Polar Express

Correspondent:: "iDRMRSR"
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 19:13:13 -0500

--------
Say, I took my progeny to see this flick today expecting a saccharine,
forgettable sticky cloying kiddie thing.

I was utterly surprised. Dismiss for the viewing period that this whole
thing is about Christmas and it turns into a surreal dream state roller
coaster ride.

The creepy character animation and relatively dark and chilly tone of the
thing entirely work into its favor. There are a lot of scenes which,
separately, would stand up there with Luis Bunuel. Especially if you are
inclined to go to such movies a little altered, which I did not have the
liberty to do.

The 3D scapes and animation of the speeding train are visually astounding,
and the amount of detail of the city at the North Pole exceeds all the set
design and special efx of anything in Harry Potter. The whole movie unfolds
exactly like one of those dreams you might have had that took you from one
place to another, flying over water, exploring architecturally unique cities
that don't exist, and so on. The only thing missing in that regard was
walking around nude in an airport.

I say this thing might one day reach some kind of cult status. There's
enough fantastic departure from the confines of real reality to make this a
possibility.

The motion-captured humans have a reanimated corpse like anima that is just
fascinating to watch because it is so wrong in many respects. Like when
they have closeups of people's hands holding things, you can just sense that
they don't actually have a grip on anything, like a posed corpse. Since
they couldn't properly scan the eyeballs and the insides of the ear and
mouth, they faked up completely unnatural fillings for those orifices, which
were realistic except...well...you have to see for yourself. Something not
right there.

There is a Dali painting of a loaf of bread. Ultra natural, nothing strange
about it. However, the texture of the bread in the painting makes it look
inedible and kind of plaster like. Just enough wrong with it to fool the
visual apparatus.

This movie is like that. Creepy in a way.

Pretty good ride. I'll prolly at least rent the DVD for one more viewing
whenever it is released.

Fooks wit yer 'ed.

[*]
-----




Correspondent:: HdMrs. Salacia the Overseer
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 19:31:56 -0600

--------
On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 19:13:13 -0500, "iDRMRSR"
wrote:

snip
>
>The motion-captured humans have a reanimated corpse like anima that is just
>fascinating to watch because it is so wrong in many respects. Like when
>they have closeups of people's hands holding things, you can just sense that
>they don't actually have a grip on anything, like a posed corpse. Since
>they couldn't properly scan the eyeballs and the insides of the ear and
>mouth, they faked up completely unnatural fillings for those orifices, which
>were realistic except...well...you have to see for yourself. Something not
>right there.
>
>There is a Dali painting of a loaf of bread. Ultra natural, nothing strange
>about it. However, the texture of the bread in the painting makes it look
>inedible and kind of plaster like. Just enough wrong with it to fool the
>visual apparatus.
>
>This movie is like that. Creepy in a way.
>
>Pretty good ride. I'll prolly at least rent the DVD for one more viewing
>whenever it is released.
>
>Fooks wit yer 'ed.
>
>[*]
>-----
>

You forgot the elf Nuremburg rally at the climax of the movie.The
elves appear to be in a bloodthirsty frenzy leading up to the
departure of Santa on his sleigh. They all appear to wet themselves
with rabid monkey fanatic zeal when Santa makes his appearance. That
scene was worth the price of admission for me. I thought someone was
going to ripped apart by those hungry elfy hands.



Correspondent:: polar bear
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 18:28:38 -0800

--------
In article , "iDRMRSR"
wrote:

> Say, I took my progeny to see this flick today expecting a saccharine,
> forgettable sticky cloying kiddie thing.
>
> I was utterly surprised. Dismiss for the viewing period that this whole
> thing is about Christmas and it turns into a surreal dream state roller
> coaster ride.
>
> The creepy character animation and relatively dark and chilly tone of the
> thing entirely work into its favor. There are a lot of scenes which,
> separately, would stand up there with Luis Bunuel. Especially if you are
> inclined to go to such movies a little altered, which I did not have the
> liberty to do.
>
> The 3D scapes and animation of the speeding train are visually astounding,
> and the amount of detail of the city at the North Pole exceeds all the set
> design and special efx of anything in Harry Potter. The whole movie unfolds
> exactly like one of those dreams you might have had that took you from one
> place to another, flying over water, exploring architecturally unique cities
> that don't exist, and so on. The only thing missing in that regard was
> walking around nude in an airport.
>
> I say this thing might one day reach some kind of cult status. There's
> enough fantastic departure from the confines of real reality to make this a
> possibility.
>
> The motion-captured humans have a reanimated corpse like anima that is just
> fascinating to watch because it is so wrong in many respects. Like when
> they have closeups of people's hands holding things, you can just sense that
> they don't actually have a grip on anything, like a posed corpse. Since
> they couldn't properly scan the eyeballs and the insides of the ear and
> mouth, they faked up completely unnatural fillings for those orifices, which
> were realistic except...well...you have to see for yourself. Something not
> right there.
>
> There is a Dali painting of a loaf of bread. Ultra natural, nothing strange
> about it. However, the texture of the bread in the painting makes it look
> inedible and kind of plaster like. Just enough wrong with it to fool the
> visual apparatus.
>
> This movie is like that. Creepy in a way.
>
> Pretty good ride. I'll prolly at least rent the DVD for one more viewing
> whenever it is released.
>
> Fooks wit yer 'ed.
>
> [*]
> -----

Any polar bears in it?

pb