Welcome to Day 3 of our 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS series,
where we will be taking a look at holiday classics each day in the lead up to
Christmas. Today, I'll be reviewing the 2004 animated Robert Zemeckis film, THE
POLAR EXPRESS starring Tom Hanks as...well, mostly everyone.
Robert Zemeckis has had a very peculiar history in film.
After a series of undeniable classics throughout the 80s, 90s, and even early
2000s, from Back to the Future to Forrest Gump to Cast
Away. And then he, all of a sudden, takes an interest in a new experimental
motion capture technology that he would use for a series of interesting, but
somewhat hollow animated features. Films like Beowolf and Mars
Needs Moms (albeit not a Zemeckis directed picture) ranged from
interesting to kind of ugly. The Polar Express ranks among not
only the more visually pleasing of these pictures, but probably among the
better ones. The Polar Express is a movie that admittedly
trades story sense for whimsy and imagination, but manages to strike a balance
in that that's very delicate. It doesn't always swing its way, but more often
than not, Zemeckis creates a beautiful world that I only want to spend more
time in.
The film stars Daryl Sabara as the voice of a young boy
who's lost his faith in Santa Clause and who has been selected as a passenger
on a mystical train with one destination: the North Pole. There, he meets new
friends and a mysterious conductor, voiced and motion-captured by Tom Hanks.
The film chronicles the journey, filled with twists and turns, literal drops
and scary puppets, and everything in between, all leading to a fateful
encounter up north.
The story, based on a children's book, has often been
accused of being extremely padded, and that wouldn't exactly be incorrect. The
film likes deviating a lot from its main story, whether with backstories of
other children on the train or with weird evil puppet train cars (a strange
portion of the movie focuses on a car on the train filled with talking puppets;
it's a bit tangential). Some of these come off as a bit more typical than
others, but some manage to imbue the film with a kind of wonder that does
characterize the kind of story it wants to tell. One of the more notable
examples features a hobo character who lives on the train (also played by Tom
Hanks). His nature is never fully explained and his intentions are equally
mysterious, but Zemeckis manages to play him off more as a guardian angel than
he does a real character. The conductor is treated much the same, though the
conductor is given much more of a concrete personality as a tough but fair
fatherly figure. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast isn't nearly as
compelling. The kids are acted well enough (actually, exceptionally so for
child actors), but their characters are very loosely defined, especially since
none of them are named. The protagonist boy gets the most screen time, but he's
not much more than your generic headstrong but good-natured kid.
What the film does do is make you feel invested in the
journey as it takes you through some very memorable moments with some visually
stunning animation to boot. While the tech in Mars Needs Moms looked...well...ugly,
for lack of a better word, in the Polar Express, it's actually
much smoother than it would later look. This might be due to a lack of real
detail that ended up working in favor of the film. And the memorable moments of
the movie are really something to behold. The North Pole is multilayered,
complex, and beautiful. The final sequence of the film (featuring another Tom
Hanks mo-capped/voiced role) is a satisfying conclusion to a journey with as
many twists and turns as the railroad tracks themselves. By the end, it asks us
to be willing to believe in things that might not seem possible. It's a story
more about the sentiment than it is about the rich characters of deeper plot.
And, at that, it does manage to succeed. It's probably not a movie for
everyone, but I always enjoy watching it. I enjoy the sentimentality, I
appreciate the optimism, and I love the wonder in the animation. Also, I really
like Tom Hanks.
Tony's Score: 7/10
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