The ImageMovers Animated Film Guide
Created | Updated Apr 13, 2018
ImageMovers is an independent film company that was created in 1997 by acclaimed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. Since 2000 it has made a number of live action films as well as pioneering performance-capture animation techniques in five animated films made to date. Despite some early success, its last animated film, Mars Needs Moms (2011), was a huge box office disaster.
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis is an Oscar-winning filmmaker who established himself in the 1980s as a highly talented writer and director who has since pushed the boundaries of using computer graphics in live action films. In the late 1970s/early 1980s he and his then writing partner Bob Gale established a reputation for writing incredible film scripts that had very positive reactions in test screenings, but resulted in films that no-one actually went to see. His first film, I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), was about a group of American Beatles fans who wanted to see them on the Ed Sullivan Show, but it flopped. His second film was the Steven Spielberg directed 1941 (1979), which again flopped, with Used Cars (1980) also flopping. It was not until he directed 1984's Romancing the Stone that he enjoyed unexpected success1. He wrote and directed 1985's Back to the Future, a film that had been turned down by every major studio but became a huge success for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, which he followed with co-writing and directing the two sequels. However it was 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit that set the seed of combining animation with live action that ImageMovers would later specialise in.
In the 1990s Zemeckis' career continued to enjoy success, most notably with directing Forrest Gump (1994) which won six Oscars; both Best Director and Best Picture, as well as Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Editing. This was followed by another huge hit, Contact. This success allowed him to form his own studio, ImageMovers, directing the new studio's first film What Lies Beneath in 2000 followed the same year by Cast Away, which again resulted in Tom Hanks winning a Best Actor Oscar. Yet following this unprecedented success, Zemeckis changed direction and focussed on creating animated films by pioneering mo-cap.
ImageMovers' first logo shows a steam locomotive approaching the camera, pulling a train of film-shaped carriages. ImageMovers Digital's logo showed a ball falling down a staircase, with the stairs forming the letters IMD.
Mo-Cap and Performance Capture
Motion Capture, commonly called Mo-Cap for short, is a way of recording the movement of people and objects. In ImageMovers' animated films the technique was used to combine actions in the real world with digitally created computer objects and actions. All the actors wore special mo-cap suits covered in markers, which traditionally look like blue ping-pong balls, attached to key parts of their body. More marker dots are painted on each performer's face, to a typical total of 250 markers on each actor. Receptors pick up the movement of these reference markers to map the actor's face and body movement. When a performer moves, the receptors detect how the markers have moved. This information is combined with an animated 3D digital character linked to the actor so that any move the actor makes is precisely replicated by the animated character.
When mo-cap is used to replicate far more subtle movement, particularly facial expressions, it is called 'Performance Capture'.
Making Mo-Cap: Volume and T-Pose
ImageMovers' Mo-Cap process involves actors giving realistic performances in a three-dimensional cube-shaped stage area known as the Volume. Infrared spotlights flood the Volume with infrared light. The Volume is surrounded by numerous Receptors on the four walls and the ceiling which detect any movement made within the Volume. There are a minimum of 40 on each side, for example 224 Receptors were used on Beowulf. Computer software combines all the receptors' data, triangulating to make a virtual reconstruction viewable from any conceivable angle.
Before the actors begin, they stand in what is called a T-Pose2 – with their legs together and arms out to the sides like a letter T, as this exposes all the markers on body and face allowing the computers to pick up their exact location. The actors also often have to make a serious of movements called ROM (Range of Motion) movements to ensure their every movement is being picked up.
As mo-cap records performances in a 3-D environment, it excels at creating realistic 3D images that are more impressive than films filmed in 2D and converted into 3D. All ImageMovers' films have been released in 3D.
Props
In order for the characters to realistically interact with their virtual environment, full-scale props were built for the actors to interact with. These were wire-framed hollow models that allowed infrared light to pass through without blocking the receptors. Each prop was barcoded so the computer knew which prop is in use and could combine it with its virtual equivalent. Large-scale props and rigs were used to make everything as realistic as possible. So for example, door props were used to capture the movement of opening a door. In Beowulf, to recreate the animation of a ship, a boat-shaped rig was built that actually swayed side-to-side while for the horse-riding scenes, real horses covered in 95 markers were used to capture horses' movements, and were even ridden up a replica spiral staircase.
Dead Eyes in Uncanny Valley
The Polar Express was heavily criticised for leading to eerily realistic-looking creepy characters in animated films who appear to have strangely plastic skin and dead eyes, in a phenomenon known as 'uncanny valley'3. To overcome the problem of characters' dead eyes, from Beowulf onwards Electrooculograph electrodes were developed to record eye muscle movement to create more realistic eyes. Later, high definition video camera helmets were used to record every movement of the actors' faces.
Films
The five films made by ImageMovers are listed below – the first three were co-produced by various different studios, while the final two were made by ImageMovers Digital, a joint-venture between ImageMovers and the Walt Disney Company. ImageMovers Digital announced plans to make six animated films, however following the disastrous performance of the second, Mars Needs Moms, Disney ended the joint venture and the remaining planned films were all cancelled.
ImageMovers' animation style combines not only mo-capped animation but also the use of 3D. The films aren't always suitable for younger viewers, so their BBFC4, IFCO5 and MPAA rating is also included, as well as whether the films pass the The Bechdel Test. This can be summarised as whether the film involves two or more female characters who have a conversation together that does not include or mention any male characters.
1. The Polar Express (2004)
| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
|---|---|
| Studio | |
| Plot | On Christmas Eve a boy who doubts in the existence of Santa Claus is invited on board a magical train called the Polar Express by the conductor. This train takes children to the North Pole to meet Santa. He befriends a girl and a nervous boy named Billy, meets a ghost-like tramp and witnesses the late-running train have various nerve-wracking adventures on the way, including steep inclines, sudden drops and sliding across a frozen lake before finally making it to the North Pole, where Santa is said to give the first present of the year. But does the boy believe? |
| Length | 96 minutes |
| Setting | Christmas Eve, 20th Century, on the Polar Express between the United States and North Pole |
| Characters |
|
| Based On | The Polar Express (1985) by Chris Van Allsburg |
| Music | Score composed by Alan Silvestri, songs by Alan Silvestri & Glen Ballard:
|
| Bechdel | Fail |
| Rating | BBFC: U IFCO: G MPAA: G |
A strong film about the magic of Christmas that not only is officially the first all-digital capture film where all acting was done by motion capture, it was Oscar nominated for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Original Song. Costing $165 million, at the time it was the most expensive animated film yet made. It was also released in 3-D IMAX. The Polar Express itself was based on a 2-8-4 Pere Marquette 1225 locomotive that had been on display at a sports stadium near where the book's author and film's producer Chris Van Allsburg had played as a child.
Of the children on the train, only the lonely boy Billy's name is revealed, everyone else remains anonymous. However the message punched into their ticket by the Conductor reveals much about their personality and what message they need to learn. With Santa Claus, the ghostly tramp, the conductor and the main boy all played by Tom Hanks, many have speculated that the film symbolises faith and the Holy Trinity (Santa the father, the Conductor the son and the Hobo the Holy Ghost), or that the boy grows up to become the conductor. Another theory is that they are the ghosts of Christmas past (hobo), present (conductor) and future (Santa). The boy also encounters a puppet of Scrooge; Zemeckis would later adapt A Christmas Carol. Neither of these theories explain what Tom Hanks' role as his main character's faithless father represents.
The film contains nods to Zemeckis' Back to the Future trilogy, especially Part III which contains a steam engine. Both the hero boy and Doc Brown in the earlier film say they had always wanted to blow a train whistle. The look of the North Pole itself was inspired by American railway architecture. Incidentally the boy named Steven who just escaped being put on the naughty list was a reference to Zemeckis' friend Steven Spielberg.
Though successful, the film was criticised for the 'plastic' appearance of its characters as well as the expressionless eyes. ImageMovers would work hard to improve this in later films.
2. Monster House (2006)
| Director | Gil Kenan |
|---|---|
| Studios |
|
| Plot | It is Halloween and DJ's parents have gone away for the weekend, leaving him with disinterested babysitter Zee. DJ spends his time spying on old Nebbercracker, whose house is across the road; whenever a toy lands on Nebbercracker's lawn he breaks or takes it, screaming at the children to stay away from his house. When DJ's friend Chowder's basketball lands on the lawn, DJ tries to rescue it but is caught by Nebbercracker, who has a heart attack and collapses, apparently dead. Yet someone phones DJ from Nebbercracker's house, leaving DJ and Chowder to believe it is haunted. Those who go near the house disappear and after the house tries to eat them they save Jenny, a door-to-door candy selling school girl, from being devoured. How can a group of children stop a house from eating all the innocent children who will call on Halloween? What secret is the house really hiding? |
| Length | 91 minutes |
| Setting | Late 20th Century suburban America in the 24 hours leading up to Halloween |
| Characters |
|
| Music | Composed by Douglas Pipes |
| Bechdel | Pass |
| Rating | BBFC: PG IFCO: PG MPAA: PG13 |
Monster House is an enjoyable horror film, containing many references to films such as It (1990) and The Shining (1980). Though not suitable for younger viewers, it has a similar tone to 1980s classics like The Goonies (1985) with some critics claiming that central characters DJ, Chowder and Penny are essentially copies of Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione. In order for the film to have a PG13 rating in America, no victim dies during the film; everyone (including the dog) seen to be eaten by the house is seen escaping in a mid-credits sequence.
Monster House was Israeli-British-American Gil Kenan's first film, made after Robert Zemeckis had been impressed with his 10-minute student film. It was the second film to make extensive use of mo-cap following The Polar Express and was even nominated for a Best Animated Feature at the 79th Academy Awards9. Like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Back to the Future trilogy, the film was executively produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. Kathleen Turner had previously starred in Who Framed Roger Rabbit as Jessica Rabbit; Constance would be quite a different character.
3. Beowulf (2007)
| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
|---|---|
| Studio |
|
| Plot | When a vicious man-eating monster called Grendel attacks Denmark, King Hrothgar promises a rich reward to any man who kills the monster. Beowulf arrives to fulfil the quest, but Grendel is only the first monster he encounters. |
| Length | 109 minutes |
| Setting | Denmark in 507 AD and several years later |
| Characters |
|
| Based On | Beowulf, 10th Century epic poem |
| Music | Songs composed by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri except 'Olaf Drinking Song' by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary |
| Bechdel | Fail |
| Rating | BBFC: 12A IFCO: 12 MPAA: PG-13 |
Beowulf is based on the epic poem Beowulf, written around or before the 10th Century and considered the first story written in the English language. Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman and Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary10 had written the adaptation in 1997 as a mid-budget live-action fantasy film for Warner Bros., but after Warner passed on the project the initial draft impressed Zemeckis so much that in 2005 he bought the screenplay even though it had not originally conceived as a mo-cap film. This led to some changes to the original script to take advantage of the greater freedom allowed by mo-cap and the 3D filming.
The adaptation made changes to the original story in order to link the three acts of the story together and include references to sex and alcohol. The portrayal of Grendel is remarkably like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings in the 2001-2003 adaptations, however both Grendel and his mother converse in Old English, adding a pleasing dimension to the tale.
This was the most-complained about film of the year both sides of the Atlantic, with numerous complaints about the amount of horror, violence, nudity and sex for a film rated 12. A director's cut includes more nudity and graphic violence.
4. A Christmas Carol (2009)
| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
|---|---|
| Studio |
|
| Plot | Greedy miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, on Christmas Eve. Scrooge is told that three more ghosts will visit him to help him repent from his selfish, wicked ways and live a better life or he will suffer the same fate as Marley, spending eternity in misery, carrying heavy chains with each link representing a selfish sin. |
| Length | 92 minutes |
| Setting | Victorian London, 1843 |
| Characters |
|
| Based On | A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens |
| Music | Composed by Alan Silvestri |
| Bechdel | Fail |
| Rating | BBFC: PG IFCO: PG MPAA: PG-13 |
The first film by ImageMovers Digital to be released was A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge. This was not the first time that Disney had adapted Charles Dickens' classic tale, having made short film Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and co-produced The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). As a Disney film, it opens in the traditional Disney way with the camera zooming in on the book being adapted. Yet this version is certainly unsuitable for young children, being quite scary in parts.
Visually impressive with stunning detail to create by far the most realistic animated depiction of London, not only beautiful but also dirty and full of smoke. The 3D is very effective, often shocking, with disconcerting use of shadows. This adaptation of the Christmas classic seems to be suffering from the illusion that it is a rip-roaring rollercoaster ride, and so rarely stays still, with Scrooge flying across the skies over London or shrinking to the size of a mouse. The audience is constantly swooped and twirled about until left quite dizzy, which means that despite A Christmas Carol being one of the most feel-good stories of all time, the audience is unable to notice. There is a vast difference between feeling motion sickness and feeling emotion.
Time travel has long fascinated Zemeckis, who dealt with similar themes in Back to the Future. A Scrooge puppet had also appeared briefly in The Polar Express.
5. Mars Needs Moms (2011)
| Director | Simon Wells |
|---|---|
| Studio |
|
| Plot | No one would have believed in the dawning years of the 21st century that human affairs were being watched from the dying world of Mars. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded our mothers with envious eyes and slowly and surely they drew their plans against our mums. The Martian Supervisor arranges for Milo's mum to be kidnapped from Earth and brought to Mars, hoping to drain her memories to implant in the next generation of nanny robots that will care for the next generation of female Martian hatchlings, who emerge only once every 25 years. Milo, trying to rescue her, is brought to Mars too, where he encounters Gribble, a man in his early 30s whose mother had been kidnapped and killed 25 years earlier, and his pet spideresque robot Two-Cat. He also meets Ki, a friendly Martian female who wishes to know about Earth and love. They discover that Mars is a stratified society with the females living in a shiny world above, raised by robots, while the males are discarded to the underground rubbish dump, where they live loving, but feral, lives. Can Milo, Gribble and Ki save Milo's mum? And what is the buried truth beneath the Martian way of life? |
| Length | 88 minutes |
| Setting | Earth and Mars, early 21st Century. |
| Characters |
|
| Based On | Mars Needs Moms! (2007) by Berkeley Breathed |
| Music | Composed by John Powell, except
|
| Bechdel | Pass. Though of the four humans in the film only one is female (who spends most of the film unconscious), most Martians seen are female. |
| Rating | BBFC: PG IFCO: PG MPAA: PG |
Mars Needs Moms is a film confidently directed by Simon Wells, the experienced director of animated films including An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and The Prince of Egypt (1998) as well as live-action film The Time Machine (2002). He had worked with Zemeckis in the past on projects including the Back to the Future trilogy as well as Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Simon Wells is the great-grandson of HG Wells, whose legacy can be clearly felt in this film; not only the aliens from Mars encountered in The War of the Worlds, but also The Time Machine as, like the Eloi and Morlocks, Martian society is divided into city-dwelling females and underground, feral males.
In 2000, Fox Animation Studios released Titan AE. This was an animated film set in space about a boy who embarks on an interstellar quest accompanied by an assortment of aliens. It was a major box office disaster, making only $36 million, a loss of approximately $100 million and resulted in the closure of Fox Animation Studios. Two years later, Disney released Treasure Planet, an animated film set in space about a boy who embarks on an interstellar quest accompanied by an assortment of aliens. It too was a major box office disaster, losing approximately $70 million, becoming the 8th biggest box office loss of all time. Mars Needs Moms is a film about a boy who embarks on an interplanetary quest to rescue his mother, accompanied by an assortment of aliens. This film cost approximately $150 million to make. Mums, however, felt no need to bring their families to see the film, so it clawed back less than $40 million at the box office, placing it in the top five biggest box office losses of all time and Disney's biggest failure.
Animators are still predominantly male and often wish to make the sort of film they would have most enjoyed when they were younger. However, the group most likely to avoid animated films in Western culture is the male 15-30 bracket. Since the 1970s, animated films aimed for this age group have consistently flopped11. The storyline, about an abandoned child whose mother is kidnapped, is also not suitable for younger children who would find this terrifying. The chances of any large audience coming to watch Mars Needs Moms were a million to one, and they didn't come.
The End
Before the failure of Mars Needs Moms, ImageMovers Digital had planned to produce a mo-cap remake of Yellow Submarine12, having secured approval to use 16 Beatles songs. The plan had been to release the film during the 2012 London Olympics, which he felt would be a good time to promote a British-themed film. This would have been followed by a remake or sequel of Zemeckis' own Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Following the failure, Disney immediately severed all ties with ImageMovers and these projects were abandoned. ImageMovers still exists as Zemeckis' own production company, however it has only made live-action films.
