Robert Zemeckis and the Uncanny Valley

While reading Freud's The Uncanny and participating in today's class discussion, I thought about Robert Zemeckis's films The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol.  I saw The Polar Express when I was younger it was in theaters.  I remember being deeply unsettled by the "photorealistic" animation Zemeckis chose to use for the film.  The eerie, disturbing characters didn't seem photorealistic at all-- rather, they seemed almost zombie-like with their lifelessness and plasticity.  I had hoped that two charming pieces of the film (the excellent picture book upon which it is based and my favorite actor circa fourth grade, Tom Hanks) would come together to make a heartwarming, instant-classic Christmas movie.  Instead, I was creeped out by Hanks's conductor character.  He filled me with both hate and nightmare-inducing fear.

Years later, I watched clips of Zemeckis's Beowulf film for my English class.  My teacher mostly showed us so that we could make fun of the awkward adaptation.  In addition to its bizarre casting (Angelina Jolie?), the film was made laughable by its use of the same photorealistic animation technology.  Perhaps this allowed Zemeckis to use more special effects, but mostly I think it just made the movie even more uncomfortable and agonizing to sit through.

While I count myself as a big animation fan and praise Zemeckis for attempting to incorporate new animation technologies into his films, I think he should give up on this photorealistic system.  The films he has made with it are just bad and, I think, that is largely because of the Uncanny Valley effect of the image-capture animation.  Why can't he just use live actors?  It seems that would produce better results, especially if he is already having them act the part and just capturing the performance with computers.  What is it that makes him want to promote such a type of filmmaking, where the actors feel even more disconnected and icy?  Even as an animated film this technology is uncomfortable.  One of the reasons I love animated films is that, with unique drawing and artistic techniques, they can have individual, beautiful styles and aesthetics.  Zemeckis's movies, though, are not stylized enough (like, for instance, James Cameron's Avatar) and not human enough (like, for instance, any live action film) to make for a comfortable viewing experience.  They are all occupying space in the Uncanny Valley.

Related article on NPR here.

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