Not sure how this gets such a low score

Rating: 10/10 (22 February 2020)

When I first saw clips of this I did not like the phony look of the film, nor did I like Tom Hank's annoyingly grating conductor voice. I was turned off immediately and ignored the film for years. However after watching the entire film several times, I have fallen in love with it. Robert took a cute yet relatively simple and uni-dimensional children book, and added smart embellishments and interesting side stories which really make the film very special. Concepts like a hobo ghost that was killed on the train years ago, yet who helps our protagonist (hero boy) out of many difficult situations is just brilliant. And I love having 'hero girl' as a black girl that the conductor encourages to become a leader. Totally not necessary, but a great addition. And thank God the poor kid from the other side of the tracks was also not black. These decisions were just spot on. Some of the scenes were just stellar - the "journey of the lost ticket", the "roller coaster ride" on the front of the engine, and the "frozen lake" are all classic. To me the film is very enjoyable and perfect for Christmas.