...A little Christmas sugar on an open heart...

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2004)

Tom Hanks's grip is tight and firm on this new Holiday movie, which is just as charming and sugary as Hanks himself. "The Polar Express" is more than a graphic movie, or simply another Hanks movie. This is a new-fangled classic holiday movie! Set to the book of the same title by Chris van Allsburg, "The Polar Express" sets to the theme of "believing is seeing", of which many previous Santa Claus movies have proved in the past, and succeeds by bringing in a child (Hero Boy) who is dangerously close to being a skeptic in the beginning of the movie when he is whisked away on the Polar Express train, a one-way to the North Pole. On the way, he makes friends with Hero Girl and Lonely Boy, and they find themselves in the scariest of situations. In his "stunts" in attempt to follow Hero Girl on top of the train, he comes in contact with the Hobo (voiced by Tom Hanks, with the appearance seems like a run-in between Hanks and Dick van Dyke), of whom seems to play the only role as the antagonist, pushing "Seeing is believing". It all works out in the end, as the trip is complete, but the adventure is never over until the little bell of Believing in the Unknown now rings in Hero Boy's ears clearly as he finds himself believing in Santa Claus, as seeing him face to face. But to be critical in some parts of the movie: the visual effects are amazing and are created to certain height. But all of the "roller coaster" scenes seem to take away most of the movie. Unusually, they only seem to add onto the emotions of the movie-goer and seem to share the emotional journey of Hero Boy. The golden ticket "dance" (very reminiscent of the feather of the Zemeckis/Hanks movie "Forrest Gump") seem to go on forever, and seems to be outlandish (yet all things happen for a reason)once mother nature interferes. The second critical point is the use of the score. It does seem to play much too often in the beginning, whereas there is a lot of mixed emotions, but that seems to be my only concern for the movie. Eventually towards the end, it seems that Zemeckis spreads out the emotions against the adventures. The score of "The Polar Express" is probably one of the most beautiful scores I have heard, which is up there with "Chocolat" and "A Beautiful Mind". Even my favorite singer was apart of the music, Josh Groban with the Ballard hit, "Believe". Josh Groban's voice is a perfect finish, which warms up the movie and the movie-goers' heart with "hot chocolate". This vote should really be a 9 1/2, but I can't find it in me to totally hate the flaws. This movie is a great edition to the holiday movie dynasty, I think the age range should be 7-adult, being the movie is very graphic and can be scary for little kids. Yet, oddly, the movie brings out the child in everyone, of which the little bell of Believing in the Unknown should be resounding in the movie-goers' ear all over again.