A simply magical, holiday classic.

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2010)

While it doesn't stick very closely with it's source material, Chris Van Allisberg's 1988 novel of the same name, The Polar Express is a simply remarkable cinematic experience.
The plot, much like the book, centers on a young boy living in Grand Rapids, MI in the 1950s (Which happens to be the same time Van Allisberg grew up, meaning that the main character may very well represent, or even BE Van Allisberg at a young age), who doubts the existence of Santa Claus. On Christmas Eve, he has the remarkable experience of riding a magical train, called the Polar Express to the North Pole. The film features a cast of very eccentric characters, many of which are voiced (the film is made in Stop-Motion animation) by the film's executive producer, and the main reason the film exists, Tom Hanks (Hanks enjoyed reading this story to his children when they were young, and he came up wtih the idea to make a movie out of it, and then proposed the idea to the screenwriter, and director Robert Zemecis, who has since gone on to make the stop motion animated films Beowulf, and one of my other favorite Christmas movies, 2009s A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey.) Hanks provides the voices for, Hero Boy, the boy's Father, the train's Conductor, a mysterious, almost angel like Hobo, a puppet version of Scrooge (which is ironic seeing as how Zemecis later made A Christmas Carol in Stop-Motion), and Santa Claus. The film also includes one of Michael Jeeter's last films, and in this one, he plays the comical engineer and fireman Steamer and Smokey. If you've never seen it, it is truly a beautiful film about believing in your dreams.