FILM REVIEW

"THE POLAR EXPRESS"
Starring Tom Hanks
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Entertainment
Art


Movie Review by NED O'REILLEY

Much has been made of the animation techniques used in the new Robert Zemeckis film, “The Polar Express,” but that’s not what matters when you watch it. So many things are done now with computer animation that the majority of films use it somewhere. What interested me more were the characterizations and the roller coaster action of the titular train. The story, based on a wonderful children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, is basic: boy, old enough to doubt the existence of Santa Claus, has change of heart after a mystical experience.

In this case, the nameless Hero Boy remembers his magical night as an adult, which is critical to the story, but also critical to each audience member’s perception of the story. If you’re young enough, or far enough removed from your youth, you want that life magic that includes Santa and all the other parts of the Christmas myth. If you’re an older child, or a child who’s had a rotten go of it, or the grown up version of one of these, a film like this may not touch you.

On Christmas Eve, our Hero Boy, unable to sleep anyway, boards the Polar Express when it pulls up in front of his house. Despite the noise of the behemoth, no one else is awakened by it. Aboard the train, the boy meets other children who’ve earned this once in a lifetime ride because they, too, are of an age when childish things need to be put behind and innocence redefined. The trip to the North Pole ventures through frozen woods and mountains and lakes in a near blizzard. On the way, the boy encounters a gruff but ultimately kind-hearted conductor, a mysterious hobo who vanishes and reappears, mostly on top of the train, a comical pair of engineers, a level-headed girl, a sad, poor boy, and a scientist kid who speaks hyper-fast.

Tom Hanks voices all of the significant adult characters and even provides the movement for the Hero Boy (voiced by Daryl Sabara). Nona Gaye warmly provides both for Hero Girl, the ultra-obnoxious Eddie Deezen plays the scientist kid, and Jimmy Bennet voices the sad boy. Andre Sogliuzzo provides the voice and hilarity for Smokey & Steamer – the rotund engineer and the skinny, long-red-haired coal shoveler, who romp through a wildly fun series of disasters on the trip up.

After a long trek that often feels like one of this VR roller coaster rides, the Express reaches the Pole, shown as a sizeable industrialized city inhabited by tens of thousands of elves. Here the children expect to meet Santa Claus, who will choose one of them to receive the first gift of Christmas. I was much more enthralled by the train trip (which takes up half the movie) than by the time spent at the North Pole. Maybe it makes sense that Santa’s helpers would need city block after city block of factories in order to churn out toys for all the kids in the world, but it struck me as too cold an image.

Much warmer was a sequence when a train ticket blows out the window, swirls in the wind, gets caught by an eagle, trampled by a pack of wolves, and miraculously ends up back on the train. I loved the crack the whip action of the train as it attempts to cross the polar ice cap. Also fabulous was a musical number featuring dancing waiters serving the children hot cocoa. The forlorn ballad sung by the children is less interesting, but is still better than the token rock’n roll moment sung by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler as a grimacing elf.

The Polar Express is fine family fare, even for young children, although there are some mysterious moments (scary? maybe – depends on the kid). I enjoyed the film, as did my not-so-young kids, but I’d hesitate to call it a classic.