Christmas has come early in our house - way too early some might say, but when you have a two year old to whose viewing choices you are now a slave, you could do a lot worse than Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of the much beloved children's book of the same name (as authored by Chris Van Allsburg).
Believe me when I tell you we have done much worse than this film when it comes to the repeat viewing choices of a two year old, of Barney episodes, and other CGI fodder (which I haven't actually watched from beginning to end, because I just can't, and therefore have not posted about on this blog - when i feel that I have watched the movie in it's entirety I will post about it, much like I am doing now).
This movie, I've actually sat down to watch, because my son is absolutely in love with it, on repeat love.
I remember when this movie initially came out, I had no interest to ever watch it (I have previously posted about my animation-purist tendencies - I'm a Disney Renaissance kid, and grew up on Mickey, Ducktales, Gummy Bears and Co.), CGI Animation in my opinion has always lacked something, an ingredient I can't quite put my finger on - I think it might be age.
That said, how can I possibly say the magic is missing when I see the sheer enjoyment in my son's eyes, when he's running around shouting "All AbooAARD!" This is how it started - my son has upgraded from Cars & Planes to trains, and I couldn't engage in another episode of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and so I remembered that there was once a Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis passion project called The Polar Express, went out and got it, and now our house is Christmas Magic central.
It's a great film, and I know that there is and was (upon it's release) much disagreement about the success of the first fully motion captured computer-animated production - I'm quite comfortably sitting in camp-this-was-a-success. I know that the naysayers have said that the human characters lack a spark of life (my general complaint about most CGI, I don't know why it is that I feel the hand drawn animation has that spark), but I do completely disagree - first and foremost we have to acknowledge that this is animation, it is not real nor is it supposed to be an exact replica of real life, it could never be otherwise what would be the point, what I do know is that after sitting and watching (and yes I was on the fence and generally in agreement with them naysayers), all I want to say is that this movie is overflowing with magic and spark.
It's a movie with a great message and tone, almost creepy at times, so that you don't know exactly where it's going (oh yes, plot = a train on it's way to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, is stopping at the houses of those children who have started to stop believing in Santa Clause and the magic of Christmas, we follow some of those kids on their fateful ride). Let's not forget the Hanks/Zemeckis magic combination should we, it is worthy of being expanded, you know of which Forrest Gump and Cast Away are a product, and this with Hanks in 5 different roles including the conductor, the narrator and the hobo...
I think that seeing my two year old singing along to the words of "When Christmas Comes to Town", which he only picked up watching the movie, is the essential clincher in finding an appreciation for the film, don't know if I would feel the same had I not become a father - it's heart-melting stuff.
nuff said...
No comments:
Post a Comment