All Aboard 'The Polar Express!'
I read a review of The Polar Express comparing the look of the film to illustrations in old children's books, the ones that, for certain generations, bring back warm and much-cherished memories, and while the movie didn't exactly knock my socks off like I expected it would, this is exactly what it looks like, and that kind of aesthetic appeal can go a long way. It is famously the first film using the innovative new motion capture photography technique, where real actors are filmed wearing little sensors on their face and body, so that their actual visages can be animated right into the movie for a level of computer animated realism like nothing we've seen before. And it works.The story involves an urgent Christmas-time emergency. A young boy lies quietly in his bed on Christmas Eve, as the story begins, and pores over doubts in his mind about the existence of Santa Claus. Enter The Polar Express, a magical train designed for just such an emergency. The conductor (one of I think five separate roles played by Tom Hanks), in one of the film's finest moments, calmly urges the astonished boy, "I think you should get on the train."
There are definite roller coaster moments which, for all of the movie's thematic cleverness, remind us periodically that this is meant to be a good ride, thrilling us with the stomach-turning train travel as much as with the brilliant animation and entirely new form of acting. What I love about the movie is that it doesn't give us a sugary confection when we get to the North Pole.
Santa is not jolly old St. Nick here, he's a businessman with a lot of employees. Tiny employees, but also not cute little elves either. Even the reindeer look like real animals, that grunt and snort and, gasp, may even have bodily functions! This is a Christmas movie that is not only more technologically advanced, but more mature.There were a few points in the movie where I felt that the Conductor was a little on the abrasive side, sometimes even a little mean. I appreciate that the movie doesn't shoot for your traditional Christmas movie, opting instead to add some excitement and even be a little scary, but at some times the effort to do this became a little transparent and we get something where the conductor just comes off as a jerk. Nevertheless, he has an excellent character arc, especially when you realize at the end what he has accomplished with that harsh behavior.
Besides, I should also mention that the most persistently unrealistic aspect of the movie was the fact that our hero, a young boy, spends the vast majority of the movie running around in his pajamas on the outside of the train as it sped through the snowy landscape. Even I felt cold.But I should mention that it is ironically because of things like the Conductor's attitude that the movie is so watchable, and re-watchable. I've heard some people worry about what this new method of capturing performances will mean in the future (I know that some people are, for some reason, worried that actors will some day literally be able to "phone-in" their performances), although that doesn't exactly strike me as a valid concern. It seems like an addition to the art, rather than a corruption. Either way, it's a great holiday movie and a pretty exciting ride!
The Bean Meter
