent in the Disclosure Day trailer and the other marketing leading up to the film’s release.
What I was a little surprised about was the number of social media users who thought the animals worked. Not as a concept, but as the exact type of creatures aliens would turn themselves into if they were trying to entrance kids into submitting to a medical experiment. It's honestly an interesting take, and one I hadn't considered.
- Zach Leslie: “I totally get this, but Disclosure Day is the only time I give the CG animals a pass. Feels like something trying to present as an animal, which is what is happening in the story, so it works for me.”
- Gaz: “I will also add that they were never meant to be real animals, they are what's known as ‘screen projections’ that aliens do and any experiencer will know there is always something ‘off’ about them. That was genius on Spielberg's part.”
- Kingly: “If this is about Disclosure Day I also think it's rather compelling that these are literally not animals and are effects to disguise themselves.”
- Gentleman Doofus: “Another note on DISCLOSURE DAY. It’s very satisfying the way that, like THE IRISHMAN, limitations in effects—specifically the CGI animals and the chintzy Thomas Kinkade house—can be completely justified by the larger text of the film."
Of course, some people are calling out the deer and the fox and the other CGI animals peppered throughout the movie as “uncomfortable” or even “dreadful.” Now that I’m looking at them through the lens of the aliens trying to be as cute as possible and not as realistic as possible, I guess I'm a little less freaked out. A little.
There is one exception: That one scene where all the deer are standing outside the window of the old farmhouse making eye contact with Emily Blunt’s character. I’m pretty sure in that case, those creatures were meant to be real deer and not deer in disguise. I get why Spielberg couldn’t hire deer and train them all to stare at Emily Blunt, which lends more credence to the use of animation for the animals. It's a point in the film where this take from a lot of movie viewers just doesn’t full wash for me.
I’m not sure Disclosure Day will end up on the list of the best science fiction films of all time, but I do appreciate all of the spirited discourse on the movie so far. CinemaBlend’s own Kelly Bambrick loved it, and you can read her full take on why the latest Spielberg film works.
