Hey, you know what else I haven’t done for a while?
Bash Polar Express. So we herewith offer a definition of animation from Academy Award winning animator Gene Deitch by way of Cartoon Brew. Deitch writes (in part):
“We’ve seen plenty of technological development in animation, from the praxinoscope, through paper and cel animation, CGI computer animation, Flash, etc. but they all adhere to the same basic principles. Whatever the merits or demerits of POLAR EXPRESS as a film, I don’t believe that Motion Capture, being basically the same as any live action film, that is action created in real time, is consistent with the definition of cinematic animation. I would say the same for string marionette film, TEAM AMERICA, which is also not cinema animation.”
For my part, I believe motion capture can be used in tandem with animation to create performances that are more than either live action film or cinematic animation could achieve. Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films is a good, if famous and obvious example.
The problem with the Polar Express approach, at least as far as I can tell from the ads, is that there’s few if any characters in it who couldn’t have just been played by live actors. And the scuttlebutt I’ve heard is, real children who were motion-captured for PE were removed from the final credits, the victims of fine print in their contracts. In order to sell the (alleged) lie that Tom Hanks plays most of them.
