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Polar Express (merged) (1 Viewer)

Malcolm R

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I don't know. Computer-generated people just give me the creeps. I don't think I could watch a full-length movie with animated "real" people.
 

Adam_S

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oh WOW!

It seems clear to me after seeing that trailer (I watched it twice, I love how the steam escapes the radiator like awhistle on a train!) that WB will have the two top Grossing films of the year. The only question is, will Harry Potter or Polar Express be bigger?

edit: I forgot about The Incredibles, but I wouldn't be surprised if both grossed similar amounts (ie 280mil plus), it's too bad both are scheduled for November, but I imagine one will take the first week and another will take thanksgiving

Adam
 

Morgan Jolley

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Is this based on the children's book? When I was in 3rd grade, I loved all the books that the author of this one did (he also did Jumanji). Wonderful pictures in those books.
 

Jason Harbaugh

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Wow, they finally figured out that you have to animate natural human quirks/ticks to make them not only look realistic but move realistic. Looks like this could be an incredible movie. I like that the Incredibles is taking a more cartoonish/stylistic approach to the humans since they are both coming out at the same time. Adds variety.
 

Chris Purvis

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This is another book that to me seems pretty hard to stretch into a feature length movie - the book has very little text and it's about a 5 minute story to read.
 

BrianShort

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This is another book that to me seems pretty hard to stretch into a feature length movie - the book has very little text and it's about a 5 minute story to read.
I stopped by the library today and read the whole book on my morning break. You're right, it took all of 5 minutes. Even if you just took the book and made a fairly literal translation (no extra dialogue, just what's there + narration, animation based on individual illustrations in the book), I can't see the movie being much longer than 15 minutes or so.
I'll be very interested to see how they stretch this out into something 80-90 minutes long.
One thing I was struck by as I was looking through the book is how well the CGI animation matches what is in the first few pages of the book.

Brian
 

Morgan Jolley

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The thing I liked about Ice Age so much was that the visual style was very offbeat, more like it was hand-drawn instead of CGI. This movie looks to be the same thing in the opposite way; it looks like art, but not CGI.
 
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I believe this was done like Waking Life -- animated from actual source footage.
WAKING LIFE was not animated... they just digitally painted over each frame of live action footage.

Animation is creating an inanimate object, weather it be on paper, or in a 3d program, and animating it by "hand"

Oh.. and all the CG in POLAR EXPRESS looks great.. exept the humans. I also don't believe they can take a book that short, and stretch it into a feature film.. but we'll see!
 

Steve Felix

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WAKING LIFE was not animated... they just digitally painted over each frame of live action footage. Animation is creating an inanimate object, weather it be on paper, or in a 3d program, and animating it by "hand"
Then this isn't animated either, because they're shooting digital video with motion capture sensors on the actors.
 

Aaron Garman

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I remember this book as a kid and how cool it was. Now, years later, I'm excited for a film based on this book. I loved the visuals in the trailer, so I'm hoping the movie is just the same.

AJG
 

Adam_S

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that's funny I remember this as being the longest 'picture' book ever to read, I think it would take my mom and I nearly thirty to fortyfive minutes to go through it. Of course we were drinking in the glorious art work. We actually have two hardcovers of this, because our first is worn out and my mom bought a new one last year. :)
 

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