DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Polar Express - Two Disc Widescreen Edition (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

You know it's funny, whenever I think of modern attempts at new classic christmas songs I always go back to Scrooged as one that didn't work for me but some love it.....on the other hand I really like most of the songs from the Albert Finney film Scrooge, particularly Christmas Children & December The Twenty Fifth, while others hate the songs in that...(shrugs shoulders).


I like Life
Like likes Me
Me & Life fairly fully agree...


BTW, very interesting article Jeremy.

I have certain reactions to things of this nature depending on the context I suppose, for example I absolutely despise digitally enhanced talking babies, the distant innocent look of the toddlers faces paired with the highly animated mouth is definitely what I define as "creepy".....others find this effect charming. I guess if I were to offer a really close example of what the PE creepy girl factor feels like to me, the Burger King commercials might come fairly close....but PE girl is not nearly as disturbed looking.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Ha ha ha...I can think of quite a few adjectives to describe the baby in Eraserhead. However, "cute" is not at the top of the list.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Since when can't you capture "human performances" (whatever they are) through animation without resorting to the technique used in PE? I submit the acting performaces in Toy Story 1 & 2 (both featuring PE's own Mr. Hanks) as proof that you can have a stylized artistic technique that is not an attempt to create "human" characters and yet achieve "human performances".

AND, who says you need 'em, anyway? I would have liked a greater effort to capture the Van Alsberg style than the unusual techniques used in this film to achieve that "human" quality. If we have to swallow that Tom Hanks voice is coming out of every other character's mouth because it is the kid's dream and all adults sound like Tom Hanks to him...why can't the kid dream of "real people in real situations" in an animated style. We can't have it both ways here.

Like Kevin, I feel the need to keep reminding people that I liked the film. The story touched me. I just think it could have been better realized.

 

[Kevin M]

No one said that the appearance of the characters was 100% realistic....however the facial movements, the exact facial movements, are (as close as the technology allows anyway) and it seems that when the stylised partially realistic oil renderings were matched with the exact facial movements of the actors....something translated through the "animation" which registered in certain peoples minds (subconsciously or not) and became off putting. The same thing can happen with rotoscopeing, you know when you are watching a roto animation and it seems slightly "off" from the rest of the stylised animation.
Same thing here but at a more instinctive level....that's my theory anyway.


In regards to the DVD....oh, yeah..the DVD...I imagine it is quite fantastic looking but I agree that the 3D version will be hard to beat, such an interesting experience in it's own right.