| Show Hop Aboard the Polar Express Express' Desson Thomson The Washington Post An almost eerie adherence to Chris Van s original storybook makes The Polar Express feel at first like a clinical operation So what you think to yourself if they can perfectly replicate the images in the book with computer graphics Wheres Where's the life But almost immediately this movie takes hold of you Somewhere amid those computer- computer generated pixels there is life liveliness and magic Much of that zest comes from Tom Hanks who plays five of the principal parts More on this in a sec Thanks to toa toa toa a process called performance capture his movements expressions gestures voice the whole instrument instrument voice basically basically acting ment that is have Hanks been regenerated ed into digital characters via hug body ging motion sensors The same process is true for the rest lest of the ensemble which includes talented performers Leslie Harter Nona Gaye Eddie and Peter The result is almost hypnotic You are watching perfect representations of live actors yet they are artificial There is life in the machine and machine in these lives They are moving beings unto them them- selves Dancing in a fascinating intersection intersection intersection tion between real and computerized Its It's as if the bedside book itself became animated animated animated ani ani- mated started talking to you its characters characters characters charac charac- sitting up from the flat page and I J t J i r 3 Tom o Hanks provides voice and movement for five characters in the Polar Express becoming three Well indeed that's exactly what has happened A small boy one of Hanks' Hanks six roles but voiced by Daryl Sabara Sahara from the Spy Kids movies known in the story as Hero Boy has his doubts about Santa Claus Claus' existence He can smell the intrigue of his parents parents parents par par- who are doing their best to enthuse the kids for the fat mans man's arrival Right around midnight of Christmas Day he is stirred by the roar of a train coming to a rumbling halt outside his snowbound house He runs out to Sees a large black train that has stopped for him The conductor Hanks asks him if hes he's coming aboard Destination The North Pole After a little trepidation the boy realizes he cant can't contain his curiosity ty nor his desire to remain innocent and to believe He hops aboard still in Ii F p b. b V T r J JI j c eLv Jr t q 1 I v vi i 4 r. r A small boy meets Santa Claus in the Polar Express and slippers He meets other children aboard Hero Girl Gaye It All Boy and joining them a stop later Lonely Boy And when he makes a heroic attempt to retrieve Hero Girls Girl's lost ticket on the roof of the moving train he also meets the ghostly Hobo Hanks who rides above and below the train Their shared experiences onboard with the benevolent mysterious conductor tor who punches individualized messages messages messages mes mes- sages on their tickets in the North Pole with Santa and his virtual civilization of helpers then on the return leg make a compelling adventure Director Robert who adapted adapt adapt- ed this with William Broyles Jr has blazed an inventive path for 20 years with Back to the Future Who Framed Roger Rabbit Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump Tf T-Tf Here J r h hp he has hc done it it h again 0 There are some breathtaking breathtaking scenes such as the one in which Hero Girls Girl's lost ticket flies out of the train then takes a fluttery serendipitous route that includes getting stuck under the wheels swooping swooping swooping swoop swoop- ing down an arctic ravine and even landing landing landing land land- ing temporarily in a birds bird's nest before getting sucked back into the train And theres there's a wonderful interlude on a frozen where the train is confronted confront confront- ed by an enormous herd of caribou that simply wont won't budge These moments richly detailed and always surprising make for a truly satisfying satisfying satisfying satis satis- holiday y picture the kind everyone can enjoy and which may even restore a little lost childhood in many adult view view- ers You cant can't ask for much more |
