The Polar Express is streaming on Amazon Prime this holiday season if you’d like to experience some childhood nostalgia … or a nightmare before Christmas.Robert Zemeckis' computer-animated feature, based on the 1986 Caldecott Award-winning book by Chris Van Allsburg, is an extraordinary achievement, which isn't the same as being an extraordinary film. This may contribute to our inability to relate to them and also makes the fact that Tom Hanks voices five separate roles all the more confusing. When the kids finally arrive at the North Pole and meet Santa, he gives off a haunting glow.ĭiscussing the plot of the movie is actually quite difficult when you realize that none of the main characters have names. Things become even more alarming when we get a better look at the train’s journey - filled with near-death ice accidents, lost tickets, and a person skiing on the roof. It’s hard to ignore the fact that the movie centers around a grown train conductor taking kids in the middle of the night, without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Perhaps that’s why the film - spanning one hundred minutes - has such a questionable plot, with jarring twists and dramatic dilemmas. The Polar Express writers faced quite the challenge as they sought to transform a succinct picture book into a full-length movie. So many lifeless eyes.” The train takes a ride straight through uncanny valley
A fan on Reddit asked the community, “Why did you find the Polar Express creepy?” Their post quickly garnered many responses, with one fan summing things up nicely: “The CGI for the most part. It wasn’t just movie buffs taking offense at the awkward animation. After struggling to describe what made the animated characters so eerie, the author finally realized that observing the actions of the movie’s main crew was “like watching animals dressed in skin.”
These earnings are undoubtedly impressive, but its early reviews give a different picture of the film’s overall success.Ī review from CNN told readers that the movie was “at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying.” Although the author was quick to praise more technical aspects, like the soundtrack and action sequences, the human characters were the weak point.Īn article from The Guardian shared similar sentiments as they recounted cinema’s biggest CGI fails. It raked in $183.37 million at the box office, making it one of the highest-grossing Christmas movies of all time. Fans were thrilled by the promise of new technology and flocked to the theaters for its wintry debut. The 2004 release was IMAX’s first full-length, animated 3D feature.
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