The Polar Express (film)

For the book of which the movie is based, see The Polar Express.

The Polar Express in 3D
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Written by	Novel: Chris Van Allsburg Screenplay: Robert Zemeckis William Broyles Jr.
Produced by	Robert Zemeckis Gary Goetzman Steve Starkey William Teitler Associate Producers: Debbie Denise Josh McLaglen Peter M. Tobyansen Co-Producer: Steven J. Boyd Executive Producers: Tom Hanks Jack Rapke Chris Van Allsburg
Starring	Tom Hanks Leslie Harter Zemeckis Eddie Deezen Chantel Valdivieso Daryl Sabara Nona Gaye Jimmy Bennett Steven Tyler Michael Jeter
Cinematography	Don Burgess Robert Presley
Edited by	R. Orlando Duenas Jeremiah O'Driscoll
Music by	Alan Silvestri Glen Ballard (songs)
Production companies	Castle Rock Entertainment Shangri-La Entertainment ImageMovers Playtone Golden Mean
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	November 10 2004 (USA)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$165 million
Box office	North America: $180,806,128 International $124,140,582 Worldwide $304,946,710

The Polar Express (also known as The Polar Express in 3D) is a 2004 computer-animated feature film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg.

Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were "animated" using "live action" performance capture technique, with the exception of the waiters who dispense hot chocolate on the train, because their feats were impossible for real-life actors to achieve. Performance capture technology incorporates the movements of live actors into animated characters. It stars actor Tom Hanks in five distinct roles, including the role of Santa Claus. The film was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment in association with Shangri-La Entertainment, ImageMovers, Playtone and Golden Mean, for Warner Bros. The visual effects and performance capture was done at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The studio first released the $170 million film in both conventional and IMAX 3D theaters on Wednesday, November 10, 2004. It was the last film in which Michael Jeter made a contribution as he had died on March 31, 2003, and the film is dedicated to his memory.

Plot

Taking place in the 1940's, A young boy (Daryl Sabara) on Christmas Eve who is hoping for belief in the true spirit of Christmas. He suddenly hears some noise from downstairs and runs to investigate. Seeing a shadow of what appears to be Santa Claus, he soon discovers that it is his dad with his sister on his shoulders. He runs back to his room and looks through magazines and encyclopedias for confirmation of Santa Claus and the North Pole, but to no avail. Hearing his parents coming, he runs back to bed and pretends to be asleep while his parents whisper about how he had once stayed up late listening for Santa Claus. About an hour after they leave, a magic train called The Polar Express pulls up in front of his house. He is invited aboard by the train's mysterious conductor (Tom Hanks) to journey to the North Pole. Though he initially hesitates, he boards the train after it starts to move.

On the train, the boy encounters a group of other children who are on their way to see Santa Claus, including a young girl, a know-it-all and a lonely little boy. The boy also encounters a mysterious hobo (Tom Hanks), who lives on the top of the train, as well as the engineer and fireman (Michael Jeter). They must all overcome a variety of obstacles; at one point, a herd of caribou block the tracks. Later, the cotter pin holding the throttle together breaks. The train, now out of control and with the Hero Boy, Hero Girl (Nona Gaye), and the Conductor standing on the front, then reaches "Glacier Gulch," an area with steep downhill grades. The three must hold on tightly as the train speeds through Glacier Gulch and onto a frozen lake. The train tracks are frozen under the ice, and as a result, the Conductor must guide the engineer and the fireman towards the other side of the lake as the ice breaks up behind them

They then reach the North Pole and find out that the lonely boy named Billy (Jimmy Bennett), riding alone in the observation car does not want to see Santa (Tom Hanks) because he has come from a broken home on the bad side of his hometown; he says that Christmas does not work out for him. The boy and girl run back to try to get him to come along with them, but the Boy steps on the uncoupling lever and the car speeds back to the Roundhouse. The three of them travel from section to section of the North Pole's industrial area, first visiting the Control Center, then the Wrapping Hall, and finally a warehouse before they are airlifted back to the center of the city via air ship. As they watch the final preparations, one bell falls off Santa's sleigh. The boy picks it up and shakes it, remembering that the girl could hear a bell earlier when he could not. As before, he can not hear it. The boy then says he believes in Santa and the spirit of Christmas. He then sees Santa's reflection on the bell; he shakes the bell again and hears it at last. He gives the bell back to Santa.

The boy is handpicked by Santa Claus to receive "The First Gift Of Christmas." Realizing that he could choose anything in the world, the boy asks for the beautiful-sounding silver bell (that only believers can hear) which fell from Santa's sleigh. The boy places the bell in the pocket of his robe and all the children watch as Santa takes off for his yearly delivery.

The children return to the train, and the conductor punches letters into each ticket. These letters spell some form of advice (such as "Learn," "Lead," or "Believe" for the Know-it-All, Hero Girl, and Hero Boy respectively.) As the train leaves, the Hero Boy discovers the pocket of his robe torn and the bell missing. He returns home, saddened by the loss of the bell, but is cheered when he sees that Santa had already arrived at Billy's house. On Christmas morning, his sister finds a small present hidden behind the tree after all the others have been unwrapped. The boy opens the present and discovers that it is the bell, which Santa had found on the seat of his sleigh. When the boy rings the bell, both he and his sister marvel at the beautiful sound; but because their parents no longer believe in Santa Claus or the true magic of Christmas, they do not hear it. The last line in the movie repeats the same last line from the book: "At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe."

The train

The steam locomotive that pulls the Polar Express is modeled after an actual locomotive that is on display at the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan. The Pere Marquette 1225 Berkshire-type (2-8-4), built in 1941 at the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, was part of the Pere Marquette Railway system before being decommissioned in 1951. Slated for scrapping, it was acquired by Michigan State University (MSU) in 1957 and exhibited on campus.

In 1971, MSU steam enthusiasts commenced the formidable task of restoring the mighty locomotive to operating condition. Restoration was substantially completed in 1985, and in 1988, number 1225 started pulling excursion trains in the Owosso area and around Michigan. The locomotive has been listed on the United States National Register of Historical Places.

In the film, artistic liberty is taken with the appearance of the locomotive and its tender, both being made to seem even more massive than the 794,500 pound (360,400 kilogram) original. Many of the train's sound effects, such as the whistle blowing and steam exhausting, were created from live sampling of number 1225 while in operation.

Architecture

The buildings at the North Pole reference a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the center of the city are loosely based on the Pullman Factory located in Pullman, IL, and the Control Center is based on old Penn Station in New York City.

Cast

• • Daryl Sabara as the Hero Boy.
  • Tom Hanks as the Conductor.
  • Tom Hanks as the Hobo.
  • Tom Hanks as the Scrooge Puppet.
  • Tom Hanks as Santa Claus.
  • Tom Hanks as the Hero Boy's father.
  • Tom Hanks as the Hero Boy (when overvoicing as a grown man).
  • Nona Gaye as the Hero Girl.
  • Jimmy Bennett as Billy the Lonely Boy.
  • Eddie Deezen as Lenny the Know-It-All Kid.
  • Joe Pesci as the Head Elf (uncredited)
  • Steven Tyler as the Singing Elf.
  • Michael Jeter as Smokey.
  • Michael Jeter as Steamer.
  • Leslie Zemeckis as the Hero Boy's mother.
  • Isabella Peregrin as Sarah, the Hero Boy's sister.

The IMAX 3D version

In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3-D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same 3-D digital models used for the standard version. It was the first motion picture not specially made for IMAX to be presented in this format, and the first to open in IMAX 3D at the same time as main flat release. The financial results were stunning. The 3-D version out-performed the 2-D version by about 14 to 1. The 3-D IMAX version was released again for the 2005 Holiday season in 66 IMAX theaters and amazingly made another $7.5 million prior to Christmas. Due to its financial success, the IMAX version was re-released in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and has become an annual Christmas movie. The 3-D version was released to DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 28, 2008. Both formats include both the 2-D and 3-D versions of the film.

Polar Express Experience

In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the Polar Express Experience, a motion simulator based around the movie. The attraction is a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until 2008-12-01. The Polar Express Experience is also now available at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden as a permanent attraction.

From November 27, 2009 untill January 3, 2010, Polar Express 4D Experience is also available in Vancouver Aquarium.

Reception

The film was released to mixed to generally positive reviews from film critics, while being much better received by audiences. The decision to model the characters so realistically was met with criticism from some reviewers, who felt that the appearances of the characters were "creepy" or "eerie". This is related to the concept of the uncanny valley, which holds that, at certain levels of similarity, the dissimilarities stand out and create a negative reaction in viewers, so that either a larger or a smaller similarity would be more attractive. Critics complained that a serious problem in the film is what they refer to as "dead eye syndrome," where the eyes do not move, making the characters have a deadened, "soul-less" look as a result of inanimate eyes. Though it was not the first film to use motion capture technology, The Polar Express is generally regarded as the first film where the dead-eye syndrome was most noticeable and most distracting.

Currently, the film has a "Rotten" rating of 57% from selected critics with an average rating of 6.4/10, a worse rating of 54% when narrowed down to professional critics, also certifying it as "Rotten", with an average rating of 6.1/10, and a "Certified Fresh" rating of 69% from users on Rotten Tomatoes. However the film also has a 61 out of 100 critic rating and a 7.3 out of 10 user rating on Metacritic, both indicating "generally favorable reviews". It also received a "B" from users at Box Office Mojo, has a score of 6.7/10 at the Internet Movie Database, and earned the rare grade of an "A+" from Cinemascore.

It opened at #2, being outgrossed 2-to-1 by Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles, and brought in $23,323,463 from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30,629,146 since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2,100,000 from 59 IMAX theaters, for a IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. Initially, the movie seemed to be headed towards becoming a box office failure after its first week, due to it opening just five days after The Incredibles and 9 days before Disney's National Treasure and Paramount/Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, and facing even more competition in the coming weeks with Columbia/Revolution's Christmas with the Kranks and Paramount/Nickelodeon's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, despite the crowded family audience marketplace, it was one of the few films to actually improve its gross in the weeks after its premiere. It dropped by only 32.82% in its second weekend, grossing $15,668,101, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative to $51,463,282; and, due to the winter theme, saw its gross rise by 23.75% over Thanksgiving weekend, making another $19,389,927, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative to $81,479,861. By New Year's Day 2005, The Polar Express ended up grossing nearly $160 million in the United States alone. Fully 25% of the world gross came from just 82 IMAX 3D theaters. It has been widely noted, however, that much of this latent revenue was due to its status as the only major motion picture available in the IMAX 3D format. As of December 27, 2007, with the original release and IMAX re-releases, the film has made $178,519,973 domestically, and $124,100,000 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $302,619,973. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song for "Believe".

See also

• The Polar Express (soundtrack)
• Uncanny valley

External links

• Official website (US)
• Official website (UK)
• The Polar Express at IMDb
• The Polar Express at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official website
• Archived ABC Feature Page for The Polar Express