If you grew up in the 1990s, like me, you probably read all kinds of different children’s books. You may have read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond in 1985, or The Rainbow Fish written and illustrated by Marcus Pfister in 1992, or even Stellaluna written and illustrated by Janell Cannon in 1993. But do you remember Chris Van Allsburg’s work? Chris Van Allsburg won two Caldecott Medals (award for Most Distinguished American Picture Book for children) for writing Jumanji in 1981 and The Polar Express in 1985. Both these and others by him have been turned into movies, and he contributed artistic talent to one of Disney’s most beloved films, as well.
Chris Van Allsburg was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18th, 1949. His parents initially raised him and his older sister on a farmhouse, but the family moved to an actual home in Grand Rapids when he was three so that he could walk to school. After graduating High School in East Grand Rapids, he went to the College of Architecture and Design at the University of Michigan, which included an art school at the time. There, he majored in sculpture, learning all kinds of techniques including bronze casting, wood carving, and resin molding. After graduating the University of Michigan in 1972, he continued studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned his Master’s Degree in Sculpture in 1975. After graduating there, he built his own sculpture studio at home.
Although Van Allsburg struggled with ideas of what to sculpt at first, he began sketching some ideas that his wife, Lisa (whom he married in 1974), thought would be good in children’s books. She showed the work to an editor, who agreed to contract his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1979. The book was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal. Van Allsburg’s second children’s book, Jumanji, was published two years later. He also created illustrations for a series of books called “The Enchanted World,” which were published between 1984 and 1987 and were written by various authors.
Soon after, Chris hatched a new idea. As an adult, he always loved to reminisce about childhood visits to Herpolsheimer’s and Wurzburg’s department stores in Grand Rapids. To him, being at those stores to him, always felt like visiting Santa Claus at the North Pole. This conjured up the idea of a young boy meandering around on a cold, wintry night becoming curious when he sees a train, only to discover that the train was headed to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus. This became the story line for “Polar Express,” and Van Allsburg based the train itself off of the Pere Marquette 1225 locomotive, which is a restored train that he played on as a child. The book was officially published in ’85, and Van Allsburg won his second Caldecott medal for it the following year.
After writing Two Bad Ants in 1988, Chris Van Allsburg was very fortunate enough to be hired by Walt Disney Animation to work as a Visual Development Artist for The Little Mermaid (1989). He published his first novel, The Widow’s Broom in 1992. Following that, Columbia/TriStar Pictures hired Van Allsburg to write the screen story for the movie version of Jumanji (1995) starring Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt. He continued writing and illustrating books, including Bad Day at Riverbend, which was published that same year and he illustrated A City in Winter which was written by Mark Helprin in 1996. He wrote and illustrated Zathura in 2002, which was a sequel to “Jumanji,” that took place in space instead of the jungle, though the books featured different leading characters. He also served as executive producer on the romantic comedy-drama How to Deal (2003).
Around the time of working on both “Zathura,” and “How to Deal,” Van Allsburg received word that Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis were interested in making a movie of “Polar Express.” Hanks himself had optioned for the movie version as early as 1999, but at the time, the film was to be live-action. Zemeckis, however, later ruled that a live-action movie “would look awful and would be impossible” Zemeckis also felt that the book’s artistic style “was so much a part of the emotion of the story,” and would be completely lost in a live-action movie.
That being the case, the process known as “performance-capture technology” was invented exclusively for the movie. It involved all the actors wearing camera dots on their faces used to detect all their movements and the filmmakers then connected the animation to their actions via computer. Zemeckis co-wrote, co-produced and directed the film, though he invited Chris Van Allsburg to executive produce so that the film would be true to the original vision of his book. The film received three Oscar Nominations, for Best Original Song “Believe,” Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Best Achievement in Sound Editing. It was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the very first film produced on “Performance Capture.”
The following year, Columbia/Tri-Star produced the film version of Chris Van Allsburg’s other book, “Zathura.” Zathura: A Space Adventure was directed by Jon Favreau and starred Josh Hutcherson as the older brother, Walter. Hutcherson had previously shared the voice-over role of the Hero Boy in “Polar Express,” with Daryl Sabara while Tom Hanks provided the performance-capture movement for the part. He published the books Probuditi in 2006 as well as the novel Queen of the Falls in 2011. When Columbia rebooted the “Jumanji,” films with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and it’s sequel Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), they did not involve Van Allsburg, though he was given screen credit in both movies for having written both the book as well as the original film’s screenplay.
Chris Van Allsburg is a remarkable children’s book author. He will always be remembered for “Jumanji,” and “Polar Express,” as well as the films that those books inspired, but more importantly, he will be remembered for writing creative stories that inspire children to believe in the value of imagination and the impossible. And “The Little Mermaid,” certainly wouldn’t be the classic that it’s considered today had it not been for his visual development skills.
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