This article contains Project Hail Mary spoilers.The hype around Project Hail Mary was building for quite a while before its release. Fans of Andy Weir’s bestselling sci-fi novel were very excited to see its big-screen adaptation, which also marks the first feature film directed by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller since 2014’s 22 Jump Street.Ryan Gosling stars in the movie as Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist-turned-middle school teacher who ends up on a quest to save humanity from the root cause of a dimming Sun. As he arrives at Tau Ceti in his spacecraft, the Hail Mary, to investigate why it hasn’t been affected like our Sun and so many other stars, Grace starts to believe he may be able to save the Earth by joining forces with Rocky, a rock-like alien on a similar mission.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Rocky’s lead puppeteer, James Ortiz, was revealed to be the voice of the beloved character just a month before the movie debuted, ending months of speculation and surprising many who had assumed a celebrity would be hired for the role. In a meta moment, the movie cleverly addresses this assumption by having Grace first use his computer to test out Meryl Streep as the voice of Rocky’s translated alien language. Though Grace seems charmed by Streep’s dulcet tones, he ultimately opts for Ortiz, and it’s soon clear why.When celebrities lend their voices to puppets or animated characters, it can be a marketing boon for the studio. But it can also be a distraction. Somewhere in the back of your mind, your suspension of disbelief might have taken a knock because your brain knows that Mario is actually Chris Pratt, or Zendaya is Meechee. With no celebrity voice to distract from Project Hail Mary’s material, we don’t separate newcomer Ortiz from Rocky, and, as a result, we’re deeply affected by Rocky’s upsetting backstory, his dreams of reuniting with his mate, and the harm he suffers after saving Grace from certain death.Social media has been awash with posts from people attending Project Hail Mary screenings, admitting they openly wept about the possible fate of a character who doesn’t even have a humanoid or animal face, and that’s down to the extraordinary puppeteering and voice work behind Rocky, who seems just as real as Gosling himself. Having been physically on set with the Barbie actor as he puppeteered, Ortiz’s delivery is heartfelt and touching, even when his lines end with “question” or “statement,” as the computer’s translation of the alien’s context dictates.It takes you back to the time when artists like Jim Henson and Frank Oz would more regularly voice big characters rather than A-list actors, which is no accident — Rocky was designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop alum Neal Scanlan, and his VFX company built all the Rocky puppets in Project Hail Mary. Scanlan and Ortiz worked together throughout the film’s production to bring Rocky to life onscreen, and Ortiz told Inverse that he initially asked Neal for directions. “He said, ‘No, no, no, James. Think of it like this: You’re Frank Oz, and I’m making Yoda for you.’”Ultimately, Project Hail Mary uses the same techniques to make Rocky feel so alive that Oz, Henson and co. used with the likes of the Muppets, Sesame Street, The Empire Strikes Back, or The Dark Crystal, proving that the old ways can still be the best ways. Lord, Miller, Scanlan, and Ortiz really dropped the mic on this one.The post Rocky’s Voice Decision Makes Project Hail Mary Even More Brilliant appeared first on Den of Geek.