The Polar Express, Robert Zemeckis, Chris Van Allsburg, Tom Hanks, Hollywood, film, movie, computer animation, book, performance capture, Pixar, Santa Clause, Christmas Eve, North Pole.

Chris Van Allsburg's 'Polar Express' animated by Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis’ movie version of Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express, opens on Wednesday starring Tom Hanks.

The Polar Express film has launched a technological revolution in Hollywood, being neither live action nor computer animation but something in between called "performance capture." It digitizes actors and uses computers to create their environments.

Director Robert Zemeckis, who read The Polar Express to his 2-year-old son in 1987, two years after it was published, says the movie version of The Polar Express looks like an "oil painting come to life." He says the technology pleased Van Allsburg, who didn't think animation or live action were viable formats.

Van Allsburg’s original picture book tells the simple, but magical story of a boy who has doubts in Santa Clause and sets off on a mystery Christmas Eve trip to the North Pole.

Over the past few years, Hollywood has seen a shift away from serious and sentimental family entertainment to a Pixar-dominated world that relies upon irony and clever humor. While The Polar Express represents the next step in this visual evolution, it undermines recent trends because it is not a comedy.