'Polar Express' will leave you shivering with delight

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

The computer-animated motion picture "The Polar Express" takes a fresh approach to conveying a Christmas message. Warner Bros. Pictures via Bloomberg News Service THE POLAR EXPRESS (G) Four Stars (Excellent) A stunning adaptation of the popular children's story about a boy's belief in Santa Claus, re-created with state-of-the-art digital technology, blended with old-fashioned heart. Tom Hanks contributes five uniquely different performances. Peter Scolari, Nona Gaye and Michael Jeter also lend their voices. Robert Zemeckis directs. Warner Bros., 92 minutes.

He's listening for sleigh bells that'll indicate the arrival of Santa Claus. But he's not really sure he'll hear them. Friends have told him there is no Santa Claus. And he's beginning to have doubts.

That's when a train suddenly steams onto his front lawn — and the conductor invites him on board.

"Where?" asks the boy. "Why, to the North Pole of course," replies the conductor.

So begins one of the most popular of children's Christmas books, Chris Van Allsburg's "The Polar Express," as the boy takes a train ride that ends with a meeting with the great man in the red suit, and the gift of believing.

And now that book has been brought to life in a jaw-dropping new film that's bound to become a holiday classic.

"The Polar Express" impresses on at least three levels:

— First, as a script (by Robert Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr.) that deftly expands a 32-page picture book into a 92-minute film while maintaining the magical tone of a child's imagination. The unnamed boy meets young friends and has rousing adventures on his way to the North Pole that fill in the narrative between the book's memorable incidents.

Director Zemeckis believes the "moving" in moving pictures is literal — at different times, the train duplicates the ups and downs of a roller coaster.

— Second, as an acting exercise, particularly for Tom Hanks, who plays the story's five principal characters — the boy, his father, the conductor, a mysterious hobo on the train and Santa Claus. Because of the film's remarkable technical achievements, he's only recognizable as Hanks in three of the roles. In fact, all four of the principal children in the story are actually played by adult actors, though you'd never know it. And that leads us to ...

— Third, as the prototype for new, state-of-the-art developments in computer-graphic animation. "The Polar Express" takes performances by Hanks and the other actors, embellishes them with different character looks and costumes, and puts them in action in a virtual world. The world is not only virtual, it's an exact copy of Van Allsburg's lovely paintings that no doubt helped the book win its prestigious Caldecott Medal.

I was so impressed with how Zemeckis and Co. brought Van Allsburg's illustrations to life I found myself wishing they'd move on to a film version of N.C. Wyeth's famous "Treasure Island" illustrations, though that may be asking for too much. Still, the imagery in "The Polar Express" is as vivid and rich a step forward in digital animation as Disney's "Pinocchio" was to cel animation in an earlier generation.

But all the fine writing, Hanks' astonishing range of performances and the breathtaking visuals wouldn't mean a thing if you didn't tear up just a little at the finale. And you will. "The Polar Express" must be carrying a lot of heart with its load of eager children.

Rated G.

Local expert has hand in 3-D film

Honolulu's Rob Engle, a digital effects supervisor, had a wee part to play in "The Polar Express," the Warner Bros. holiday movie based on an award-winning children's book, out today.

Engle, a computer graphics supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, is credited as pipeline development lead in the holiday film.

He played a bigger role, however, in creating a special IMAX 3-D version — the first-ever Hollywood theatrical film made in IMAX 3-D. Engle served as digital effects supervisor on that, but since the Waikiki IMAX theater was closed in 2003, it's unlikely local folks will see his 3-D efforts.

Other global viewers will: "The Polar Express: An IMAX 3D Experience" is the first film digitally remastered and expanded for IMAX to get a worldwide release.

"It's a historic moment," said Engle, 38. He's the son of Ray and Claire Engle of Honolulu, and a 1984 graduate of Punahou School. "The movie is being simultaneously released with the 2-D version most people will see in (conventional) theaters."

As digital effects supervisor for the 3-D version, Engle spent the past six months working with a team of visual effects wizards to convert the movie into IMAX.

In a telephone interview from his new home in Encino, Calif., Engle explained that his crew took "Polar Express" — which captured movements of actors such Tom Hanks and digital imagery, and converted it into computer-generated animation — and converted that film into two complete versions, one for the left eye and the other for the right eye. Viewers wear stereoscopic 3-D glasses to "see" the pop-out animation.

"The movie, essentially, took 2à years to do, but our work (the 3-D version) had to be completed in six months," said Engle. "We were handed the film, shot by shot, and we completed the project that way."

"We," in this case, is Sony Pictures Imageworks, the computer-generated graphics and animation division that employs Engle.

Engle saw the finished film for the first time last week and was impressed with the 3-D impact. "I'm told that (director Robert) Zemeckis loved it," he said.

"There were a number of issues IMAX was looking at," he said of the partnership, "one of which was Robert Zemeckis — a great name." (The director's credits include "Back to the Future," his Oscar-winning "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away.")

"And, of course, the presence of Tom Hanks. Additionally, the Chris Van Allsburg story is a classic. And this is the holiday (film) season."

Engle became a computer whiz while working for Hewlett-Packard. In 1993, he saw "Jurassic Park," which changed his destiny.

Engle had previously worked in entertainment and community theater in Honolulu, as well as theater at Punahou, "so basically, I had the bug. But I never really found a way to do it in a way that would pay the bills."

"Jurassic," with its special effects, inspired him to combine his interest in entertainment and computers. Engle earned a master's degree in computer science at Stanford University, then did some work with the legendary Industrial Light and Magic group ("Star Wars") headed by George Lucas, and later found his way to Sony Pictures Imageworks.

For last year's "Charlie's Angles: Full Throttle," he was a sequence supervisor for surf filming in Hawai'i. That year, he also was involved in "Peter Pan."

Earlier, he was involved in smaller films, such as "Stuart Little" and "Stuart Little 2."

Next year, he starts on another animation project, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," for which he will be a computer graphics supervisor.

"A lot of people don't realize that 3-D animation can't take shortcuts," he said. "One of the challenges for 'The Polar Express' was to develop a technique that allowed depth to matte paintings that are generally 'flat' in animated films; 3-D requires the dimension."

Brother Tim Engle, 42, is also in film work. He is an assistant director on the Adam Sandler remake of "The Longest Yard." "Interestingly enough, our paths have not crossed," said Engle.