The usual animated movies offered during the holiday season are slow-paced and mawkish, barely good enough to keep kids quiet. Not so this film directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?); who once again displays his knack for successful family entertainment. With the help of longtime friend Tom Hanks (playing five characters here), he adapts the classic book written and illustrated by a respected name in children’s literature, Chris Van Allsburg. The story relates a journey onboard The Polar Express train to the North Pole during Christmas Eve. To bring Van Allsburg’s tale to life, the Oscar-winning filmmaker uses the amazing motion-capture technique, which captures an actor’s live performance and uses it as a blueprint for creating virtual characters. This renders the slightest facial expression extremely real. In other words The Polar Express is to animation what genuine turkey is to the processed sort. Kids and adults will be entranced. Indeed, the producers believe in the product: to re-watch this box-office hit all year round, CAV Warner China will offer three DVD versions: a single disc; a two-disc edition with extras; and a gift set with two DVDs plus a collectible snow globe.
CAV Warner

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
February 2006 issue