Is it just me, or is the animated film Polar Express a nasty piece of work?
I watched it at the in-laws last year on DVD – I may have had too much goose and port but it made me feel sick. And it’s now showing in 3D at the IMAX cinema at Waterloo – that’s a great way to screw up your kids’ Christmas.
There’s just something sinister about it, and not sinister in a good way. Just bleak and scary with no shred of comfort. And not great to look at, either. Give me any old adaptation of A Christmas Carol, give me that cartoon of Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, but above all give me The Amazing Mr Blunden.
And yet, when I told my daughter that I thought it was rubbish she was outraged! I think the animation is clunky, the plot is insultingly spare and the characters are so watery as to be virtually interchangeable, but she still loves it. I guess that’s what happens when someone spends all their time using Playmobil.
With Playmobil I think the stories are usually better ;-)