'The Polar Express' (2004)

Motion capture technology wasn't invented by Zemeckis, but the director and Sony Pictures Imageworks kicked it up a notch by using a new system called Imagemotion. The technique records facial and body motions of multiple actors at once by using lots of motion capture cameras. This helped take CG animation to a different level, and despite criticisms of dead eyes in the animation and more, the remarkable reality of Tom Hanks' conductor character is a standout creation.