Soaring Over the Uncanny Valley

The uncanny valley is perhaps a term which is best described graphically, human emotion upon seeing figures which are more and more human become more and more positive. That is until we see figures which appear human enough,yet which lack the subtleties which real humans have, such as wrinkles, facial hair, and a deft subtlety of expression,and our emotion becomes instantly negative, thus the uncanny valley. The graph finally rises upon vision of a true human, ie, the 'most human' figure possible. This deep trench is known as the uncanny valley, and is called so due to these figures having an uncanny similarity to humans, yet falling short of entirely resembling humans, many films have fallen into this trap, in particular films which rely on motion capture, a notoriously difficult technique to perfect.

A Graphic Explanation of the Uncanny Valley Concept

The most famous film to have fallen into this trench is undoubtedly 'The Polar Express', a film by celebrated director Robert Zemeckis, director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, Zemeckis decided that motion capture was simply the way to go, and that he could cast Tom Hanks in multiple roles, in a delightful story about little children going on a train to see santa, however the film was a critical failure, with critics and audiences feeling that this film failed to bridge the valley, and that the characters looked creepy and lifeless, personally i would describe this film as akin to a video game, with many of the characters appearing to have little gravity, and seeming overly fake, too real yet not real enough at the same time, what a paradox!

The  creepy zombie kids finally get to meet Santa!

The second film to befoul the valley was Beowulf, also directed by Zemecki, however here many felt that the use of effects was simply unnecessary, and that again the characters looked creepy, and do we really need to cover the divine Angelina Jolie with a CGI cloak, how rude! Zemeckis' next two films would also fall short and hard, A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms were also released to a limp critical response and lukewarm box office receipts, with the latter being the biggest box office bomb of all time, loosing over 136 million dollars for Walt Disney Pictures.

 

Finally we come to two films which manage to avoid this pitfall, and which manage to soar over the valley through realism into hyperrealism, and which manage not to have its audiences cringing, he first of these and also surprisingly one of the earliest uses of motion character is the character of Gollum, who at the time was the most complex character ever, and which manages to look ultra realistic; scabs, warts, straggly hair and all, and which manages not to be too unsettling to its audience.

Oddly enough this is not too unsettling

Another film which uses motion capture to a fantastic effect is the Adventures Of Tinitn, and is really the only example to date of a feature length motion capture animation picture managing to leap over the gorge and leave us excited rather than unsettled, and using characters which have gravitas and weight, and which manage to look fantastically realistic, and yet not too realistic, it is a ludicrously fine line between disturbing and not and this film nails it, it is worth noting that this film was produced by Peter Jackson, acclaimed director of the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, who also used motion capture for his 2005 film King Kong. All three of these films also starred Andy Serkis.

In conclusion motion capture is a technique which can so easily go wrong, as shown by the fast majority of Robert Zemekis' animation canon, however when done right, it can be really really great, and when nailed it is truly a fantastic medium.