Cool News
New POLAR EXPRESS Trailer Online Now!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Hey, check it out!! IT’S A VERY FINAL FANTASY CHRISTMAS, or, as I like to call it, DEAD EYES AT THE NORTH POLE.
I hope the story and the performances are magical, because so far, I’m creeped out by all the corpses that seem to be starring in this thing.
CHECK OUT THE NEW TRAILER HERE!!
"Moriarty" out.
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They should have done this more like Pixar's doin it with the Incredibles. A lil' more comic-y. Animation of "real people" still sux. But the music is really the MOST annoying thing bout this preview. PASS!
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I don't know, this looks really sappy, and weird to be honest. But it's Zemeckis, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Not sure if this is the next step in animation or a one-off though.
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Yeah, Cast Away wasn't as nausea-inducing as Forrest Gump, but it was a half hour too long and didn't need the Helen Hunt material (Man against Nature was enough). I hope to high heaven this doesn't somehow become a runaway hit and win Oscars or something--especially the animated one which Miyazaki will probably deserve. As I said in the Terminal talkback, I can't stand Hanks at his most heartwarming. Robert Zemeckis appears unable to make a film without some kind of gimmick (even What Lies Beneath was Harrison Ford Is A Bad Man, plus the impotent Hitchcock aspirations), and they always try way too hard. He's like Spielberg's retarded brother, trying for even higher concepts and thicker manipulative cheese, but he just doesn't have the skills.
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I think you should take this film a little more lightly. The animation looks incredible - not a pointless CGI exercise: they'll be able to blend the more fantastical elements with the "live action" stuff a lot more easily, and it'll cost half as much - and it looks like it's aiming to be a modern, uncynical film for kids at Christmas. It's not trying to be the next LOTR, but it looks like it could well be a big hit with families and kids. Quite sweet, even if I probably won't be going to see it.
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and with a weak story to boot.
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Seing is Believing. Maybe. I saw him dancing down the aisle of his train in this trailer and I still can't believe it. What is the deal with the crappy, generic, funkified Gospel Christmas music? Also, toward the end of the trailer, it appeared the train was plowing through a rcreation of Red Square at the North Pole populated entirely by thousands of people dressed as Santa Claus. Were they all being run down by the Train or was it my imagination?
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...The CGI looks like crap. Every idiot who can't look at the image and see just how much detail, movement and Photorealism they achieved, who just simply kneejerks any time they see and image that doesn't look 100% real. I mean, I suppose composition, CG cinematography and the like are less important to you than somebody paying an anal amount of attention to making everything look real. It's good for certain parts of the movie to look real of course, especially when our attentions if focused on it, but realism is just one among a number of issues that face filmmakers.
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What a complete abuse of computing power and acting talent.
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Jun 03, 2004 9:43:03 AM CDT
Next Santa Claus that touches a kid and tells him 'The meaning o
by dannyocean01
I'm calling the police.
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Jun 03, 2004 11:07:52 AM CDT
"Hallelujah" in a Santa Clause movie? "Praise the Lord" in a Sa
by aceattorney
Are they braindead?
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I'll give Hanks and Zemeckis the benefit of the doubt, but man, that looks terrible. And that's no critique on the animation, just the story and especially the music. I've read the original "Polar Express" book, and barely notice that story in the trailer.
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What happened to good old fashioned film making?
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USED CARS through DEATH BECOMES HER is one hell of a ride. FORRREST GUMP got him started on Spielbergian oversentimentality.
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I'm sick of people complaining about CGI. You know what? I'm in my late twenties, and I still remember the time when special effects were valued not on their realism but on the way they looked. As simple as that. We saw that phoney stop-motion endoskeleton in THE TERMINATOR with a smile on our faces... we didn't even question the monsters in CLASH OF THE TITANS (the gorgon still scares the shit outtame) and we didn't give a shit about how fake that wide shot of the Gremlins going into Kingston Falls looked. TODAY, on the other hand, all you idiots are waiting for the right time to scream PHONEY CGI!! It is phoney, dickheads, you haven't made any discovery there, it is supposed to look like that. I still remember all those harsh comments I heard from people about the scorpion King at the end of THE MUMMY RETURNS. The movie sucked balls (that's an indisputable truth) but the fake monster was cool as hell. If I had seen that as a kid I would've shit my pants. Today it's fake, it's a videogame character just because it doesn't match everyone's standard of "realism". Enjoy damnit, it looks amazing, it looks as a fantastic creature... Oh, regarding the Polar Express, I still trust BOB and Tom, anyone who says CAST AWAY is a bad pointless movie should burn in hell. The trailer doesn't excite me, but we'll see. Gilkuliehe has spoken.
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that they CAN NOT get the blacks black enough. Contrast on ANY CGI works is terrible, and is why it is soooo obvious, especially when set against backgrounds shot traditionally.
Ugh.
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Jun 03, 2004 1:02:30 PM CDT
Remember that one time they made a movie out of a short children
by durendal
This doesn't look like it'll be much better. The CGI looks great, but the story seems to be lacking. Still, it might be good. Maybe the train stays on track as long as the kids believe, but when doubt is sown, they get in trouble. Just a guess. Anyway, the track record for kiddie books becoming movies is pretty damn dismal. Next they'll do a film adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are".
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it still doesnt work.. i spent the whole of final fantasy being distracted by how dead the expressions were and how the lip syncing just wasnt right...this looks exactly the same... presumably these guys are aiming for photorealism.. but.. why... ??? the characters arent doing anything that a real human couldnt do better.. (apart from the piss poor tumbling waiters) so why even bother..use cg for things that can be done properly.. backgrounds.. inamimate objects.. special effects.. look how much easier Sky Captain is to accept...
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The CGI is kinda creepy, but I will still enjoy it.
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I agree that all CGI seems like overkill for this story. It doesn't need to be all CGI like that and the people are just going to be creepy and weird looking.
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(Start Sarcasm HERE)_______Tom Hanks doing all of the adult voices won't be confusing or distracting at all. The story is not derivative of movies that we've seen in the past. And, the kids don't look creepy or scary ::Shudder:: ________(END Sarcasm) _______But seriously, the train sliding across the ice looked cool... but that's all...
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Because Tom Hanks can record his entire performance in a week and move on to other projects. This is a fantasy story come to life. I have no problems with it being animated and no problems with the excellent CGI renderings of the characters. We've seen fully cgi-realized humans maybe three times... Final Fantasy... Last Flight of the Osiris and the Polar Express. Every other human, from Toy Story to the Shreks has looked pretty weird. These characters aren't perfect, but are MUCH closer to "real" than any hand-drawn animation EVER. Get over yourselves and let Zemeckis and Co. do their jobs.
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CHRISTmas is a celebration of the birth of CHRIST--albeit a carryover from a pagan celebration. Inasmuch as CHRIST is the focus of CHRISTMAS, the Hallelujahs are fine. Santa is a guy who rewards children with gifts during Christmas. He is not a surrogate Christ figure and therefore not inconsistent with the religious celebrations. Granted, we're blending some mythologies, but 80% of Christmas songs have religious undertones.
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the humans in Shrek, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. did not look real. Why would they? They were cartoons! They were not supposed to look real. Do you think Jimmy Neutron is supposed to look real? Did Fred Flintstone look real? No, they are cartoons. Just because it is done with computers does not mean it has to look as realistic as reality. South Park and The Simpsons are two animated series done mostly using computer technology but I don't hear anyone complaining how those characters look wrong or weird. Computer animation is just another style of animation. As long as the animation is consistent, and as long as it looks good, who cares if it does not look real?
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A bit of a departure for the series, but still I can't wait to play it! How'd they get Tom Hanks to do it?
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just what kids need this christlemas, gollum as santa clause. don't forget to bring your game controller to the theater for this one.
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Jun 03, 2004 5:21:04 PM CDT
Nosferatu Jones, I agree with everything you said in relation
by big jim
to the Polar Express trailer. It looks like an experiment in CG actors. Animation that is trying to look as real-life as possible. I did not see anything that made me think this film could not have been made live-action, say directed by someone with a fairy-tale style like Tim Burton. But where we disagree is how we see Shrek and Monsters Inc. I see them the same way I see South Park or The Flintstones: as cartoons (albeit, very expensive cartoons). I did not see the human characters as looking or acting any different from the other characters. The same animation style that made the human boy made the talking Piggy-Bank. I did not expect the humans in these movies to look and act real because to me they were all just cartoon characters.
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The mythical fantasy figure that Americans call Santa Claus is believed to have his origins in the historical person of Saint Nicholas (not sure of the spelling, I can't remember his nationality, sorry). Look it up. If I remember right, he was famed for helping poor kids, leaving them presents on Christmas day. He was a Christian saint who embodied the Christlike virtue of giving to the poor. So, Santa Claus and "hallelujahs" fit together just fine. End of false schism, class over, Duke Ray out.
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Because of this trailer, I can't wait NOT to see this movie. Bah friggin' humbug or whatever...
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the fact that this WAS all acted. The actors not only did the voices, but also performed their parts in Motion Capture suits for the whole movie, which is why, while the modelling is pretty good and the texturemapping, great as it is, has the aforementioned problems of contrast and ambient light causing that weird glowing feel to them, the movement is the best I've seen. Compare what's on this to Final Fantasy's AWFUL motioncapture and you'll see the difference. This is more along the lines of Mumenchantz puppetry or Thai/Vietnamese Water Puppets.
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I wouldn't be surprised to hear, on THESE boards: "Fuck the muppets! Why do they have to look so fuzzy, like they're covered in flocking. Why doesn't their mouth synch up with the words? huh? They suck and always have!"
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Never rule these guys (H&Z) out. Even with dead eyes.
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http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/titledetail.cfm?titleNumber=597425
Here's a page with a picture of some art from the book. IMHO, the CGI guys/gals have VERY faithfully rendered the author and illustrator's vision. The opening train image in the trailer looks as though it rolled right off the page. -
Jun 04, 2004 3:38:53 AM CDT
Oh man, such a shame all those people spending the last two year
by theginger twit
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..or FX. I have a problem when it is poorly applied and this is the case here. Lip sync was off, but that could be shittime. Mouth movements were unnatural. Body movement was unnatural. There is NO REASON for the humans in this to be CG when the charaters look like bad CG version of the real person. Hell, the Everquest 2 trailer before the last movie I saw looked better and that was in-game footage. Unless the animators are masters of animation-fu (IE: Pixar) the failure to use motion capture results in everyone standing around jiggling like they have parkinsons or something. Think bad video game cut scene. This looks like a bad video game cut scene with better software on the back end. But I wouldn't care if the story didn't look like ass, and in this case there's a lot of ass.
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....but the animation in this movie does look (unintentionally) creepy. But hell, if Zemeckis is behind the wheel, it's gotta be better than some post-ironic crap like Shrek.
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Jun 04, 2004 12:30:21 PM CDT
...Also, in light of some of the sentiments expressed by other p
by jollysleeve
...Yeah, you know what? The extraordinary time and effort that (I assume) was required of doing an all CGI movie wasn't worth it, given the sort of creepy end results. I would much rather see a primarily live action Polar Express movie directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. If you want to use heavy CGI for the special effects, that's fine. But at this point in special-effects history, trying to render all the actors in CGI only results in a cold distraction for the audience.
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Saw this trailer in the theatre this weekend when we went to the latest Hary Potter movie. Its a two hour info-mercial for Coca-Cola !!!
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This quote is from The New York TImes, 7/11/01.
TOM HANKS GOES BALLISTIC OVER FINAL FANTASY
Hanks Fears Hollywood Stars To Be Replaced By Robots
Tom Hanks is worried he and his Hollywood colleagues are going to be replaced - by computer-generated actors. The Oscar-winning star is concerned new technology could be used by film studios to replace humans with more compliant and cheaper electronic characters. Speaking as Hollywood prepares for the release of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which stars Aki Ross, a computer-generated actress, Hanks says, "I am very troubled by it. But it's coming down, man. It's going to happen. And I'm not sure what actors can do about it." Aki Ross, a pretty brunette with sparkling eyes, is being hailed by Hollywood bosses as the first truly convincing digital actor. But Hanks' concerns have been rejected by Star Wars director George Lucas. He says, "I believe that I have used more digital characters than anyone else but I don't think I would ever use the computer to create a human character. It just doesn't work. You need actors to do that."
Do i smell a hypocrite??? Now watch as Hanks tries to take credit for "the first fully CG film".
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