Stop the train, I want to get off.

Rating: 4/10 (18 December 2004)

Christmas may come just once a year, but there are always more than one festive movie that is thrown down the great chimney pot of Hollywood every year. Of course, some Christmas movies are instant classics, like James Stuart in "It's a Wonderful Life, to Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle going to court to prove there is a Santa Claus in the classic Miracle on 34th St (not the remake starring Richard Attenborough , don't get me started on that) And so that time of year is here once more, and using some nifty animation , 3D motion capture techniques (where the actor on film is changed to an animated figure), The Polar Express has pulled into town. Set in America on Christmas Eve, a boy lays awake in his bed, trying to listen for Santa Claus. When he gets out of bed, he sees his parents leaving presents for his sister, and then later, for himself. Saddened that there is no Santa, the boy goes to bed. But when he tries to fall asleep he is awakened by a vibration that signifies the arrival of a huge locomotive train outside his house. The child ventures outside and meets the conductor who tells him that the Locomotive is heading to the North Pole, and then to meet Santa Claus himself.. Unsure at first, the child gets on the train, joining other children as the train speeds to its destination. However, an icy night, a flying ticket, and a sad little boy guarantee that the journey will be anything but simple. Shown as a 2D version or a 3D version (if you are lucky enough to have an IMAX cinema near you) The Polar Express is a film that tries to catch your heart while taking your breath away at the same time, yet ironically fails due to the films own golden ticket. This being its special effects that try to recreate human actors and only manages to get the features perfect but misses out on whatever makes them tick inside. The children in the film are rather like those in Village of the Dammed (1960, directed by Wolf Rilla) , attractive, normal looking children with a light behind their eyes that flickers strangely enough to make you know they need rewiring. The voices, most of which emanate from Tom Hanks (he plays no less than 6 characters), are good but not staggered enough to avoid collision. The sequence concerning a flying ticket is a wink at Forrest Gump (flying feather), a pattern that was followed in the other Hanks film Catch Me If You Can with a floating dollar bill. The plot travels like the locomotive at a quick pace, with the story taking some twists and turns that give rise to some good lines, most notably from The Train Conductor, a man who is always on track to meet his deadline. The characters, a sad white child and a heroic black girl, all play their parts well which leads the story forward, and there is even an obligatory annoying 'know it all' kid (imaginatively entitled "Know it All" in the credits) who asks all the annoying question that the viewer would given half a chance. Voiced by Eddie Deezen, he has long been a hero of mine due to the nerdy roles he has played to perfection. If you want to know what "Know it all Kid" will look like when he grows up, check out WarGames, where Deezen plays Malvin, a computer nerd giving Matthew Broderick advice when he almost starts World War Three. The Polar Express is a nice film for the family at Christmas, but it may have left its heart at the platform.