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Polar Express

November 10, 2004

Polar Express
Featuring the voices of: Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Peter Scolari, Nona Gaye and Tom Hanks

Since apparently in Hollywood it makes no sense to hire 12 year-old actors to supply the voices of 12 year-old characters, all the voices of the children in the movie were done by adults no younger than 50 (except for Nona Gaye who is 30.)

That aside I didn't really want to see this film. It seemed odd and the kids looked like zombies but when we heard all the great reviews and then found out that it was going to an IMAX 3-D film we changed our minds. Now granted my most recent foray into IMAX 3-D wasn't that great, but from that experience I did learn that IMAX 3-D itself is pretty spectacular.

Before I get into this further, I have to let you know that none of the characters in the movie have names. They are simply referred to on IMDb as "Hero Boy", "Hero Girl", "Shy Boy" etc. So I will be making up names as we go...

In Grand Rapids, Michigan there is a little boy (whom we will call Floyd) who is starting to no longer believe in Santa Claus. So on Christmas Eve, he hears a rumble and looks outside to see a giant steam locomotive in the middle of the street. He cautiously goes outside and a creepy but friendly conductor asks him if he wants to get on board or not. At first he says no but then changes his mind. Once on the train he sees many other kids in the same situation. I am not sure if these are all Michigan kids or if they are just from the States or what but this is not an ethnically diverse group of kids. Among the children are a really annoying little nerd boy (Gary), a smart young girl (Denise) and a shy boy (Peter). The train takes off and along the way Floyd has some mini adventures that really bring the 3-D to life. There is a scene where Denise's ticket flies away and we follow it as the wind carries it all around. It was pretty darn cool. The train also loses its brakes at one point and speeds out of control and we are treated to a roller-coaster like sequence. Now remember that the dimensions of an IMAX screen are roughly 80 feet by 100 feet (that is about 24x30 meters for everyone else in the world) so it literally takes up your entire field of vision, not to mention that it is in eye-popping 3-D!

So the rest of the film is the train getting to the North Pole with Floyd, Denise, Peter and occasionally Gary getting into some tight situations. The movie isn't meant to show the origins of Christmas (sorry, Jesus) but rather how The North Pole is the scariest damn place on earth. It is filled with dark alleys, dangerous transport systems and creepy-ass lookin' elves! (I hated the elf that was created to resemble Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. I really felt it distracted from the movie considerably. Thankfully it was very brief.)

The movie itself has some dark themes but is appropriate for all children. Remember when you were young and you loved "The Wizard of Oz" even though the witch scared you -- that was part of the fun. The Polar Express isn't nearly as dark but does have some similar undertones. I think it really adds to the nature of the film and makes it more enjoyable. I can't say I would have liked it as much if it wasn't in 3-D, I think that really made the movie for me, but I also believe that it was very well done overall and will stand the test of time.

If you get the chance to see it in IMAX 3-D I highly, highly recommend it but perhaps you should take some Dramamine like Brad did beforehand.

My Grade: A

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