The Polar Express (film)
The Polar Express is a 2004 American animated Christmas adventure fantasy film[1][2] directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr., based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. It stars Tom Hanks (in multiple roles), Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, and Eddie Deezen. The film features human characters animated using live action and motion capture computer animation, with sequences for the latter taking place from June 2003 to May 2004. Set on Christmas Eve, it tells the story of a young boy who sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. He joins other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus preparing for Christmas.
The Polar Express
- Robert Zemeckis
- William Broyles Jr.
- Steve Starkey
- Robert Zemeckis
- Gary Goetzman
- William Teitler
- Don Burgess
- Robert Presley
- Jeremiah O'Driscoll
- R. Orlando Duenas
- Castle Rock Entertainment[1]
- Shangri-La Entertainment[2]
- Playtone[1]
- ImageMovers[1]
- Golden Mean Productions[1]
- October 13, 2004 (Chicago International Film Festival)
- November 10, 2004 (United States)
100 minutes[3]
United States
English
$426.9 million[6]
The Polar Express premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 13, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 10, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and initially grossed $286 million against a record-breaking $165–170 million budget, which was the biggest sum for an animated feature at the time.[7] Later re-releases helped propel the film's gross to $426.9 million worldwide, and it was later listed in the 2006 Guinness World Records as the first all-digital capture film. The Polar Express was also the last film appearance for Michael Jeter before his death in 2003 and it was dedicated to his memory.[8]
Plot[edit]
On the night of Christmas Eve, a passenger train known as the Polar Express stops on the street outside a boy's house. The boy has been growing skeptical about Santa Claus's existence. The conductor says the train is traveling to the North Pole. The boy, although reluctant at first, climbs aboard and meets a spirited girl and a know-it-all boy. The train then stops to pick up a boy named Billy, who also initially refuses to board, but changes his mind as the train moves away. Much to the conductor's annoyance, the boy applies the emergency brake, and Billy is allowed on board, but he decides to sit alone in the observation car. A platoon of dancing waiters serve the children hot chocolate with the girl saving a cup for Billy.
When the conductor and the girl go to give Billy his cup, the boy notices that the girl's ticket has not yet been validated and tries to return it to her. In doing so, the wind blows away the ticket out into the wilderness, but it soon makes its way back to the train. After the girl discovers that her ticket is missing, the conductor leaves with her. Assuming that she will be thrown off the train, the boy finds the ticket and traverses the rooftops to find the girl. He encounters a mysterious ghostly hobo that helps him reach the engine. The boy discovers the girl has been put in charge of the train while the engineer and fireman are replacing the engine's headlight. The boy applies the train brakes before a herd of caribou blocks the tracks. As the train continues its journey with the conductor, boy, and girl exposed to the elements standing on the front of the train, it travels at an extremely fast speed because the throttle handle's cotter pin came loose and fell off. Once they reach a frozen lake, the cotter pin is replaced and the train engineer narrowly gets the train back onto the tracks just before the ice breaks.
The conductor takes the boy and girl back to their seats and they join Billy in the observation car. The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the children will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself. While the girl and boy attempt to convince Billy to join them, the boy accidentally uncouples the car, causing it to roll away and speed downhill along a track into a tunnel towards a railway turntable inside Santa's workshop. The children make their way through an elf command center and a gift-sorting office facility, where Billy finds a present in his name. They are dumped into a giant sack of presents, where they also find the know-it-all. After the sack is loaded onto Santa's sleigh, the elves escort them out before Santa and his reindeer arrive.
A bell flies loose from the galloping reindeer's reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He returns the bell to Santa, who selects him to receive the first gift of Christmas. Santa agrees to let him keep the bell. As the children board the train to go back home, the boy discovers that he lost the bell through a hole in his pocket. The boy arrives home and the conductor wishes him a Merry Christmas.
He wakes up on Christmas morning to find a present containing his lost bell with a note from Santa. He and his younger sister Sarah joyfully ring the bell, but their parents do not hear it because they do not believe in Santa. The boy reflects on his friends and sister eventually growing deaf to the bell over the years as their belief faded. However, despite the fact he is now an adult, the bell still rings for him, as it does "for all who truly believe".
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Hanks optioned the book in 1999 with the hopes of playing the conductor and Santa Claus.[10] One of the conditions of the sale was that the resulting film not be animated. Zemeckis, however, felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million".[11] Zemeckis felt that such a version would rob the audience of the art style of the book which he felt was "so much a part of the emotion of the story".[10] The two acquired the rights to the book the following year. In order to keep his vision a new process was created by which actors would be filmed with motion capture equipment in a black box stage which would then be animated to make the resulting film.[10] Hanks stated that this method of working was "actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do", comparing the process to performing a play in the round.[12] The idea of a Scrooge puppet was conceived when Zemeckis looked at his childhood toys, one of which was a puppet.
Hanks plays five roles in the film including that of a small child (whose voice would later be dubbed in by Daryl Sabara).[13] Initially Zemeckis considered having him play every role, but after trying this, Hanks grew exhausted, and they whittled down the number.[12] Principal photography of the motion-capture sequences began in June 2003, and wrapped in May 2004.[14]
A deleted scene has Smokey and Steamer explain that the Hobo is in fact a ghost who was killed while riding on the top of the train.[15]
The film was Michael Jeter's last film performance, as he died on March 30, 2003, before he could complete his voice-over work as Smokey and Steamer. To save the film, André Sogliuzzo was brought in and recorded the remaining dialogue and over most of Jeter's existing dialogue (except for Steamer during the caribou scene).[9]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film opened in second place behind The Incredibles, earning $23.3 million 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 $30.6 million since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2.1 million from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday.[54] According to president Dan Fellman, Titanic had put a different spin on the numbers for The Polar Express. Among holiday movies, The Santa Clause 2 opened in 2002 to $29 million and grossed $140 million, while Elf debuted the next year at $31 million on its way to a $175-million take. The studio had high hopes for the movie, particularly since Zemeckis and Hanks had a history of success with Forrest Gump and Cast Away.[55] By comparison from the weekend the previous year, the top 12 movies had taken in $136.1 million down to 5% following the debuts of The Matrix Revolutions, Brother Bear and Elf.[56] Since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released in 2001, Warner Bros. had released 10 major films and all of them had dropped off at least 36% in their second weekend, but only seven dropped off at least 49%. Not one of them had a lower three-day opening weekend total gross as The Polar Express itself. The overseas prospects for the film were not especially encouraging, even though The Last Samurai went on to make a considerable sum of money across the globe and was prematurely labeled a flop by the media.[57] In its second weekend, The Polar Express dropped to 33%, and grossing $15.7 million, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative gross to $51.5 million. In its third weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend, the film increased by 24%, earning $19.4 million, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative gross to $81.5 million.[58][59] With a total gross of $71 million, The Polar Express would hold the record for having the highest IMAX gross of any film until it was taken by Avatar five years later in 2009.[60] The film has made $187.9 million in North America, and $126.3 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $314.2 million (including all re-releases).[6]
Critical response[edit]
The Polar Express received divisive reviews from critics upon release,[61][62] with some calling it an "instant Christmas classic" and others criticizing the characters as "lifeless zombies".[63][64] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 208 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The website's consensus reads: "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded."[65] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[66] The Independent reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic".[67] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[68]
Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie", and "it has a haunting, magical quality". Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen."[69] Richard Roeper and Mick LaSalle also gave highly positive reviews to the film, with the former saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image" and the latter giving it his highest rating of five stars, calling it, "an enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film that constitutes a technological breakthrough".[70] James Berardinelli gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004, tying with The Incredibles.[71] Ian Nathan of Empire gave the film three out of five stars, and said, "For all the fairy-lit wonder, some will rail at the idea of Back to the Future's director dabbling with such a schmaltzy tale. Cynics will sneeze in shock; children will cuddle up and dream along."[72] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian also gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "After a promising and distinctive start, a railway adventure to meet Santa runs off the rails."[73]
The film's character animation was criticized by some critics for dipping into the uncanny valley,[74][75] as it was thought to falter in mimicking realistic facial expressions and emotions.[76] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 1 star out of 4, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong".[77] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of The Polar Express if the look of it didn't give me the creeps."[78] Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway."[79] Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying".[80] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "There's no way of knowing whether they drank the company Kool-Aid. Still, from the looks of The Polar Express it's clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film."[81]
Accolades[edit]
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Polar Express for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[82]
Sequel[edit]
Producer Gary Goetzman revealed in a January 2024 interview with ComicBook.com that a sequel to The Polar Express was being "worked out", indicating the project may have entered development.[85] It is unclear how far along the project is or if it has any chance of being greenlit.[86]
