Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Capone's look at THE POLAR EXPRESS, which showed at the Chicago Film Festival. That lucky bastard got to see it with Zemeckis and Hanks there in person. He's got a rather unique look at the film, an opinion that might turn some people off, but Santa really is depicted in a Hitler-esque way, then this could very well be my favorite movie of all time... especially if the rest of the film is a standard Christmas spirit kiddie flick! Anyway, on with Capone!
Hey, all. Capone in Chicago here. So the closing night of the Chicago Film Festival this year was THE POLAR EXPRESS. The screening was preceded by a nice career achievement award for and tribute to Robert Zemeckis, hosted by Tom Hanks. Tom had some great stories about Zemeckis and said some very kind things about Chicago in his remarks, and paid particular tribute to Siskel and Ebert, without whom few of us (including me) would be here today. What about the film?, you ask. Read on...
Alright, this is a tough film to review, and here's why. I always feel a little bit bad bashing a film that has the best and most innocent intentions. Not that I was planning on bashing the latest offering from Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis (FORREST GUMP; CASTAWAY), because there's a lot here to like. There are also a couple aspects of THE POLAR EXPRESS (based on the very popular book by Chris Van Allsburg and adapted by Zemeckis) that freaked me out a little, just a little, not in the same way that last year's PETER PORN...er, I mean PAN...did, but freaked me out none the less.
The easy-to-follow story centers on a boy who is on the verge of believing that Santa Claus isn't real. He doesn't find it nearly as hard to sleep on Christmas Even as he did when he was younger and it's clear that his disillusionment bothers him. Just as he begins to drift off to sleep, the earth begins to shake and get a lot louder as the Polar Express pulls up almost to his front door. A conductor who bears a strong resemblence to Tom Hanks (as do many of the characters in the film) urges the boy to board the train, which is filled with other children in much the same predicament as our young hero. The train is headed directly for the North Pole, but along the way the train encounter all sorts of natural disasters, such as tracks that disappear into a lake of ice, terrible weather, and route that sometimes resembles a roller coaster (actually this effect is used way too many times, but it still looks cool).
THE POLAR EXPRESS is the kind of film that is very easy to get caught up in. There are visuals here in the entirely CGI-created world that look so life-like as to take your breath away. But the film also makes excellent use of the flexibility afforded it by being an animated film. There are some fantastic creations here, including an ghost-like hobo who lives on top of the train, a singing-waiter dance sequence, and of course the ultimate spectacle: the North Pole itself. If you aren't sold on this film up the point where the train riders first spot the pole, the sights and sounds of the Christmas city ought to do the trick. But this is also the point in the story where things got weird for me. Okay, I loved all of the behind the scenes stuff at the pole: the endless assembly lines of toys, the seemingly countless thousands of elves running around, the oversized satchel of wrapped presents. But the spectacle that Zemeckis and his animators create around the arrival of Santa Claus is one that Leni Riefenstahl herself would have been proud of. I know you all think I'm nuts for seeing it this way, but wait until you get a load of this unveiling of the Big Man. The elves aren't happy-go-lucky dudes anymore; they're cultists waiting for even the slightest glimpse of Santa, who may or may not bestow the smallest gift to one lucky child. There are banners, lights, uniforms, cheering crowds. This is an assembly built around a cult of personality figurehead. I'm not saying this about Santa or Christmas in general; I'm talking about this movie. And I'm not even saying its poorly done or that it shouldn't have been done this way. It's completely and totally effective. I got caught up in the mob mentality for sure. The scenes of the North Pole in all its regalia are spectacular and worth the price of admission. It was just a little...weird to see it presented this way. Maybe I'm crazy; tell me if I am.
I know the look of some of the characters as seen in the trailers for this film are a bit waxy or robotic, but after a while, you don't notice this as much. At times, especially with some of the child characters, the look is so lifelike, it fools you for a minute. And the fact that Hanks takes on so many of the voice roles, including that of the boy's father (which is kind of a clue to the overall dreamlike quality of the story), adds a nice comfy feeling to the proceedings. But since the film's singular mission is to restore our belief in the magic of Christmas, I'll go right ahead and declare it mission accomplished.
Capone
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