The most unique film of the year

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2004)

The Polar Express could probably be debated about for a good long time. Funny for an animated Christmas film!! Robert Zemeckis is not new to the idea of a unique film idea. I mean Zemeckis is a master director. He's the mastermind behind The Back To The Future series, three of the best films ever made. But granted this is new territory for him and yet he takes it and makes it his own. Zemeckis and superstar Tom Hanks team up again (the first time being the over rated but not bad film Castaway.) This film puts the final nail in the sign that reads "TOM HANKS MOST TALENTED ENTERTAINER ALIVE." There is nothing this man can't do or make us believe or act his way into. This is no exception, animated or otherwise.
The film is about a young boy who is reaching that age where you start to realize that perhaps there is no Santa Clause. He is looking into the cold hard facts of the idea of Santa Clause and he's coming up with the realization it doesn't exist. The night of Christmas Eve when everyone else has gone to bed, the young boy stumbles outside of his house and smack into an enormous steam engine. The conductor steps down and invites him onboard to The Polar Express...the train that goes to the North Pole. The boy journey's through treacherous mountains and landscape, meets some other children who become good friends, and finally arrives in The North Pole to meet with Santa Clause himself and receive the first Christmas Present of the year.
Story sounds pretty straight forward doesn't it? Nothing overly unique about that? The uniqueness comes from several things. The first is the graphics. The computer animation is brilliant, stunning, beautiful, and jaw dropping. The movements of each character are just flawless and captivating, you can't take your eyes away. The voice overs are so immaculate and Tom Hanks as several different characters breathes incredibly personality into them specifically the train conductor who is a mysterious, yet fun character to enjoy. He's protective of the children but by the book running his train.
The actual film making is the key here though. If this were not a Christmas film with a lesson behind it to learn it would almost be too scary for children, it would almost be downright frightful to them. These kids have a harrowing journey through the frozen tundra, there are some extremely nail biting moments. The landscape, Christmas town, and everything in this film is just hauntingly beautiful and a little scary at times. It's different than anything I've ever seen in a film. Even Santa's elves come across as strange and scary at times. I don't think there is anything wrong with this new twist on the Christmas story. Certainly scare tactics are not new to a Christmas story. Take A Christmas Carol for example, almost a horror story at times. The Grinch, and other stories like that. But this story goes even deeper into an underworld of Christmas. One of Hank's characters in the film is a train jumping hobo who helps our hero several times but only to disappear in the snow like a Ghost. It never explains who he is, why he's there or whether or not he is actually a Ghost.
The musical score for the film is also beautiful although perhaps only slightly overused at times. As I first began watching the film I thought of what a wonderful achievement it would have been to see this film in live action but as it continued I realized that it's whole heart is in the animation of it. They set up Santa Clause as this hero, a larger than life persona that for the most part we have forgotten about because he has become such an icon of Christmas.
The beautiful Christmas music, the original score, the animation, the incredibly story, the action and nail biting sequences, the lovely Christmas lessons learned and the amazing acting voice overs by Hanks this film is timeless and finally a classic worthy of keeping around. I will add this to my Christmas viewing list every year!!! Although short, the film is wonderful for anyone. I insist everyone sees this Christmas classic. If your children are young, be prepared for a little scare but I think they will grow to love it!! I hope this film gets some Academy attention of some sort. 9/10