A Reel 20: THE POLAR EXPRESS

“Well, ya comin?”

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of THE POLAR EXPRESS. 

 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the 1985 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, THE POLAR EXPRESS was a CG-animated film that followed a young boy who joins a group of children aboard a mysterious locomotive and train bound for the North Pole on Christmas Eve. 

 

The rail to the North Pole goes back to 1999, when veteran actor Tom Hanks optioned the book after reading it to his children, with the intent of making a live-action version. The project went to Castle Rock Entertainment, with director Rob Reiner (A FEW GOOD MEN, THE PRINCESS BRIDE), set to direct. After a few postponements, Robert Zemeckis was brought on to direct. 

 

Zemeckis, who had pushed the boundaries of filming technology with his films BACK TO THE FUTURE, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, and FORREST GUMP, decided to make the film using CG-motion capture. At the time, the process was lengthy and expensive, costing around $1 million per minute of footage. 

 

Tom Hanks, who had worked with Zemeckis on GUMP, would be cast and would play several different parts, including the train conductor and Santa Claus. Alan Silvestri would provide the music, including the theme song Believe. 

 

On release (which included 3D and IMAX), THE POLAR EXPRESS would open in second place behind THE INCREDIBLES, and it would earn through the holidays to finish as the 15^th highest grossing film of 2004. It would also set a record for the highest grossing IMAX film before AVATAR arrived in 2009. It would be nominated for three Oscars (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Song), and Believe would win a Grammy. The film would inspire real-world holiday train-excursion experiences around the world. 

 

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THE POLAR EXPRESS was met with divisive reviews on release. While some considered it to be a holiday classic, others criticized the lifeless, CG human characters. The praise and the criticism are well-justified; the film has gone on to permanent viewing around the holidays, often being seen on many broadcast channels. The film has a gorgeous look; everything is aglow and while the CG human characters do seem plastic-like, there is a heart to the film that gets around it. As a story about a boy looking to recapture the magic that he lost, it really works and brings back many memories of trying to get to sleep on Christmas Eve. 

 

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“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.”