A Christmas Classic for the whole family

Rating: Null/10 (8 November 2004)

Tom Hanks plays the train conductor of a magical train heading for the North Pole. Based on a storybook written by Chris Van Allsburg, the Christmas story tells of a boy who has reached an age when he begins to have doubts believing in Santa. Late one Christmas Eve, the young boy is lying awake waiting for the sound of sleigh bells ringing from Santa's sleigh. Five minutes to midnight his room begins to shake, and he hears a thunderous sound outside his window. The boy jumps from his bed and sees a train in the middle of his street. The boy grabs his robe and rushes out the front door to look at the train. The train's conductor asks the boy if he is getting aboard. The boy asks, 'where are you going?' 'To the North Pole, of course, this is the Polar Express!' At the last minute, the boy jumps on the train and finds other young boys and girls going to the North Pole. Their adventure begins.
The Polar Express movie uses a new animation technique known as 'Performance Capture' that allows an actor to act rather than just supply the voice. The actor is dressed in a suit with computer-chips placed on it, and the computer captures the actor's live action movements, including facial expressions. The animation looks so real that you almost forget it is Computer Generated (CG). For example, when the three children are in the back of the caboose, you can see their hair moving in the wind. With CG, Tom Hanks was able to play 5 parts: the train conductor, the ghostly hobo, Santa Claus, the boy's father, and the boy. I didn't know that Tom played the boy until I read the credits. The film will become a Christmas classic, and I highly recommend this movie for the whole family. I want to see it again just to see what I missed the first time. CG is not cheap; the movie cost $165 million to make. (Warner Brothers Pictures, Run time 1:40, Rated G) (10/10)