Amazing

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2004)

Amazing.
I know that the typical format for a film review is to spend ample time writing about the story, the background, the making of the film and maybe even some history on the actors or the director before getting to your opinion. But in the case of The Polar Express, I wanted to save you a lot of time so that maybe you can use the extra minutes to grab a paper and check out the local play times.
The Polar Express is nothing less than a stellar achievement in film-making that will instantly become a modern day Christmas classic. Based on the book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, the story surrounds a mysterious train that arrives on Christmas Eve to take young boys and girls to the North Pole to help him again believe in the magic of Christmas.
With a screenplay written by William Broyles, Jr. and director Robert Zemeckis, the film perfectly casts powerhouse Tom Hanks in no less than five separate roles including the conductor, a hobo, a father, scrooge and even the big man, Santa himself.
As a computer animated production, you may raise an eyebrow when I write that Hanks was perfectly cast, but The Polar Express incorporates a new animation technique that allows an actor to act rather than just provide a voice over. This new system has the actor dressed in a suit with strategically placed computer chips that feed back into a computer. Known as 'Performance Capture', this process can capture live action movement, odd angles and even facial expressions that are digitally aped bring us an actor's performance instead of a simple vocal range.
What is most surprising is that the actor's animation works so well that you would think that it has been mastered from years and years of evolvement with the process. From every smirk on the conductors face to every hair on the young boys head you get lost in the incredible detail of the production and by the ten-minute mark you will likely completely forget that you are watching a CG-crafted film.
But it is not just the actor's movement and expressions that are a crowning achievement in this Christmas classic. The special effects and sound are equally spectacular. Two scenes, one including a ticket that blows out the window and interacts with everything from an eagle to a pack of wolves before magically finding its way back into its owners hands and a visually effective scene of the train trying to outrun the breaking ice of a lake are fascinating and more exciting than any live action perils seen in such summer fare as The Day After Tomorrow.
But no highly visual picture can survive without a strong story and The Polar Express stays true to the book in adapting the journey of a group of children to see Santa's lair. The movie focuses mostly on a young boy who has grown older and is at that pinnacle where he no longer truly believes in the magic of the holiday season. His adventure includes meeting a ghost-like hobo that aides him on his quest, a scary cabin car that houses toys to be recycled and three must-be-seen-on-the-big-screen-to-be-enjoyed roller coaster type scenes that are effective enough to have you leaning to the right and left as the screen follows the tracks.
This is not the first time that Zemeckis and Hanks have teamed for some movie magic. They have collaborated twice before on Forrest Gump and Castaway and this newest venture makes them the quintessential go-to team in Tinseltown.
So whether they work together again in the future or not, at least we can savor their latest venture. The Polar Express is one of the best films of 2004 and can stand beside It's A Wonderful Life as a seasonal classic.
Amazing.
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