All aboard the technical express.

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2014)

This animated feature tells the story of a young boy whose scepticism about the existence of Father Christmas is magically restored when he is whisked off to the North Pole on the titular train of the title. Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future trilogy/Who Framed Roger Rabbit) directs and it's a marvel of technical accomplishments. Using the Performance Capture technique, the characters sit somewhere in a purgatory where half human and half animation dwells, this is unusual and as amazing as it is at times, the children often look, well, kinda creepy! But it's the story that sells the movie, and as long as you don't mind heavy lashings of syrup in your Xmas movies, then this shouldn't disappoint. 6/10