I'm late commenting on this, but it's still worth noting, I think. Here's the short version-- film critic heaps praise on "Monster House" for achievement in facial expressions, a feat he claims was impossible before the motion-capture techniques employed in "Monster House" became available (for more, see summary at BoingBoing).
First, as others have rightly pointed out, this is completely asinine and betrays a willful ignorance of the power of animation in particular, and art in general. You don't need a photograph to convey human emotion any more than you need live action cinema to do so. Think Guernica or Dumbo. Neither approaches photorealism, but both convey powerful emotion.
Even this site's mascot, mute and expressionless though he may be, usually manages to convey what's on his mind in his own way...
