The Polar Express
On Christmas Eve, a doubting
boy boards a magical train that's headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus's
home. The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated
fantasy film based on the children’s book of the same title by Chris Van
Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film’s human
characters were animated using live action performance capture technique, with
the exception of the waiters who dispense hot chocolate on the train, because
their feats were impossible for live actors to achieve. The 21st century
technology used incorporated the movements of live actors into three-dimensional
animation.
The Polar Express is listed in the Guinness
World Book of Records in 2006 as the first all-digital capture film.
