Has anyone taken their kids to see the "Polor Express"?

[Blue_Roses]

is it as good as the "hype" says it is?

[Left Is Write]

1. No, and I'm not going to.

That animation looks positively creepy to me.

We'll probably go see The Incredibles and maybe the SpongeBob movie.

[GumboYaYa]

I agree. I already dislike the movie just from the trailers.

The promotion of that thing is over the top.

We saw "The Incredibles" this weekend. It was very entertaining. As far as family movies, it is one of the better movies of the past few years.

[Gyre]

7. I took my 3 and 5 year old daughters to see Incredibles

over the weekend. I didn't think it was that great and it was the typical bombastic assault on the senses. Night terrors that evening.

Phfffft!

Gyre

[tigereye]

4. actually that is the way the book looks

and part of the reason it won awards. It is a beautiful retro story; the movie looks like overkill, but we probably will take the kid to see it. :)

[Left Is Write]

8. There's a big difference between still drawings and

animation. The animation looks creepy *to me* and I don't want to see the movie.

[tigereye]

10. true

it is interesting about what in art pleases and displeses us. The drawings in the book have that nostalgic hyper-real sepia quality, that is a little creepy, too. I don't know what the technique is called, my husb. is the artist in the family. :)

[shawcomm]

6. That's what I heard too

that the animation, in being almost-but-not-quite realistic made them seem like soulless facsimiles of real people, you know, sort of like republicans.

I think it would creep me out.

[chiburb]

2. Why ruin a beautiful movie by taking kids?

:shrug:

[lizzieforkerry]

3. I am not sure I'll go to see it

A lot has been written about the Nazi overtones of the illistrations in the book and it looks like they kept the same "look" for the movie although I doubt they kept the Nazi link. I haven't decided. The whole fascism thing is getting to real for me right now.

[tigereye]

11. Nazi overtones?

I think it is just a drawing technique that was common in the 30's, 40s and 50s. It is interesting to consider how our perceptions of a time period get attached to art. Where have people commented about the Nazi overtones? I would think that the hyper-real style (?) would be more attached to Soviet- era posters, perhaps, although the Nazi propaganda posters were also quite bright and hyper-real in a different way. But then, I am not an art historian.

[lizzieforkerry]

12. It has been awhile since I have read any of the articles about it

so I don't have any links, but I'm sure if you google you will read some. The illustrator was a Nazi sympathizer if I remember correctly. The page with Santa in front of the children has Santa doing a Nazi Salute. The picture of the wolves watching the trains go by was suppose to be symbolic of the Nazi trains taking the Jews (one reason why some people were upset by the wolf commercial that Bush put out in the end of the campaign, I guess this was a popular symbol in post/pre (?) WWII) Again, just what I have read, please don't jump all over me if you know for a fact that this isn't true. There were a few other instances in the book, but I don't remember exactly. Something about the picture when they take the boy... A friend of mine was taking a class at OSU and they studied it there, which is why I started reading about it.

[tigereye]

13. I usually don't jump all over people...

just curiousity. :) I guess I am unclear as to why people see Nazi imagery everywhere and it is interesting that it is a college topic. I thought that the illustrator/writer was of more recent vintage. Some of his other books are very beautiful. The copyright for Polar Express is 1985 and his other books, such as The Garden of Abdul Gasazi is extremely well illustrated and beautiful. Polar Express also won a Caldecott medal and I doubt that the Caldecott committee (especially in these times) would recommend a book for the prize if these concerns were true. Also I see no NAzi salute by Santa in the copy that I have.

just my little commentary.

[molly]

5. An old Ohio classmate of mine is a clergy living in Canada

he LOVES trains. He sent me this review....

"Just a quick note to let you know that Sue and I very
much enjoyed "The Polar Express."

It is beautifully done, with incredible animation. The
music on the sound track also adds to a powerful
performance.

Tom Hanks is superb in about five different roles. Of
course, it is Tom Hanks converted into a computer
generated figure, after he has acted all the parts on
a bare sound stage while he is covered with hundreds
of infrared sensors.

For me the train, a major portion of the story, was
absolutely great. It's a huge Berkshire locomotive and
tender followed by three heavyweight clerestory
coaches and an open-platform observation car. It
almost felt like taking a trip on a heritage railway.

Some critics have noted that the eyes, the windows of
the soul, leave something to be desired, and I would
tend to agree. There's occasionally that
nobody-at-home look. But it doesn't detract that much
from an otherwise delightful evening at the theatre.

Sue doesn't care that much for either animated films
or train films, but she left the theatre saying
"That's a film I really want to see again." I would
say that's quite a recommendation.

I think you would enjoy it."

[MsAnthropy]

9. I loved it!

It is visually, artistically stunning. I'd read some reviews mentioning the "creepy" animation, but I didn't find it creepy at all. It is a sweet story, not at all sappy or condescending, with a wonderful message for kids. There are some subtle insides jokes, like the word "meshugana" (sp?) appearing in a Christmas movie, which were a delight.