The Backyardigans enter The Polar Express

***The Backyardigans enter The Polar Express*** is the eleventh adventure and the first Christmas-theme adventure in *The Backyardigans' Adventures Series* to be created by Hiatt Grey.

## Plot

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the night of Christmas Eve in the 1950s, a boy is growing bitterly skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus. As he struggles to sleep, he witnesses the arrival of a steam locomotive on the street outside his home and dons his robe to investigate, tearing the robe's pocket as he retrieves it. Outside, the train's conductor introduces the train as the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole. Initially declining to board, the boy jumps aboard the train as it pulls away.

In a passenger car, he befriends a spirited and amicable girl and a condescending know-it-all boy. The train stops to pick up an impoverished child, Billy, who also declines to board; Billy changes his mind and the boy applies the brakes to allow him to board, which attracts the conductor. As Billy sits alone in the train's rear dining car, hot chocolate is served in the passenger car, and the girl saves her hot chocolate for Billy. As she and the conductor cross to the dining car, the boy notices she left her ticket behind un-punched, but loses hold of the ticket between the cars when he attempts to return it. The ticket reenters the passenger car, but not before the conductor notices its absence and escorts the girl back to the rear car.

The know-it-all claims that the conductor will throw the girl from the back of the train; the boy recovers the ticket and dashes to the dining car in search of the conductor, climbing onto the roof from the rear platform. He meets a hobo camping on the roof, who offers him coffee and discusses the existence of Santa Claus and belief in ghosts. The hobo skis with the boy along the tops of the cars towards the train's coal tender, where the hobo disappears. In the locomotive's cab, the boy discovers that the girl has been made to supervise driving the train while engineers Steamer and Smokey replace the train's headlight. The boy applies the brakes, and the train stops while the conductor witnesses a herd of caribou that is blocking their way, The conductor pulls Smokey's beard, causing him to let out animal-likes noises, therefore clearing the caribou horde. The train continues on, but at extreme speed. The throttle's split pin sheers off, causing the train to accelerate uncontrollably down a 179-degree grade and onto a frozen lake. Smokey uses his hairpin to repair the throttle as the train drifts across the ice to realign with the tracks moments before the ice breaks. The boy returns the girl's ticket for the conductor to punch, and as the three return to the passenger car, the boy is accosted by an Ebenezer Scrooge marionette, taunting him and calling him a doubter, in reality controlled by the hobo.

The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself. The girl discovers Billy still alone in the rear car, and she and the boy persuade him to come along; however, the boy accidentally unhitches the car, sending it back along the line to a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children sneak through an elf command center and a gift sorting office before accidentally being dumped into a giant sack full of presents, where they discover that the know-it-all kid stowed away. The elves escort them out as Santa arrives. A jingle bell flies loose from the galloping reindeers' reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He shows the bell to Santa, and Santa selects the boy to receive the bell as the first gift of Christmas. The boy asks to keep the jingle bell, Santa says yes, and he places it in his robe pocket.

The wayward rear car is returned to the train as the children board to return home, but then the boy discovers that he had lost the bell through the hole in his robe pocket. He returns home and awakens Christmas morning to find a present containing the bell. He and his younger sister Sarah ring the bell to their delight; their parents, not believing in Santa, lament how the bell is "broken." As an adult, the boy reflects on how his friends and his sister grew deaf to the bell as their belief faded over the years. However, the bell still rings for him, as it will do for all those who believe.

## Trivia

* Dora Márquezt, Boots, Backpack, Map, Isa, Tico, Benny, Azul, Blue, Steve, Sagwa Miao, Dongwa Miao, Sheegwa Miao, the Rockhopper crew (Zidgel, Midgel, Fidgel, and Kevin), Chris Kratt, Martin Kratt, Zoboomafoo, Fievel Mousekewitz, Olivia Flaversham, Connor McKnight, Ethan James, Kira Ford, Tommy Oliver, Trent Fernandez, Din Djarin, Grogu, Cara Dune, and Greef Karga guest star in this film.
* *Power Rangers Dino Thunder* and *The Polar Express* were both released in the year, 2004.