by Lindsay Wilkinson, SUNY Cortland
Posted in on Thursday, Dec 23
Little boys and girls resembling Chucky the Doll with botox, Tom Hanks as 962 characters and a runaway train that almost kills everyone at least six times: What does this all mean? Fine holiday fun, my friend, fine holiday fun.
Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like The Polar Express, which is based on one of my favorite books as a child by Chris Van Allsburg, and I did, sort of,al though I could do without the elements that made me feel weird inside. And I guess if you take a book that takes less than fifteen minutes to read and turn it into a ninety-minute feature film, you're going to be stuck with all of the above plus a weird Steven Tyler elf moment. Ew.
Nonetheless, parts of the film were still true to the book, and it tried so damn hard to be good, you almost feel bad for it. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Hanks' pal from Forrest Gump and Cast Away), the film was made to look like the original illustrations from Van Allsburg's book and the film righteously kept the same stylistic fifties feel. Actors wore blue suits and censors all over their bodies that translated their movements into 3-D creepy animation, which allowed Hanks to play at least six characters including a violent marionette and the main character, Hero Boy (did I mention none of the characters have names?). While the first scene of the film made me think Hero Boy was going to come out of the screen and kill me ala The Ring, I heard the film is fantastic digitally, as an IMAX film, as it was originally created to be. And I must admit that even in the "flat" version that I saw, the landscape, the train, the animals, the architecture, everything but the human characters, were absolutely beautiful. Everything was meticulously detailed and looked real with an element of magic.
Now why did those kids look so damn scary? The human characters seemed real in a horrifying way, though they weren't able to convey basic human expression in any way and so what's left are children who sort of float over the screen and stare at each other with eerie glass eyes.
There were other ridiculous elements of the film that made me laugh out loud including the Broadway-singing, tap-dancing, hot-chocolate-serving waiters who did tricks even Bela Karoli would be proud of. There were also the illogical actions of the adults on the train who seemed to be doing things only to put the children in more danger so that they might die before getting to meet the big guy up at the North Pole. The train turned into a hellride instead of the sweet, gentle picture we get in the book. But, it made the movie longer, so what the hell.
The original simple story of belief and faith, presented in the book, is paralleled with the true story of Christmas in the film. Little kids can interpret the story truly as a boy striving to believe in Santa Claus, while everyone else can clearly see the film is reminding us that the best things in life cannot be seen but we must believe anyway. Does God ring a bell? You may think I'm crazy, but listen: A little child coined "Lonely Boy" who looks and dresses exactly like Jesus (with the exception of galoshes instead of sandals). A mysterious Hanks-playing ghost Bum who watches over the train and gives Hero Boy mystifying answers (not in the book). And then there's Hanks-playing Santa, a Zeus-like man with thousands and thousands of elves from Jersey who bow down to him. It feels a little like the Holy Trinity. But, you decide--it's all up to interpretation. Despite my sarcasm, the movie was entertaining and the core story still remained and it reminded me of being a child. So, if the magic of the book doesn't spark you to see the film, go purely for the aesthetic purposes and to make fun of the elves and maybe you'll be reminded how to listen for Santa's Christmas bells, too.
DESIGNER: Greg Montano, New Media Design, SUNY Cortland, USA