The Polar Express

Wow, I’m already at my 100^th review. It hasn’t been a year yet, and I’m already at my 100^th review. Anyways, I think I shall treat my 100^th review with care, so in honor of my 25 days of Christmas reviews; I will look at the 2004 great Christmas special, “The Polar Express.” This film has the quality of a lot of lasting children’s entertainment. I would be lying if I didn’t say it was a little creepy though. When I mean creepy, I don’t mean it in an unpleasant way, but in a sneaky, teasing way that lets you know that strange things could happen. There’s a deeper, trembling tone, instead of a mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie. This one creates a world of its own, much like other classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” in which the wise child does not feel too satisfied.

Those who know the Chris Van Allsburg book will feel like they know what is going on from the opening moments, which quotes the story: “On Christmas Eve, many years ago, I lay quietly in my bed. ..." The main character to this story is never given a name, and is listening to the sound of the sleigh bells ringing. He is at just the age when the existence of Santa Claus is up for discussion.

The look of this film is extraordinary, a cross between live action and Van Allsburg’s artwork. Robert Zemeckis, the same director whose classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” put live action and animation together, this time merges them, using a process called “performance capture,” in which human actors perform the movements which are then transferred to lifelike animation. The characters in “The Polar Express” don’t look real, but they don’t look unreal either. They have a kind of a basic and emphasized reality that makes them visually magnetic. Many of the characters are played by the great Tom Hanks, who is the executive producer and worked with Zemeckis on the classic “Forrest Gump,” which is a film that also combined levels of reality and special effects.

Now the story: As Hero Boy (motion-capture by Tom Hanks and Josh Hutcherson), voiced by Daryl Sabara, lies awake in bed, there is a crash in the street and a train comes in front of his house. The boy runs outside with his robe and slippers, and the conductor, voiced by Hanks, tells the boy to get on board. Since he refused to sit on the lap of the mall Santa, and his little sister put out Santa’s cookies and milk, Hero Boy is getting to the point where he doesn’t know if Santa exists, and the Polar Express boards those kids to the North Pole, where seeing is believing, like Disney World’s tagline.

Already on board is Hero Girl, a sincere, gentle African American (motion-capture done by Tinashe and Chantel Valdivieso, singing voice done by Meagan Moore), voiced by Nona Gaye, who Hero Boy becomes friends with and also Lonely Boy (motion-capture by Peter Scolari and Hayden McFarland, singing voice by Matthew Hall), voiced by Jimmy Bennett, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks and always seems sad. Another character, Know-It-All (motion-capture done by Jimmy “Jax” Pinchax), voiced by Eddie Deezen, can’t give an answer without sounding obnoxious. These are our main characters, along with the Conductor, a Hobo (who lives on top of the train), Santa (both voiced by Hanks), and countless elves, voiced by Phil Fondacaro, Debbie Lee Carrington, Mark Povinelli, and Ed Gale.

Ebert has said, “There's an interesting disconnect between the movie's action and its story. The action is typical thrill-ride stuff, with the Polar Express careening down a "179-degree grade" and racing through tunnels with a half-inch of clearance, while Hero Boy and the Hobo ski the top of the train to find safety before the tunnel.” At the North Pole, there’s another dizzying ride when the kids go down a corkscrewing toy chute. You will feel like you’re on an amusement park ride during these segments.

Those scenes have a lot of skill put into them, but they are expected. Not expected is a point when the dazzling level of creativity in some other scenes. For instance, the part when Hero Girl’s lost ticket flies through the air with as much freedom is much like the floating feather at the start of “Forrest Gump.” When the hot chocolate is served on the train, waiters emerge with an acrobatic song-and-dance segment. Ebert described that the North Pole “looks like a turn-of-the-century German factory town, filled with elves who not only look mass-produced but may have been, since they mostly have exactly the same features (this is not a cost-cutting device, but an artistic decision).”

In this version, Santa is a good and decent man, and is also serious, since he is a professional man doing his job. Ebert says, “The elves are like the crowd at a political rally.” One part where the bag of toys is seen from a high angle that performs Santa’s job, but doesn’t exaggerate it. Ebert (I believe) must have joked when he said, “this is not Jolly St. Nick, but Claus Inc.” There is something scary about the elves with their intense, bony faces and their mob mentality.

What’s good about all this is that it’s the magic of “The Polar Express.” It doesn’t let us off the hook with the usual comforting Santa and Christmas clichés. When a helicopter lifts the bag of toys over the town square, it knocks the star off of the top of the Christmas tree, and an elf is almost impaled at the bottom of the tree. When Santa’s helpers prepare the reindeer, they don’t look like tame cartoon characters, but Ebert describes them as “skittish thoroughbreds.” For Lonely Boy, although he makes this trip and gets his Christmas present, and is violently protective of it, at by the end of the movie, we suspect his troubles are not over, and being lonely may not be his problem.

Here is what Ebert said in his review: “There are so many jobs and so many credits on this movie that I don't know whom to praise, but there are sequences here that are really very special. Some are quiet little moments, like a reflection in a hubcap. Some are visual masterstrokes, like a camera angle that looks straight up through a printed page, with the letters floating between us and the reader. Some are story concepts, like the train car filled with old and dead toys being taken back to the North Pole for recycling. Some are elements of mystery, like the Hobo, who is helpful and even saves Hero Boy's life but is in a world of his own up there on top of the train and doesn't become anybody's buddy (when he disappears, his hand always lingers a little longer than his body).”

“The Polar Express” is a movie for more than one season. It will become a recurrent, past down with each generation. It has a haunting, magical quality because it has an imaginative world that is fresh and plays true to it, avoiding all the tiresome Christmas clichés that children have engraved into their heads during this time of the year. The conductor at the beginning of the movie tells Hero Boy to get on the train, and you should do the same thing.

All in all, I also give this film a solid 10, since it’s also one of my absolute favorite Christmas specials. Stay tuned tomorrow when I continue my 25 days of Christmas reviews.