The Polar Express (2005, DVD)

Christmas has always been one of my favourite moments of the year. The thought of getting presents from your family and friends, the idea that this is when our Lord Jesus Christ was born and the idea that this is a time when we give and share the love around. What can beat that? Along with all the excitement that comes along with Christmas are the various movies and books that come out emphasizing the importance of Christmas. Who could ever forget the movie It's a Wonderful Life? Or forget Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas series? Among the books I read, Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express always stood out in my memory as one of the great Christmas stories I enjoyed. Thus, I was particularly keen on watching this when this came out and I did so with my cousins.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, the story is about a boy (voiced by Daryl Sabara) who has become disenchanted by Christmas. He hopes that Santa Claus will come to his house but when he hears that his parents are going to play the role of Santa Claus, he loses all hope that Santa will come to visit his house this year. Until later that night, a train arrives outside his house. With the help of the train conductor (voiced by Tom Hanks), the train, known as The Polar Express, goes to the North Pole. But is this just a figment of the boy's imagination? Or is this really happening before the boy's eyes?

This film basically teaches us a very important message about Christmas. Christmas is more than just receiving gifts from Santa Claus. It is about giving as well. Spreading your kindness and the goodness of your heart to all the other people around you. The boy is given that chance when he meets other children on the train such as the main girl (voiced by Nona Gaye) and a lonely boy (voiced by Peter Scolari). Also, the film makes use of the quote "seeing is believing" which is first uttered by a hobo on the train (again voiced by Tom Hanks). However, as the film progresses, the boy also soon learns that believing is more than just seeing. It is also about having the faith to believe as well which is another wonderful message that comes out of the film.

The film, as one would imagine, is fairly different from the book. The book was just a short, children's picture book (which is probably why I remember it so well) and being short, there are some features that were added to the film that were not in the book. Among these are the musical numbers in the film. Unfortunately, some of the musical numbers annoyed me. I did not like the fact that I had to watch and listen to that stupid song, "Hot, Hot, Hot", with all those cartwheeling and silly dancing waiters and chefs made me laugh at how ridiculous it looked. Also, the fact that Tom Hanks sings does not make things better either (he just shouts and does not really sing as such). It did not really fit into the film and it was just an attempt to stretch the film out so that it was not too short a feature film. I did, however, like the duet between one of the other boys and the girl on the back of the train. Its one of those very touching moments on screen that is akin to the songs on a Disney animation feature.

Speaking of Disney animation feature, I particularly liked the animation throughout the film. It is somewhat, although not exactly, similar to the original illustrations from the book. The animation is relatively smooth throughout the film and although the animation is not as smooth as some films like Shrek 2, it very much maintains the feel of the book which to me is more important than making the animation look as "realistic" as possible.

The voiceovers in the film were relatively good as well but I do have to say that Tom Hanks gets far too much exposure with the film. To me, I did not think it was necessary for him to play 6 different voices. He did a fine job with the train conductor even though he was not who I had in mind as the person to do the voice for the conductor. And I also enjoyed his rendition of Santa Claus, in which his voice does change and does work out as Santa Claus. Other than that, I grew tired of listening to Hanks' voice. His whiny voice is also provided for the Hobo and Scrooge character as well and I feel that other voices should have been used for those roles. I feel these needed an older and slightly more sinister voice. Then again, that would scare the children too much but that is just what I think. As for the childrens' performances, Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye and Peter Scolari do particularly well as the main children but I was annoyed by the vocal performance of Eddie Deezen as the Know-It-All child. He sounds like one of those characters from one of those hideous Shockwave animation parodies. It does not fit in with the film at all.

Along with that, I was not particularly pleased with the way Robert Zemeckis directs this film. From what I have seen so far, Zemeckis' strength does not lie in children's films although he did direct Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which still is a favourite animation feature of mine. With this film, he coats this film with the soppiness that is associated with the overly sentimental work of Steven Spielberg. He blares the orchestral music out to force the emotions out of us which I personally think is poor film-making. And I felt that a lot of the film was really, really cheesy particularly with how he sets up the ending. But then again, this is the way the book was and this would not be much of a Christmas film if it did not end the way it did. I just did not like the way the film was directed. On the positive side though, the film does move at a fairly decent pace even if some of the stuff in the film could have easily been cut out and had an editing makeover.

Despite all its faults, The Polar Express is a decent Christmas film to watch. Even though some have raised concerns over the scenes with the hobo being too scary for children, I would still recommend this film to the entire family. It is another one of those Christmas films that can be watched again and again every Christmas and that alone is reason enough to watch this.

Thanks for reading the review and hope you all had a great Christmas.