Enjoyable

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2010)

Unlike Robert Zemeckis's subsequent Christmas-theme film, "A Christmas Carol," "The Polar Express" relies rather more heavily on shine and dazzle than on substance to get itself across to its audience. The message is as functional and useless as ever invaded the genre: little boys and little girls must "BELIEVE" for Christmas to be real. Of course, in life, one would be loath to hear this sort of prescription to happily accept matters without any evidence, but, in the realm of children's holiday fantasy, the MacGuffin adequately propels its hero and his companions across an attractice world of snow-laden excitement.
Accordingly, I'm sure a good bit of the appeal of watching "Polar Express" is lost in translation from 3-D-enabled movie theaters to thirty-inch television screens running a D.V.D. of the picture. Indeed, much of the merriment â€” involving high-speed roller-coasters, dizzying air-rides, and treacherous frozen lakes â€” obviously were conceived with 3-D technology in mind, and watching them via traditional means, one is oddly more aware of what one's missing than enthusiastic about what one is seeing.
Altogether, "The Polar Express" does satisfactory work of filling the ever-increasing library of American Christmas cinema. It's mostly an empty candy cane with lots of glitter plastered on top, but there are much worse ways to kill an hour and a half in December.