When We Get There, We'll Scream "Yeah!"

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2006)

Based on the picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, "The Polar Express" is a CGI motion-capture tour-de-force featuring the performances of Tom Hanks in several roles.
"The Polar Express" is about a little boy for whom the magic of Santa is becoming hard to believe in. In fact, this boy, known only as the Hero Boy, has become disillusioned with many things about Christmas. Still, he wants to believe in Santa, so when a mysterious train appears and the conductor tells him that it's the Polar Express, he decides to come aboard.
Once on-board, the Hero Boy is in for a wild adventure. He meets the Hero Girl (an intelligent, confident personality filled with warmth) and the Know-it-All Boy (who's always ready with his opinion and facts that nobody really wants.) However, the Lonely Boy (Billy) that he meets may be the most important character of all.
Christmas just never seems to work out for Billy. He doesn't really have anyone to care for him and Santa has never come to his house. In fact, when the Polar Express comes to 11334 Edbrook Avenue, Billy very nearly doesn't board. The Hero Boy has to pull the emergency brake to stop the train. This greatly displeases the train's Conductor, who runs a tight schedule, but his hardness softens when he learns why the Hero Boy pulled the brake.
The Hero Girl and Billy sing "When Christmas Comes to Town" in which Billy expresses why the holidays don't work for him and they both share their hopes and dreams for the holidays. Eventually the train reaches --- you're not dreaming! --- the North Pole. There, the four children get into a wild adventure, that culminates with a meeting with, well, guess-who.
"The Polar Express" uses motion-capture animation to bring semi-realistic characters to life. Tom Hanks provides the performances for not only the Conductor character, but also the Hero Boy, Santa Claus and a vagrant ghost who haunts the train. The voice cast is wonderful and Hanks's own rich voice adds a lot to the film as well.
To go with its great story, animation and characters, "The Polar Express" features a top-notch soundtrack, both vocal and instrumental. Songs include the previously mentioned "When Christmas Comes to Town," as well as "Hot Chocolate," "Spirit of the Season" and Josh Groban's "Believe" among others. I was pleased that ABC Family retained the songs and music in the closing credits and resisted the temptation to do the ridiculous split-screen that so many networks do these days. One other great thing is that this film also includes classic tunes by artists such as Bing Crosby.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I think the animators were a bit too impressed with what they could do with the CGI at times. There were some extended visual sequences that caused the film to drag a bit and seemed mainly for effect. Otherwise, magical film. Some people say it was only a dream. I say, if that's so, then I hope it was the shared dream of all children or something like that. If that weren't the case, then the journeys of the Hero Girl, Know-it-All Boy and Billy characters wouldn't be as meaningful.