I've been fascinated by this phrase since I came across it a couple of years ago in a WordSpy email.
When I first saw this phrase, it was shortly after the Final Fantasy movie flopped so hard it took down Sony's new digital animation studio with it. At the time, I thought it applicable, but the more I think about it, the more I think FF's problems stemmed more from the "why bother" nature of the animation (why go to the effort to create a nearly photo-real presentation for a film that could EASILY have been handled with live actors and digital effects) and the untranslatable nature of the storytelling (you can translate the words, you just can't translate the societal frame of reference that would make the story resonate with Western audiences).
But the trailers for the DVD release of The Polar Express brought the phrase right back to me. Reviews for this one were pretty good, but I just found the animation too creepy for words. And I understand that this is one of those "love it or hate it" films… people either feel it's a new Christmas classic and love the look of it, or they're creeped out, like me, and can't run fast enough. There's not much middle ground.
It looks like some of us have a lower tolerance for the "near human-like" than others.
uncanny valley n. Feelings of unease, fear, or revulsion created by a robot or robotic device that appears to be, but is not quite, human-like.As the definition suggests, it's a term used by roboticists when discussing form and design, but it's one that also really applies to digital animation, I think.
When I first saw this phrase, it was shortly after the Final Fantasy movie flopped so hard it took down Sony's new digital animation studio with it. At the time, I thought it applicable, but the more I think about it, the more I think FF's problems stemmed more from the "why bother" nature of the animation (why go to the effort to create a nearly photo-real presentation for a film that could EASILY have been handled with live actors and digital effects) and the untranslatable nature of the storytelling (you can translate the words, you just can't translate the societal frame of reference that would make the story resonate with Western audiences).
But the trailers for the DVD release of The Polar Express brought the phrase right back to me. Reviews for this one were pretty good, but I just found the animation too creepy for words. And I understand that this is one of those "love it or hate it" films… people either feel it's a new Christmas classic and love the look of it, or they're creeped out, like me, and can't run fast enough. There's not much middle ground.
It looks like some of us have a lower tolerance for the "near human-like" than others.
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