Comparison · 3 shared techniques

The Polar Express vs The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Polar Express (2004) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) share 3 techniques. Here is how each film uses them.

The Polar Express (2004) poster

The Polar Express

Robert Zemeckis · 2004

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) poster

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Peter Jackson · 2013

Shared

Same technique, two films

Performance Capture Pioneer

Recording an actor's body movements and facial expressions and using that data to drive a fully digital character. The human performance survives inside a non-human form.

The Polar Express

Tom Hanks played several roles, recorded as movement and facial data that drove digital characters. The human performance survives in the animation. It was an early large-scale test of the technique.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Benedict Cumberbatch gave Smaug both his voice and his motion capture. The dragon's sneer and the way he turns his head carry a human performance inside a giant digital body. You feel you are being talked down to by something very old and very clever.

Symbolic Object

Returning to the same physical object again and again until it means more than what it is. It moves the plot and also stands for the film's main ideas.

The Polar Express

The sleigh bell returns again and again, and it means belief. Only those who believe can hear it. By the end, it stands for the film's whole idea.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The ring keeps coming back, and each time it shows what it does to Bilbo. When he drops it, he turns violent to get it back. It moves the plot and also stands for the way small temptations grow.

Kinetic Set Piece Architecture

Building an action sequence as a chain where each solution creates a new problem. The layout of the space stays clear, so the escalation follows its own logic.

The Polar Express

The runaway train sequence builds one problem on top of another. Caribou block the track, the throttle fails, the train speeds down a hill and onto a frozen lake. The path is clear, so you follow each escalation.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The dwarves escape in barrels down a river, and every fix brings a new problem. Elves shoot at them, orcs jump in and the barrels spin through rapids. The layout of the river stays clear, so the chaos follows its own logic.

Different

Where they split

Only in The Polar Express

Only in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug