If you are planning on seeing The Polar Express, the new CG animated children’s story from Robert Zemeckis, beware the uncanny valley.
The Uncanny Valley phenomenon is a process by which human psyche responses to non-human entities follows a specific curve. Stated simply, “the idea is that if one were to plot emotional response against similarity to human appearance and movement, the curve is not a sure, steady upward trend. Instead, there is a peak shortly before one reaches a completely human ‘look’…but then a deep chasm plunges below neutrality into a strongly negative response before rebounding to a second peak where resemblance to humanity is complete.”
In this respect, the CG denizens of The Polar Express seem to dip dangerously close to that chasm of weirdness and antipathy. Whereas Pixar’s The Incredibles features cartoonish and amusing caricatures of humans (Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible could double as political cartoon sketches), The Polar Express has no such whimsicality, rather pushing the envelope of reality-based character design. It may, however, bite the producers in the butt if movie audiences find themselves talking afterwards with their friends, saying “the characters were a little too real, if you know what I mean”.