I have been looking forward to seeing The Polar Express for a long time now. I first heard that this movie was being made several years ago. I had heard the story once and enjoyed it. I did think it could make a nice movie. I do like to see Christmas movies this time of year, so that added to me wanting to see the movie. I enjoyed this movie more than I did Christmas with the Kranks.
A young boy was in bed on Christmas Eve. His parents thought that he was asleep, but he wasn't. He was waiting to try to discover if Santa Claus was real or not. He had been having doubts about Santa. There were some loud noises and the boy ran outside to see a train pulling up in front of his house. The conductor said the train, the Polar Express, was going to the North Pole. Hero Boy didn't get on at first, but decided he wanted to go and jumped on just in time. Once on board, he saw several other children. The Know it All kept talking about things that were somehow connected to the train and their trip. Hero Girl said they were going to the North Pole to see Santa. The train made one more stop to pick up Lonely Boy. Hero Boy had to intervene somehow so Lonely Boy could get on the train. He went off to sit by himself in the last car. Hero Boy and the other children had a few adventures during the journey to the North Pole. Getting to the destination didn't end all of that and some other things happened there as well.
The plot of the movie was simple and straight forward. The movie was based on a children's picture book. The book wasn't very long, so there wasn't much to work with for the movie. I heard the story once several years ago. I can't remember too much from the story, but I do know that it was a short book. Things were added to make the movie longer, which I expected to happen. It did seem like it was a tad too long. Things were added that really didn't add anything to the story. I think one or two minor things could have been cut out to keep the story moving along better. The pace didn't slow down so much that the movie dragged or anything, but it did get slower in a few places. The overall plot of the movie remained the same as the book. A boy was having doubts about Santa. He got the opportunity to take a ride on a magical train to the North Pole and meet Santa. I don't remember the boy having as much interaction with the other children on the train, but it has been many years since I heard the story. The book was sweet and heart warming. I wasn't sure how well that would transfer to the big screen, but I think it worked well. The message that the book gave about believing was successfully transferred to the movie. Since I had heard the story, I did know how the movie would end. There were still a few surprises added in during the journey though.
The animation that was used in The Polar Express was gorgeous. The visuals were stunning. The animation made it look like the illustrations from the book came to life. A form of computer animation was used. Some of the different locations, like the rooms in the house and even some of the outdoor shots, looked incredibly realistic. Snow was falling in many scenes and I thought it looked natural. I can't remember if the breath of the characters was shown when they were talking outside or not. The train was speeding toward the North Pole in most of the scenes. Hero Boy was shown in several situations where the wind was blowing his hair around. That did look good, though I'm not sure if it was as good as what Pixar has accomplished in some of their movies. There were a few times where it seemed the effect of the wind was inconsistent. Hero Girl had her hair in two braids. There were a few times she was standing outside of the train and her clothes were moving from the wind, but her braids didn't move at all. It was a minor thing, but it did seem like her braids should have moved at least a little bit from all that wind. During the journey to the North Pole, there was a section that made it look like the train was a roller coaster. Something sort of like that has been done in a few other computer animated movies in the last few years, though this was the only one that had an actual train ivolved. Later in the movie there were a few other scenes that invoked the roller coaster feel. That did start to get repetitive.
The characters were brought to life in a little different way for The Polar Express. Some sort of motion capture was used to create the characters. I think it was the same technique that was used to create Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies. Little sensors were placed on the actors to capture their movements. Those were then transferred into a computer for the animation. The people did look extremely life like throughout the movie, but they did look a little strange at times. Some movements did look a bit unnatural at times. Something looked off with the movement of the legs on Hero Boy at a few times. Most of the times, the characters weren't shown from the waist down when walking or running. In the few times their legs were shown doing those things, something looked a little off in the way they were moving. Arm and hand motions looked slightly off in a few places as well. That was a minor thing and didn't cause me to like the movie any less. I saw a little bit of a special on how the movie was mad that showed Tom Hanks with the little sensors all over his face. That footage will probably end up on the DVD once it is released.
Tom Hanks is credited as several of the characters in The Polar Express, including Hero Boy and Santa. I did recognize his voice as the conductor, hobo, Santa, and the father. The voices of each of those characters did sound a little different, but I could still tell it was Tom Hanks. The voice of Hero Boy sounded like a child. I did some research online and found that someone else did provide the voice for that character, along with Lonely Boy. There were also additional children performers for the children characters. Peter Scolari was credited for Lonely Boy. Nona Gaye did the performance for Hero Girl. Eddie Deezen was the Know it all. He has also done the voice for Mandrake in the Dexter's Laboratory cartoon. I recognized his voice, but I couldn't think where I had heard it before. The voice did work for the characters.
There wasn't too development for the characters in The Polar Express. Most of the characters weren't even given actual names. The main character was just known as Hero Boy. There was also a Hero Girl, a Know it All, a Lonely Boy, a conductor, and a Hobo in the movie. Lonely Boy's name was shared a few times in the movie. He was the only one on the train to have their name given. There were other children on the train as well, but none of them were identified in any way. They were really just there in the background and not involved in the main things that were going on. Some waiters and two men that were working in the engine also turned up briefly, but there was no development for them at all. I think Hero Boy was the most developed character. His questions about Santa were shared at the beginning of the movie before he got on the train. It wasn't really clear why the other children on the train had been picked for the trip. There were only about a dozen children in total on the train. I did wonder why there weren't more children on the train. The Hobo was a mysterious character. He just sort of showed up on the train and then vanished. He was shown sleeping under the train, and then he was on the roof with a little fire. It was never explained why he was there. From the way he just vanished, it seemed like he could have been a ghost, but that was never explained for sure either. He could have been a figment of Hero Boy's imagination since he was the only other character that actually interacted with Hobo. I don't remember Hobo being in the book.
Alan Silvestri composed the score for The Polar Express. The music fit in with the movie perfectly. At one point, Lonely Boy and Hero Girl sang a song. I hadn't heard that song before, so I believe it was original for this movie. The score wasn't overbearing and didn't take away from what was going on in the movie. Some classic Christmas songs were also included in the movie. Josh Groban sang a song that played during the credits of the movie.
CHARACTERS
Hero Boy - He was a young boy that had doubts about Santa. He was hesitant about going on the train at first, but decided he wanted to go. He could be impulsive at times and ended up putting himself in danger to help his new friends.
Hero Girl - She was a girl that was already on the train when Hero Boy got there. She was the first to talk to Hero Boy. She was also the first to attempt to be friends with Lonely Boy. She had a tendency to try to lead others.
Know it All - He was one of the other children on the train. He was smart and tended to ramble off some knowledge he had about some things related to their trip.
Lonely Boy - He was the last child to board the train. He stayed alone for a while and seemed sad.
Conductor - He was the man that greeted the children when the train stopped at each house. He was concerned that they stay on schedule. He did something unique with the tickets the children had. He acted stern at times.
Hobo - He showed up to help Hero Boy a few times. Hobo said that he got on the train whenever he wanted. He stayed either under the car or on the roof.
CAST/VOICE TALENT
Jimmy Bennett - Voice of Lonely Boy Eddie Deezen - Know it All Nona Gaye - Hero Girl Tom Hanks - Hero Boy/Hobo/Conductor/Scrooge/Father/Santa Claus Daryl Sabara - Voice of Hero Boy Peter Scolari - Lonely Boy Leslie Zemeckis - Sarah/Mother
The Polar Express was released in November of 2004. The movie was 99 minutes long and rated PG. There is a version of the movie playing in IMAX theaters as well. There really wasn't anything offensive in the movie, though the question about Santa being real was brought up, so some younger children might be upset by that. There were children in the theater when I saw the movie, and several of them seemed to lose interest in the movie and they were running up and down the aisles. The adults that were there seemed to enjoy the movie more than the children did. The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis. It was based on the children's book of the same name that was written by Chris Van Allsburg. He also wrote the book that the movie Jumanji was based on.
I really enjoyed The Polar Express. The movie just made me feel good and made me smile several times while I was watching. It is the feel good holiday movie that Christmas with the Kranks failed to be. That was an entertaining Christmas movie too, but it just did succeed at being heart warming like The Polar Express did. This is a good holiday movie for families, though younger children might be bored with parts of the movie. I will definitely add this to my movie collection once it is out on DVD.
Director Robert Zemeckis revolutionized the art of animated film in 1998's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT by dropping cartoon characters into the same frame ...More at eBay
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