■ Movie review
Animations in 'Polar Express'prove scary, not dazzling
Detailed renderings capture the lifelike qualities of
actors in Zemeckis' latest computer-generated creation
BY DAVID GERMAIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
People in Hollywood should never
work with children or animals, W.C.
Fields once said. Maybe that should
be expanded to hyper-realistic com
puter-generated children and rein
deer, too.
As technically dazzling as we're
supposed to believe they are, the
creations in Robert Zemeckis' Christ
mas adventure “The Polar Express”
just don't look right. In fact, most of
the time, they look plain wrong — the
sort of creepy characters more likely
to induce nightmares than visions of
sugar plums.
With his “Forrest Gump” and
“Cast Away” star Tom Hanks provid
ing body movements and voices for
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many key characters, Zemeckis set
out to create a film that stretches the
bounds of computer animation with
detailed digital renderings of the ac
tors through a process called per
formance capture.
Hanks and his co-stars performed
on a bare soundstage, their actions
captured by infrared cameras keyed to
receptors on their faces and bodies.
Zemeckis boasts that the expressions
and body language are so humanly
authentic, the film cannot even be
called animation.
Distributor Warner Bros, disagrees,
having entered “The Polar Express” in
the Academy Awards animated-fea
ture category.
It’s questionable whether the cre
ations of “The Polar Express” are
more emotive than the fairy-tale be
ings of “Shrek” or the superhero cari
catures of “The Incredibles.” When
Shrek's pal Donkey cracks a goofy
grin, you feel it, and grin right back.
When the nameless children of
“The Polar Express” stare you in the
face, they're unsettling, stuck in some
shadowy zone between flesh and fig
ment. They have lifelike parts, but the
pieces fit together rather formlessly,
like the indefinite features of the em
bryonic pod people of “Invasion of
the Body Snatchers.”
And there's something eerie and
dead about these children's eyes,
making them resemble those evil, sto
ic kids of the 1960 horror flick “Village
of the Damned.”
Screenwriter William Broyles Jr.
sticks to the essence of Allsburg’s
plot: A boy (body by Hanks, voice by
Daryl Sahara) lies awake on Christ
mas Eve, pondering whether he still
believes in Santa Claus. Along comes
a train, the Polar Express, stopping in
front of his house to haul him to the
North Pole for Santa’s big send-off.
With the help of a self-assured girl
(Nona Gaye) and a timid boy (body
by Peter Scolari, voice by Jimmy Ben
nett) who's accustomed to Christmas
passing him by, our hero comes to
once again embrace Santa and the
holiday spirit.
Many of the visuals are truly fantas
tic: the remarkable detail of the train,
wolves prowling the woods, an eagle
swooping across mountain peaks.
Yet so much of the action Zemeckis
adds to stretch out a thin storybook is
in service only of the visuals, not the
plot or characters.
The North Pole is a turgid mob
scene, with elves so ominous and off
putting all they need are drabber gar
ments and some scars and lesions to
fit right into the dark army of Mordor
in “The Lord of the Rings. ”
Maybe the pretty pictures and vi
sual commotion will be enough to
satisfy young children.
Book: Secondary characters
contribute little to story line
Continued from page 9
remained just out of his reach.
The Wolf plans mass murder and
destruction in major cities around
the globe, including New York, Paris
and Tel Aviv, unless he is given sev
eral billion dollars and imprisoned
terrorists are released.
Patterson fails to fully develop
any of his characters. The reader
knows the Wolf is evil only because
he kills his friends and blows up
people, not because of any sleek
writing by Patterson.
Instead, Patterson introduces myr
iad secondary characters that do not
contribute to the thrust of the story.
His use of dialect is erratic in that
it is rarely used as Cross interacts
with foreigners, but is occasionally
thrown in for spice. For example, the
Scotland Yard officer in London
screams a British expletive.
There is satisfaction in the out
come of the novel and the cliffhang
ers throughout. Overall, though,
“London Bridges” reads as though
Patterson were trying to overcom
pensate for a higher threshold of fear
because of the Sept. 11, 2001, at
tacks. As a result, many of the
events seem excessive, especially
when one considers real-life threats
from terrorists.
Jones: Scenes from book don't
make an appearance in movie
uuiiuiiucu iiuiii page o
the book don’t appear in the movie.
Thankfully, her mum is still quirky
and ridiculous and her father’s char
acter is less hopeless in this movie.
“Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason”
comes to theaters with well-loved
characters and a wonderfully comedic
story line. Jealousy, breakups, spying,
magic mushrooms and an all-women
Thai prison are found among good
friends, great wine and fabulous shag
ging. And this movie is coming to the
aters earlier than anticipated due to
tremendous response to the early
press and advanced screenings. “Brid
get Jones: Edge of Reason” hits the
aters Nov. 12 (v.g).
amylichty@ dailyemerald, com
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