Now, as an added bonus due to my absence last week and because it's Christmas time, here's the last review of the year.
Now, when I reviewed Arthur Christmas, I mentioned how it added realism to fantasy, but this movie does the opposite, adding fantasy to realism. I'm sure everyone who's seen this movie remembers the ground-breaking (at the time) attention to detail the movie had, making everyone feel so real. Nowadays, the artistic skill hasn't aged well, with many of the animations feeling stiff and robotic, especially in the hot cocoa scene. The overt attention to detail also leads to a pretty nasty uncanny valley, but that isn't to say the movie isn't without its merits.
The theme for one matter is not often portrayed the way it is here. Sure we've had religious movies that discuss faith and belief and even though like the Polar express that use symbolism instead of pure Religion, but maybe it's the fact that I'm a christian myself, but I never saw a problem with it. There were a few times were I felt they were kind of pushing their belief in the story, but they seemed to come around nicely, keeping the story from getting too direct.
The discussion of faith and belief is so very much a discussion of blind faith, but with how Santa can apparently be everywhere on the glob in on night, know what children are naughty and nice, and being able to make any present he wants, often portrays Santa as the child's version of God: Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotent.
Then there's one of my favorite extra characters: The Ghost Hitchhiker. He often questions the faith of the protagonist and points it out when he's having a crisis. The movie is really good, but it's all an emotional film filled with really good effects for its time and some exceptional symbolism and themes.
Merry Christmas everyone
No comments:
Post a Comment