The technology used to make this movie is even better than the movie itself!

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2006)

So, there was this popular book, "The Polar Express", and a group of wealthy and famous actors, writers, and directors decided to make it into a movie. But how do you translate the magic of the book into a magical movie? You use cutting edge technology, along with very versatile actors.
Tom Hanks plays 4 or 5 different roles, from a small child to a parent and a hobo, to Santa himself. Yes, his voice is different for each, but that's the easy part. They used a technology with large numbers of sensors around important facial areas, hands, arms, legs, and torso to later generate computer animation. So the animation looks very real, while the characters are obviously not real. Adults are used to model children, but the result is the form of a child. Great things, these computers are. I wonder what we did before we had them? Maybe draw each cell by hand???
The DVD has a beautiful presentation of the movie, with superb surround sound. The train sounds like a real train, if you have a good subwoofer in the system.
The whole story is about believing. When the train gets to the North Pole, just a few minutes before Christmas, we see Santa's workshop is more like an industrial city, big enough to make all those gifts for kids around the world, with not a few, but thousands of elves. I liked the celebration that occurred, when the very large bag was loaded onto the sleigh, and Santa exited through large doors into the courtyard where everyone waited for him, cheering and dancing as they celebrated another successful preparation.