The Polar Express

How do you expand a 20-page children’s book with no dialogue into an hour and a half movie? Well, according to Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks, you put a bunch of roller coasters in it. The Polar Express is a classic children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg about a young boy who takes a trip on the titular train to hang with Santa and his elves. (By the way, they look NOTHING like Legolas.) That’s it. That’s the whole story.

In Zemeckis’ version, Hero Boy (played by Tom Hanks (face), Daryl Sabara (voice—he was Juni in the Spy Kids movies) and Josh Hutcherson (some body shots)), is a Doubter. He truly wants to believe that Santa Claus exists, but it’s hard. He has never seen Mr. Claus, so how could he be real? But, damn, it’s a nice story.

On Christmas Eve he goes to bed and stays up so that he can find out for sure. That’s when the train comes.

The Polar Express shakes him out of his bed and draws him to the door where the Conductor (Tom again) is waiting for him. He doesn’t have to get on, but it will make his life a whole lot more interesting if he does. So, eventually, he gets on. Of course he does. There’d be no movie otherwise.

On the train he meets Hero Girl (Nono Gaye (face and voice) and Chantel Valdvieso (some body shots)), a true believer who is a little bit scared of making decisions on her own. And then there’s Lonely Boy (Tom’s old buddy Peter Scolari, Jimmy Bennett and Hayden McFarland). Christmas just doesn’t work out for him. He keeps to himself and doesn’t seem to want anyone around. Hero Girl is out to change his mind.

Know-It-All (Eddie Deezen and Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak) is a different story. He thinks he’s got the scoop on everything. He believes, but only so far as it gets him something. He’s greedy and nosy. Guess who is not going to be Santa’s favorite.

Not a lot of substance here, but it makes for a pretty charming little movie. The songs are a little intrusive (especially that damned “Hot Chocolate” song. You know the one. They show all of the waiters, chefs and Tom Hanks dancing to it in the preview. It’s really annoying in the movie, too.), but not so much as to ruin a good time.

A lot as been said about the animation here. First off, it looks almost exactly like the book…and that’s a great thing. The book is beautiful (what I’ve seen of it. I’ve never actually read it) and the movie is too. The problem is the two dimensional presentation. The characters look waxen and flat in all of the previews and in the 2D version.

BUT (there’s always a BIIIIIIIIIIGGGG ‘But’) I’m here to tell you that in the 3D Imax version everything looks just swell. It was obviously made for this format. (Especially the aforementioned roller coaster scenes.) The characters suddenly look a LOT more lifelike. The first scene was really creepy because we are right there in bed with Hero Boy. And he looks real. And, as far as I know, there are laws against that sort of thing. But as soon as we get past that bit of freakiness, the movie is pretty exhilarating. The train flies right over you. The characters run at you. The snow is falling on your shoulders. (Oh. Wait. That’s dandruff. Shoulda showered today.)

Zemeckis says that, because of this revolutionary new animation style, he has eliminated the need for child actors. Well, that’s not entirely true because there WERE child actors in this film. Tom Hanks, no matter how he tried, could not make his body do things that a 12-year-old body could do. So they had to hire some child actors for some of the more active stuff. (That’s my guess as to why, anyway. I have never read anything about these kids. Apparently it’s some big Warner Brothers cover-up. Screw them. But they are in the credits, so that’s good.)

In case you haven’t heard about the animation, it’s something akin to CGI roto-scoping. They put sensors all over Tom’s body (especially his face) and had him act out each scene in a studio. Then they took the signal from the sensors and layered CGI onto it basically putting Tom Hanks into the computer and turning him into five different characters (Hero Boy, Conductor, Santa, Hobo and Dad—they also list Scrooge on IMDb, but that’s just a puppet that’s being controlled by Hobo…doesn’t count). It’s close to what they did with Gollum, but seemingly on a larger scale.

I don’t know how much they’ll be using this technology in the future, but a part of me hopes that they perfect it a bit more before making more 2D films with it. Like I said, it just looks creepy.

Another part of me hopes that they stop before they do too much damage. The idea of eliminating acting scares me. Who will we give Oscars to?!

Seriously, though, taking the human element out of anything is kind of scary. And, while there still is a human in there somewhere, I like seeing a REAL human on film. It’s fun to see CGI, but nothing compares to real life people running around doing things that I can’t do.

But Tom Hanks couldn’t dance like Conductor could. And that’s probably a good thing.

Tom still puts in a good performance for ol’ Robert even when his face is covered in CGI. And, no, you can’t hide the Tom. Hero Boy may not look a damn thing like him, but there were still some facial expressions that were just like Tom.

And you can’t hide the Zemeckis even in animation. He still LOVES “camera through the window” shots. There are about 2,564 of them in this movie. And there’s even a “Forrest Gump Feather” here. You’ll know it when you see it.

Listen for Michael Jeter in his final roles as the engineers on the train. Charles Fleischer (the voice of Roger Rabbit) speaks up in at least one role. Also watch for familiar lips as the singer towards the end. I had a little shudder of near repulsion as he went by.

And, for Hitch’s sake, go see this at an IMAX near you if you’re interested at all. But don’t sit in the front row. I got a bit of a headache from that. Although it did make for a very personal experience. It was almost like watching the movie all by myself. The screen is so big that I really got caught up in the story and the images. Certainly the only way to see this movie. It’s a great experience. Just don’t expect a very deep one.