We live in a world where the artificial and the real are merging at an increasing speed. Indeed, the word real started to lose its original meaning many years ago, particularly in the 80s, as exemplified by the works of people such as Beaudrillard and Fukuyama. Simulation, simulacrum, hyperreal, virtual reality, augmented reality, alternate reality, all different ways to describe variations of what is slowly replacing the real as we used to know it. As i described in this post and in this essay, animation is an ideal tool to explore these alternate realities and to depict visions of the future. But there are different ways of using animation in film, and some are better than others, depending on the criteria that one uses to judge a film.

Robert Zemeckis, who in 1988 was already exploring the merging of real characters and animation with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, brings his Polar Express (04) performance capture technology to Beowulf, the classic 8th century English poem. Performance capture, another term for motion capture, means that ‘real’ actors, equiped with sensors, act out the scenes in front of a bluescreen, which are then rendered as digi-animations. In most cases, performance capture is used to capture movement. In the case of Beowulf, it is also used to capture visual appearance. And this is where Zemeckis lost of a lot of critics.

For these people, watching The Incredibles (04) or Ratatouille (07) is one thing. In these films, it is clear that the animated humans are not real, even if the story takes place in a copy of our world. Therefore, their acting is not judged on the same level as that of a human actor. However, in Beowulf, the digital characters look a bit like Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins. Hence, a natural reaction for many is to expect more from these characters than they would from an animated one. Afterall, acting is an essential element of solid filmmaking. If this acting is not properly conveyed due to technological limitations, then the film naturally suffers. For this reason (and a couple of others connected to the script), films such as Beowulf can not be as effective and impactful on the collective psyche as animated features have become. But it’s probably only a matter of time and Zemeckis must be given credit for pushing the envelope and for playing with the medium.

But Beowulf is also very entertaining and if one can see beyond the limitations mentioned above, there is plenty of action and escapist fun to be had with this tale of warriors, demons and dragons.