Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2004
- Almost phony baloney

 It is a Christmas movie cliché by now. Frank Capra’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life has been the exemplar to which all other holiday fare is compared, but which all contain a similar message: do not doubt, “believe” in what you cannot see because it is real.

 Not in the same league as Steven Spielberg fantasies, such as E.T., The Polar Express is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who procured work under Spielberg’s producer mantle with Back to the Future. Now a bonafide box office drawcard, producer/director Zemeckis’ latest is endearing and sentimental, warm hearted holiday escapism, and conceived and produced elegantly. Although the surreal animation is spectacular the movie is a bore.

 Zemeckis is a versatile director. There is usually a good natured feel-good streak in his films although the subject matter varies: Romancing the Stone, Castaway, Contact, Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, to mention several. The Polar Express is no exception.

 Big on ideas and the utilisation of technology, like with his groundbreaking live action animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis and the studios bankrolled a quarter of one million U.S. dollars into the production, marketing and distribution of The Polar Express.

 Over a quarter of that was spent on “performance capture” animation techniques. This is what Peter Jackson and the Weta special effects team did on The Lord of the Rings with Gollum, played by Andy Serkis. Sensors are attached to actors while their performances are captured by camera and tracked by computer, later to be digitised, downloaded into computers and superimposed into the animated world. The Polar Express is therefore unique in animation.

 It is for this reason that the movie is a milestone technologically although the story of a boy’s awakening to the spirit of Christmas has trouble convincing in the facial and bodily mannerisms of its characters.

 A train called the Polar Express pulls up outside the boy’s home headed for the North Pole. The doubting Thomas boy’s curiosity gets the better of him and with several other children – two of which are prominent supporting players – finds out whether Santa and the elves are real.

 The animation long shots of The North Pole and locomotive hurtling through the region are stunning and according to Zemeckis the animation was intended to capture the source material paintings by Chris Van Allsburg. It is visually memorable.

 Tom Hanks plays five roles; his outing as the train conductor disguises the animation’s faults because of the character’s moustache hiding his mouth. He also performs the key character – the young boy – the boy’s father, a hobo, scrooge and Santa.

 There is no doubt this is meant to be a fantasy but which offers the allurement and magic of the premise without letting on it is a fantasy. Perhaps there is a Santa after all. Perhaps we should believe. In this it is charmingly illusive. But as a blind faith sermon for movie goers it is blatantly obvious and hardly in-depth neither brimming with the flesh of theology in spite of its meaningful intentions or neither resonating as it could.

 This escapism is undemanding viewing but the artifice can only go so far. Zemeckis reportedly said that using computer animation as in the The Incredibles would have been too cartoonish, and live action as in Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas would detract from the emotion and charm of the (Allsburg’s) pictures. What emotion?