The Polar Express

Well Christmas time has come around and what better way to start it than with The Polar Express. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. Little note about the movie it isn't computer animation it's motion capture which means it was acted out by real actors and then they were animated over. One more note about the movie almost all of the characters are not given names so I made up my own names. So get you tickets ready because it's time for my review of The Polar Express.

We meet a boy named Hugo (Tom Hanks) who has decided to stop believing in Santa even though a lot of other kids still do. He is trying to sleep when he hears a noise outside he goes outside where he sees a train that appeared out of thin air. The trains conductor Jerry (also Tom Hanks) invites Hugo to come with him to the north pole to see Santa. Hugo says no but changes his mind at the last second and gets on the train. There are other kids on the train like a girl named Jessica (Nona Gaye) and a know it all kid named Ned (Eddie Deezen). Before they go to the north pole they go to one more house that belongs to a boy named Billy (Hayden McFarland) (side note this is one of the characters with a name) Billy says he doesn't want to go but he too changes his mind but he trips and falls. Hugo uses the emergency break to stop the train and Victor gets on and goes to the very back of the train. Jerry then punches all the kids tickets and gets some waiters to serve hot chocolate. For some reason the waiters and Jerry sing a musical number. Listen you're all very good at dancing and serving hot chocolate but your song doesn't serve much of a purpose so I'm just going to fast forward this part. So after that Jessica realizes that Billy didn't get any hot chocolate so Jerry and Jessica go to give it to him.




 Hugo realizes that Jerry forgot to punch Jessica's ticket so Hugo goes to give it to her. But when crossing cars Hugo accidentally lets it go. This causes Jerry to take Jessica away. Ned thinks Jerry is going to toss Jessica off the train so Hugo runs after them he climbs on to the roof of the train. On top of the train Hugo meats a hobo named Frank (also Tom Hanks) who helps out hugo by helping him get to the front of the train. It turns out that Jessica is just taking over for the engineers Rusty and Dusty (both Michael Jeter). They have to stop the train because there are some caribou blocking the tracks. They manage to get the caribou out of the way but they are approaching a section of tracks that was frozen over and to make things worse the brakes break and they are gaining speed quickly. They make it through the icy patch and fix the brakes and Hugo gives Jessica her ticket. They go to the back of the train to see Billy and we have another musical number. Not much of a point to this song so I will skip this one too. They make it to the north pole and everyone is excited to see Santa.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED**

They make it to the north pole and are getting in line to see santa but Hugo, Jessica, and Billy get separated from the rest of the group. They end up in the inner workings of Santa's present factory. They climb through some conveyor belts and end up in Santa's sack of presents. The sack is lifted onto the Santa's sleigh and the kids get out safely. Santa (also Tom Hanks) comes out and everyone loves him and Santa must choose who to give the first gift of christmas to. He chooses Hugo and for a gift Hugo takes one of the bells from Santa's sleigh. Hugo returns home and he has the best christmas ever and Hugo still believes in the Santa even to this day. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

The perfect word to describe The Polar Express is "Trying". It is trying to become a christmas classic but it is trying too hard. The overly whimsical soundtrack and pointless songs seem to show just how they tried too hard. The animation is a really freaky and the songs just aren't that good. But it has a nice message and I can sort of see why people like it. So I guess that I could semi recommend this for you depending on what your taste in movies is. See you next time.