'Beowulf': A New Hybrid for an Old Tale  Bill Desowitz uncovers
what new wrinkles Sony Pictures Imageworks came up with in
conquering Beowulf, the new performance capture hybrid from
Robert Zemeckis.   The Uncanny Valley is not so uncanny in
Beowulf, thanks to advancements in performance capture
techniques and 3D animation. All images © 2007 Paramount
Pictures and Shangri-La Ent., LLC. All rights reserved.    When
director Robert Zemeckis was in the middle of riding The Polar
Express a few years back, he already knew that he would make
Beowulf in the same performance capture hybrid method.
Fortunately, the technology has improved enough to pull off his
adult animated vision of the oldest surviving example of Anglo-
Saxon heroic poetry -- meaning a lot more realism.  Indeed, The
Uncanny Valley is not quite as uncanny, thanks to advancements
in performance capture techniques and 3D animation at Sony
Pictures Imageworks. Just look at Beowulf (portrayed by Ray
Winstone as both a young and elderly man), or King Hro