Der Polarexpress

The Polar Express delivered me all the way back to childhood and my own faith in Santa Claus at the age of five. I could not only hear the bells, I could see his sleigh in the night sky. Chris Van Allsburg is to be commended for writing an excellent fantasy and Tom Hanks for conducting the wonder tour to beat them all. The special effects are just outstanding, the story line credible and heartwarming. The characters are believable and utterly charming. The children depicted are our own. I would recommend this film to any and all who love Christmas and remember what it is to believe. The experience of watching makes you a participant, breathless to see what comes next. I can hardly wait to view it on IMAX and am taking my entire family, including seven grandchildren to the Tulsa Cinemark this season. Let's hope we see more of this quality venue in months and years to come.

Directed by veteran Robert Zemeckis, It is a production that unveils, throughout its 100 minutes, the story of an American boy in the late 1950s. By witnessing the polar express stop at his door, the young man will have the most fantastic experience of his life. Life, something that will mark him forever and allow his belief in Christmas, not as firm as one would expect for a child, to become even more solid. Initially reticent, the young man agrees to leave on the train that takes him on a tour full of incredible adventures. Each piece of territory crossed is a different learning experience, marked by its still incipient trajectory. He fights with Scrooge, the famous evil Christmas spirit, immortalized by the literature of Charles Dickens, passes by the famous Polar Aurora, a place with the optical phenomenon due to the brightness observed in the night skies of the polar regions, due to the impact of particles of solar wind with the high atmosphere of the earth, channeled by the magnetic field of our planet, that is, an impressive visual spectacle that leaves no one indifferent.

In the face of conflicts, as it is worth mentioning, the boy no longer believes in Santa Claus, the narrative becomes an allegory for the need to believe and invest in the "so" Christmas spirit. We check with some resistance, because the foot in reality does not allow us to surrender too much to the utopias proposed by the American cinematographic discourse. However, one of the "tasks" of art is precisely to allow us to clarify reality through fictional proposals, thus, the ticket to enter the world of Zemecks film is "bought" by all those who indulge in the charms of art. Narrative that unfolds before our eyes, a set of scenes built using visually incredible resources.

Zemeckis's filmography is known for playing with the ludic, and here it is no different. The script to be well digested by the viewer needs to be seen as a story about magic and aborted beliefs. Alan Silvestri's music helps to punctuate this feeling that life in the eyes of a child is more beautiful, even if that child no longer believes in legendary figures, as is the case with the central character. In "The Polar Express" we have a short, simple and objective plot. The director's intention was never to create a work of art in the plot with this film, but to prove that you can rescue barbaric feelings and emotions with the Christmas theme. Now imagine Tom Hanks facing five different roles in the same film. Imagine? Something very crazy to think about, mainly because the "motion capture" technique (technique used to make the character Gollum from the series "The Lord of the Rings, for example) was used, which captured all of Hanks' movements and transferred them to the computer, mixing reality and animation, fantasy and flesh and blood beings. The actor plays a boy who does not believe in the Christmas spirit, his father, a locomotive driver, a stroller and Santa Claus himself. It is a versatility never seen in the world of movie theaters.

This technique was used in a magnificent way for the sake of narrative. To get an idea of what was done, all the actors in the film acted in front of an empty screen, with motion capture sensors attached throughout their bodies. The data from these sensors were passed on to computers and served as a template for the creation of the character in the film itself. As these sensors were responsible for capturing movements and facial expressions, the actors did not necessarily have to have the same body as the character. This allowed Hanks to play five different characters. And look, it was not easy to shape all of his expressions, so much so that the work lasted almost a year. The interesting thing was to see Steven Tyler, vocalist of the band Aerosmith, as Elf singing a song at the end of the film. Very funny! They managed to capture the essence of their appearance (big mouth and ears)!

The film makes use of a very new advent for its time, and at least the main character is very excited. Already adults and peripheral child characters are astonishing to look at. This is thanks to the concept of Uncanny Valley, which preaches that figures that imitate human beings when they approach what man is become strange. The dialogues and interactions are quite artificial, but not as much as the attempts to make musical numbers. The waiters who serve the wagons are so tough that they look like imitations of androids. This issue is somewhat appeased by the parties involving animals running, flying and interacting with the typical things in the scenarios. Wolves and eagles represent more than just animals typical of North American fauna, and result in representatives of the work's sense of adventure. The criticisms received at the time of the launch, stoning the flesh-and-bone characters, their lackluster movement, their rubberized look and their glazed eyes, forgot the most important component of any short story: simplicity and narrative poetry.

And although the visual is the only really negative point of this technique, like ignoring the perfection of Zemeckis's camera, it went through, following in the smallest details the movement of a lost golden ticket and the travellings that lead us nimbly in and out of the train, especially during the free fall on the tracks and crossing the thin ice? The option for elegant frames also stands out, and the counter-plongée, which accompanies the little boy's belief through the frozen floor, not only dignifies the moment but anticipates the arrival of Santa Claus. Meanwhile, the photograph by Don Burgess and Robert Presley is breathtaking - as shown in the image below -, and the intense gold of the train ticket or the lighting of the bonfire on the face of a Beggar, the angel presents in the vast majority of people. Christmas stories, is enough to make a beautiful Christmas story shine.

At the end of the projection, we were left with the feeling that Zemeckis achieved his goal, of combining technology and magic in the same product. He, who is admittedly one of the directors who most seek to develop and perfect techniques and technologies, ends up creating a plastically flawless film, transposing to the screen with admirable perfection the engravings from Allsburg's book. Zemeckis also creates practically unimaginable plans and sequences, in a brutal effort to want to innovate. Zemeckis also loves to make references to other films. This time, he made the children's classic "The Fantastic Chocolate Factory", starring Gene Wilder. The ticket that gives access to the train is golden, just like in the classic movie. In addition to similarities like the big chocolate factory, the gift factory or even the driver with the funny Willy Wonka.

Assuming a metalinguistic tone on purpose - the Conductor, one of the characters voiced by Tom Hanks, refers sensibly to abandoned toys - and accidentally - Ebenzer Scrooge's puppet would serve as a mold some years later for the personification of the classic character by Jim Carey, O Polar Express culminates in the detail plan of a hand bell, which is much more than the complete proof of the fantastic journey, it is the true Christmas spirit within each one of us. The inner child who screams and cries out for the sincere remembrance of his attachment to the beautiful illusion of the good old man, of the communion of gifts and brotherly love, whose sound materializes in the tinkling of the bell at the ear of the, now adult, little boy.

On the other hand, it is noticeable that the biggest problem of The Polar Express is not so much its innovative and uncomfortable aspect - something crucial for a Christmas plot - and its plot, common and obvious. The protagonist is a boy who is starting to stop believing in Santa Claus. He is growing up, and with that, forgetting the magic of childhood. The events in The Polar Express take place in a very traditional and unoriginal way. There are not many news or discoveries: everything goes very smoothly, without scares or surprises. The few moments of suspense and tension soon dissipate, and normality then dictates the course of action again. The impression is that he devoted a lot of time to the appearance of the film and very little to the development of the script.

The film itself looks more like a roller coaster. You will have fun watching the ups and downs of the trip, with exciting moments and action sequences where the beauty of the most magical time of the year is paramount, while others are strange and out of place, like the setting of children singing songs. At least when the final season arrives, the home of Santa Claus, the magical character is rescued with a sequence of events that show the intimacy of the elven officials, including the architecture of miniature houses since they are small. There comes a moment in the film that is surreal to imagine that a boy can walk on top of a moving train, but it does not bother you because you are already involved in the fantasy atmosphere provided by the characters.

The care with the visuals of sets and costumes of the inhabitants of the magical place breaks the skepticism of the central character of The Polar Express too much, and this is certainly a film that has a lot of audacity, being a pioneer in many points that would become quite common in children's productions. And adults later on. The movement capture technique, new at the time, brings to the film the combination of "real images" and animation, in one of the most surprising Christmas cinematic experiences in the history of cinema. In addition, The Polar Express is a very, very beautiful and careful film with its theme, even if the story could have denser characters and conflicts to make the experience even more unforgettable. Still, it is a beautiful production about friendship and how we should, without being too deluded, cultivate our dreams, with a view to making our existence more bearable.

The animation may not hold up quite as well 15 years later, but this one still has a lot of heart and magic behind it to make it stay in the Christmas rotation.

A simple story . . . beautifully told . . . magnificently visualized.

The IMAX experience was stunning.

I did not expect to enjoy the story as much as I did. Simple but quite heartwarming.

Although it started a bit slow, it continued to gain momentum (no train analogy intended) through its conclusion. I was not a great lover of the animation of the human characters, but the other animation, whether it be the train, the scenery, the reindeer, or the elves (are elves human?) was quite well done.

Perhaps the best review I can provide is that after I watched the Polar Express, I just felt happier.

There is a fleeting moment in THE POLAR EXPRESS where the title vehicle passes a department store with an elaborate Christmas display in the window. Everyone is excited by the sight, especially the story's protagonist, "Hero Boy," until he sees the mechanical gears that reveal the display's Santa Claus to be a machine. That's the problem with THE POLAR EXPRESS, it is a splendid, wildly inventive machine, but it keeps on reminding us that it, quite literally, lacks a human face.

Based on Chris Van Allsburg's slight but textured children's book, the film attempts to capture that book's subtle, albeit dark, visual tone. And for the most part the filmmakers do a stunning job. The artwork and animation, done largely with computers, is rich and detailed and often about as close to lifelike as any animation that I have ever seen. Therefore it is ironic that the remarkably high standards the film sets with most of the animation and artwork only serves to highlight the other aspects of the art that do fail so jarringly. The train, the snow, the sweeping landscapes and even the animals such as wolves and reindeer are all so incredibly meticulous in detail and movement, that it only makes the failure of the artists to replicate the human characters all the more startling and disappointing. The human beings in the story seem trapped in a limbo, being neither quite cartoon and certainly not quite human.

It is strange that the animators do an outstanding job of recreating skin texture and coloring and even the various subtleties of hair, but can't quite recreate the most revealing aspect of being human, the eyes. The mouth movements are disappointing too, but it is the eyes that are, well, just plain creepy. Like the characters in Japanese anime or the sad orphans painted on black velvet, these characters have eyes that have a cold, spookiness to them. They are a mild, if unrelenting, distraction in some scenes, but they quietly spoil many of the major moments where the film strives for an emotional intimacy. It is a serious problem when you literally don't want to look a character in the eye, especially if the character is a child.

The film uses a technology called "performance capture," wherein an actor actually gives a three-dimensional performance which is recorded digitally by a computer, to then be manipulated into animated art. Performance capture is an extension of CGI and, as used in films like THE LORD OF THE RINGS, further blurs the line between what is animation and what is special effects. The process seems to work fairly well as far as body movement goes; the animated characters move with genuine lifelike grace that is far superior to previous attempts, such as the animated action sequences in SPIDER-MAN or THE HULK. Indeed, a dance sequence involving a band of hyperkenetic waiters is a showstopper. But the process just does not work as far as detailing facial features.

Cartoon humans from Elmer Fudd to Fred Flintstone are more simplistic, yet more human than the waxworks faces in THE POLAR EXPRESS. Their cartoonishness gives them a personality that is missing from the POLAR EXPRESS characters. I suppose that as the technology progresses, the ability to create totally believable human faces will be achieved to some credible degree. But the question is why? It's like making vanilla wafers with artificial flavoring; why seek a substitute for something natural and superior.

The director of THE POLAR EXPRESS is Robert Zemeckis, a clever and skilled craftsman whose work includes the brilliant WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, a film that blends real and cartoon images wonderfully. THE POLAR EXPRESS would have been so much better had they followed the lead of ROGER RABBIT and, like SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, merged high-tech trickery with the simple honesty of the human face. Repeatedly throughout THE POLAR EXPRESS, I found myself wishing certain scenes were featuring real actors; I can't think of any other time where I thought a cartoon would be better as live action.

Despite its optimistic Yuletide moral about the power of believing and its child's eye view of the world, the film really isn't a kids movie. THE POLAR EXPRESS has a Twilight Zone quality to it; not unlike the many versions of A CHR1STMAS CAROL or IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The film is dark, and even in its most upbeat moments the story and the storytelling are strangely subdued. Not quite brooding or grim, but far from joyful. While obviously directing the film towards children, the filmmakers don't seem to understand kids. Little things are telling, like failing to give the characters names other than generic titles, like Hero Boy, Lonely Boy, Hero Girl, Know-It-All, etc. Such a lame literary device as reducing a character to a nameless symbolic entity is lost on children; they want to know people's names. Children can't relate to nameless, faceless characters. Neither can adults for that matter. Humans have names, and for that matter so do cartoon characters.

Though it is seriously flawed, THE POLAR EXPRESS is still a remarkable effort, visually stunning and ultimately even emotionally rewarding. But no amount of artistic talent can capture the simple beauty or honesty of a living child's face; it may have been folly for the filmmakers to even try.