HOLIDAY FAMILY COLLECTION (THE POLAR EXPRESS, HAPPY FEET, A CHRISTMAS STORY) - DVD review

It's hard to complain when Warner Bros. package three holiday favorites in one DVD box set for essentially the price of a single deluxe-edition disc. Of the three films offered here, one is an absolute classic, "A Christmas Story," one is a near-classic, "The Polar Express," and the third is a near miss, "Happy Feet." Still, they are all definitely worthwhile movies, and at the price, if you don't have them, the set is hard to resist.

THE POLAR EXPRESS:
The filmmakers based "The Polar Express" on a short, illustrated children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, and Robert Zemeckis directed it, Zemeckis being the fellow who gave us such spectacularly creative delights as "Back to the Future," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Forrest Gump," and "Contact," all of them filled with fascinating characters and glorious sights for the eye. In "Polar Express," however, the director stretches (an unkinder soul would say bloats) a simple story idea with so many visual effects that the characters can get lost in the proceedings.

The animation technique produces varied results. The scenery and surroundings are exquisite, imaginatively rendered in every detail, often looking like one of those Christmas globes with the snow swirling around inside; and from everything I can ascertain, the animation does a good job capturing the look and feel of the paintings in Van Allsburg's book. It's the people who inhabit this world who look artificial in a spooky sort of way. The filmmaking process that was used requires live actors to perform their roles and then computer animation to duplicate their actions. It's the modern equivalent of the early rotoscoping done by pioneer animators in the days of silent films. Although it's quite a bit more advanced now, the basic idea is the same. What I always have to ask is, if live actors perform the parts, why not make it a live-action movie? What more does animation do to make something a fantasy? Is the mere act of watching drawings instead of real people oblige us to believe all the more in a film's make-believe? Well, it may, and if it works for you, more power to the filmmaking.

The plot, what little there is of it, concerns a young boy at an age where he's about to lose his belief in Santa Claus and the magic of Christmas. In this most crucial year of his life, the Polar Express shows up at his doorstep one Christmas Eve to convince him there really is a Santa. Other children of a similar age and with similar feelings of disbelief fill the train. From here, the movie presents a sweet and moving fable of regaining (or retaining) one's faith in the Christmas spirit, as the boy learns to be kind to other people and to never lose his power of imagination. No complaints there.

Tom Hanks stars in the movie, and stars in the movie and stars in the movie. He is the voice behind most of the main characters, which works well for several reasons. First, he's a fine actor and provides good voice characterizations for, among others, the boy's father, the train conductor, a mysterious hobo, and Santa himself. Second, having Hanks voice so many of the characters makes it feel all the more like storybook time, as though one person alone were telling the tale, which, in fact is the case, as Hanks is supposed to be the boy grown up and looking back on his own childhood.

The other characters are ably, if not always so colorfully, voiced as well: A little girl that the boy befriends is played by Nona Gaye; the boy's sister and mother are played by Leslie Zemeckis; a shy, lonely boy is played by Peter Scolari; and, best of all, a know-it-all kid is played by Eddie Deezen. You'll recognize Deezen's distinctive voice instantly from things like "1941" and "WarGames." He practically saves the day by being the most unique and entertaining voice of all the characters in the movie; every time he appears, the movie livens up.

The action of the story takes places almost entirely on the train and at the North Pole in a series of short episodes. These brief segments involve the boy in various encounters and adventures, none of which are particularly involving because of their brevity. After a somewhat slow start, the episodes begin to come along rather quickly, and it's shortly afterwards that we realize there's not going to be much more to it than that; nothing lasts long enough to develop much tension, and there aren't many clear transitions between events to sustain an engrossing story line.

Possibly the rapid succession of incidents is intended to remind us of a child's dream, because certainly we're never convinced the boy is awake or asleep while all this is going on. Still, I found my mind wandering on occasion, maybe indicating I'm not a child anymore.

Several of the segments have a rousing spirit, though, and they display a verve sometimes lacking in the rest of the film. There is a scene with dancing waiters and the song "Hot Chocolate" that comes alive in an energetic, Monty Pythonesque way; there's a stunning shot of an eagle flying through a gorge that is lovely enough to frame; there's a sequence where the train is sliding down a roller-coast track and then slipping sideways on an expanse of ice that is really quite harrowing; and there is a passage set in a roomful of puppets that is scary in the way only puppets and marionettes can be scary.

But these instances of beauty and excitement are offset by too many songs that seem less than memorable ("Believe" being the main one); too much background music that tries to be uplifting and inspirational and comes off gushy; too much pacing that is awkward and herky-jerky; too much that is supposed to feel surreal but only seems tedious; too much that is simply sentimental; and too little storyline to tie it all together.

The movie might better be called "The Bipolar Express," with so much that is sweet and light on the one hand and so much that is tiring and humdrum on the other. I have no doubt most kids and many adults will love it, but this Scrooge came away with mixed feelings. Still, when it's good, it's very, very good.

Film rating: 7/10

HAPPY FEET:
"Happy Feet" is the animated brainchild of George Miller, the movie's co-writer and director, who previously brought us "Babe," "Babe: Pig in the City," "The Witches of Eastwick," and all of the "Mad Max" movies. So you know going in the guy's got talent, and "Happy Feet" is going to show a good deal of creativity. It does; just not quite enough to keep this grown-up from yawning a few times in the process.

The big "however" about the film is that I can't remember another of Miller's works so overflowing with lessons, themes, and morals. And not just a few related lessons but ones going off in all directions. I have to admit that in more than a couple of places the film's transitions left me wondering what the heck was happening. Although I thought at first it might have been because of a few dull stretches catching me daydreaming, I soon came to realize it was because the screenplay sometimes moves from one episode to another without much rhyme or reason. Among other things, the film conveys such varied messages as it's OK to be different; everyone needs to fit in and belong; humanity should be open-minded; superstition, tradition, even religion, should not cloud our better judgment; opposite minds can and should get along; and, ultimately, we as a people should exercise greater responsibility over our environment. Save the penguins, save the whales, save Antarctica, save the world. These are noble, valuable, and in some cases very personal sentiments that Miller has every right to include in his film, particularly a film aimed at children who need all the good counsel they can get; but, understand, they are also sentiments that can be somewhat tedious and redundant for adults.

Fortunately, the movie counterbalances its wayward story line about a young penguin who would rather dance than sing like the rest of his kind with, perhaps ironically, its fine songs, splendid dancing, and glorious CGI animation. Make no mistake: The movie is a musical from beginning to end, and you will find just about every style of music in it, most of it well-known, previously recorded material, from pop and rock to gospel and country, from hip-hop to blues, you name it.

Besides that, the computer animation will knock your socks off, if you don't mind bare feet. The picture is not just detailed, it's almost photorealistic. It looks practically like "March of the Penguins" except with music. Considering that most of the movie takes place in the Antarctic, where colors are predominantly shades of gray and white, the movie is brimming over with the vitality of its hues, with little splashes of color showing up all the more vividly for their stark surroundings. Then, the artists' ability to create literally thousands of penguins that in real life pretty much all look alike and personalize them with individual characteristics is quite a trick. So, the picture is a treat for the eyes and ears.

I wish, though, there was as much inspiration in the voice characterizations as there is in visuals. Robin Williams, playing several parts, invests his usual imagination and energy in the roles and keeps things moving along. Hugh Jackman as an Elvis clone and Hugo Weaving as a village elder also do their best to inject a little life into their characters. But, honestly, if I had not read on the keep case that Elijah Wood voiced the main character and that Nicole Kidman, Brittany Murphy, Anthony LaPaglia, Steve Irwin (who died shortly after completing the film), and others were also in it, I doubt that I would have recognized their speaking voices, they're so nondescript.

There is also another tiny oddity in the film. When the main character, a young Emperor penguin named Mumble, goes off in search of answers to his problems, he runs into a community of smaller penguins he's never seen before. Now, here's the thing: These little guys all speak English in Hispanic accents. Is this, I wonder, because they are all from south of Emperor Land's border? Or because the filmmakers are suggesting that Hispanic people are short? Figuring that surely a film taking such high moral ground as this one does would not stoop to such obvious ethnic stereotypes, I concluded by giving the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt and assumed they were just trying to be inventive. Or not.

Despite the film getting more than a bit erratic and preachy, "Happy Feet" is generally cute and entertaining, particularly for youngsters, and it is surely a delight to the senses. Don't be surprised if the dancing, at least, has you up on your feet and tapping your toes.

Film rating: 6/10

A CHRISTMAS STORY:
Saving the best for last comes the 1983 classic, "A Christmas Story." And just how close is it to reality? In 1955, when I was in the fifth grade, I wanted more than anything in the world a BB gun for Christmas. My father had no objections, but my mother was adamantly against it: "He'll shoot his eye out!" After a year of nagging and cajoling, I got a BB gun the Christmas of 1956, and although my eyesight today is poor, my eyeballs remain intact.

I don't know if BB guns are still popular among youngsters, but for anyone over a certain age, my experience appears to have been universal, making it the perfect focal point for this holiday favorite.

Understand, Christmas classics are hard to come by. Nothing tops "It's a Wonderful Life," of course, but several others are high on the list: "A Christmas Carol" (1951) and "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), surely; and more recently "A Christmas Story" and "The Santa Clause." Several other contenders, like "Gremlins," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," and the various Muppet adventures are either too dark, too vulgar, or too juvenile to attract a wide family audience. But of all of them, writer-director Bob Clark's "A Christmas Story" may be the one that touches people closest to home.

Based on the book of short stories "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" by humorist Jean Shepard, who also narrates, the movie tells the story of one Christmas season in the life of a nine-year-old boy, Ralphie Parker, living in a midsized city in Indiana in the late 1940s. Everything that might happen to a nine-year-old boy around Christmas time is crammed affectionately into the story line, with the BB gun the centerpiece.

As Ralphie puts it, "The Red Ryder 200-shot, Range Model air rifle" was the "Holy Grail of Christmas gifts." But it was also the last thing a mother wanted her child to have. Yes, "You'll shot your eye out" was every Mom's stock reply to this gift request. So Ralphie has to scheme his mightiest to direct his parents' attention toward the matter and scheme even harder to persuade them to buy it for him. For instance, he subtly leaves a BB-gun advertisement tucked away in his mother's copy of "Life" magazine, where she is sure to find it and immediately realize the gun's worth. Like most nine-year olds, Ralphie has a well-developed and ever-hopeful imagination.

The movie is made up of a series of short vignettes involving Ralphie and his family, Ralphie and his school friends, and Ralphie and his teacher. You'd think that among them there would be at least a few that didn't work, but, in fact, they're almost all of them equally appealing. Preparing to go to school in the winter in a new snow suit, Ralphie's little brother, Randy, is described as looking like he's going "deep-sea diving," his stiff garb rendering him unable to move his limbs. A triple-dog dare forces a friend, Flick, to place his tongue on a frozen flag pole, where it naturally gets stuck until the fire department comes to his rescue. Miss Shields, Ralphie's teacher, gives the class an assignment to write a paper on "What I want for Christmas," and Ralphie writes what he considers a Pulitzer Prize-winning paper about his BB gun. Dad wins a prize in one of the many contests he enters and wins the most god-awful lamp shaped in the form of a female leg, which he proudly insists upon displaying in the front window. The neighborhood bully, Scut Farkus, whose eyes Ralphie swears are yellow, terrorizes the kids on the way to and from school. Ralphie lets slip the Queen Mother of dirty words, the dreaded "F-word," and gets his mouth washed out with soap. The buying of the Christmas tree, the Little Oprhan Annie secret-decoder ring, the department-store visit to Santa, the Christmas socks you never wanted, everything a person might remember from his or her own childhood holiday season is represented.

Moreover, the cast is dead-on perfect in their roles, adding to our acceptance and enjoyment of the stories. Ralphie is played by Peter Billingsley, who is not only cute and cuddly but the very picture of youthful innocence. Mom and Dad are played by Melinda Dillon, patient and long-suffering, and Darren McGavin, whose outbursts of invective are legendary and hilarious. Randy and Flick are played by Ian Petrella and Scott Schwartz respectively, both of them looking and behaving like every kid everywhere. The bully, Scut Farkus, is played by Zack Ward as the fellow we've all met and hoped for a comeuppance. And it's all brought together by the warm and knowing narration of the author himself, Jean Shepard, as an adult Ralphie.

Yes, Christmas WAS the center of every kid's universe, and I suppose it still is. It was the day of the year that every child waited for, and the nostalgia surrounding the holiday has become mythic for most of us. "A Christmas Story" mines this territory the way Woody Allen's "Radio Days" mined the fertile ground of radio drama in the thirties and forties, with sharp, insightful observations, a careful attention to period detail, and, most of all, a gentle good humor.

Film rating: 10/10

Video:
In terms of the DVD video on "The Polor Express," one could hardly fault any part of the presentation; it's as nearly perfect as current technology can make it. The engineers retain the movie's 2.40:1 screen dimensions in an anamorphic transfer, and a high bit rate ensures a clean, clear picture quality with nary a digital artifact in sight. Colors are quite natural (for a cartoon or for real life), rich and lush, with black levels intense enough to showcase the other hues and enhance overall definition. No grain, no haloes, almost no moiré effects; beautiful to look at.

In "Happy Feet," the picture quality is no less spectacular than in "Polar Express." The disc again renders the movie's original 2.40:1 theatrical dimensions in a digital image as sharp as we have come to expect from high-bit-rate, standard-definition technology and CGI graphics. The screen is quite clean, and the colors are sometimes glowing. Blacks and whites are strong, which is specially important since they predominate throughout the movie. In short, the detailed computer-graphic animation looks terrific.

Unaccountably, Warner Bros. chose to present "A Christmas Story" only in its 1.33:1 pan-and-scan rendering, which may be its original camera-negative size but was not the way the studio exhibited the film in theaters. Be that as it may, it's what you get here, with some variations in the video quality. At times the colors are dark, deep, and rich, while other times they appear dull and washed out. When it's good, it's very good, but one wishes it would remain that way for more than a minute to two at a time. The definition is reasonably good, too, although it also varies from fairly sharp to fairly soft. The print is modestly deteriorated with time, so you'll find any number of small flecks, specks, lines, and the like. If you don't look too hard, it won't matter.

Audio:
When the train first rumbles past the boy's bedroom window in "The Polar Express," the effect is enough to rattle the rafters. While the disc's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is nearly as good as the disc's video, the dynamic range does pose a minor problem. Turn up the sound to hear the dialogue easily, and you'll occasionally get a deep bass and transient impact so loud it'll knock your socks off (if that's your idea of a good time). Still, the audio is well focused, extremely wide ranging, and nicely spread out across the front of the listening area. The audio engineers use the surrounds sparingly and subtly, but when the side and/or rear speakers come into play, they are effective. This is sound with air and space around the music and effects, producing a most realistic aural setting for the movie.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack for "Happy Feet" is just as attractive as the video. The dynamic impact and the deep bass are standouts, as is the very wide front-channel stereo spread. There is not as much information in the rear-channels as I might have expected, but there is enough to provide a realistic bloom to the music and a few impressive surround effects.

There's not much to talk about in terms of audio on "A Christmas Story." The Dolby Digital monaural sound only needs to reproduce dialogue, which it does fine. It's rather limited in bass output but impressive enough at the high end. You'll find very little background noise to hamper your listening pleasure and a fairly smooth, balanced, if limited, response. I can't really knock it much; it works. It's just too bad the best film in the set has to have the worst picture and sound. Oh, well....

Extras:
There are almost no extras on "The Polar Express." We get the feature film; an anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer; twenty-four scene selections; and English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles.

On "Happy Feet" we get the most bonus materials, starting with two fully animated extra sequences: "Mumble Meets a Blue Whale," about three minutes long, with Steve Irwin; and "A Happy Feet Moment," about thirty seconds. Both scenes are in anamorphic widescreen, and the rest of the extras are non-anamorphic. Next up is "Dance Like a Penguin: Stomp to the Beat," a five-minute private dance lesson wherein Savion Glover, dancer and co-choreographer for the film, shows us how he helped the penguins dance. After that, there are two music videos, "Hit Me Up" with Gia and "The Song of the Heart" with Prince, each about three minutes; and the 1936 classic cartoon "I Love to Singa," in full-screen and Technicolor. Then, there are trailers and promos at start-up; twenty-eight scene selections; a widescreen, anamorphic theatrical trailer; some DVD-ROM features; and English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles.

For "A Christmas Story" we get very little in the way of bonuses. There is a full-screen theatrical trailer; thirty-two scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles, and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
If you like the idea of boxed sets of Christmas material, you may also like another set Warner Bros. are offering along the same line. It's called the "Holiday Comedy Collection," and while it doesn't quite measure up the standards of the "Holiday Family Collection," it does have three films in it that may be among your favorites: "Elf," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," and "Fred Claus." Personally, I could have done without "Fred Claus," but certainly "Elf" is cute enough and "Christmas Vacation" has some memorable moments. With three movies for the price essentially of one, the deal is hard to beat unless you're after a slew of extras, too.