The Polar Express (2004)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
When a doubting young boy takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery that shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.
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28 films that influenced The Polar Express
What critics say influenced The Polar Express
The child characters, even Hero Boy, and the adults on the train never blossom much beyond their initial appearance; the throngs of elves sometimes unfortunately suggest the climax of 1977's "Star Wars" or "Triumph of the Will."
It's infernal entertainment and comparisons to Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will are unavoidable (particularly in a disturbing rally scene), but it's hard to know how much of that intense martial creepiness is intended as satire, and how much of it is just what lies beneath.
A segment that involves chasing a little girl's ticket, which apparently has a mind of its own, is uncomfortably reminiscent of the hunt in Curse of the Demon for a parchment with runic symbols on it.
His appearance recalls one of those cheesy movies (including, if memory serves, Zemeckis' And All Through the House episode of Tales from the Crypt) where a deranged but undeniably flamboyant killer dresses up as Santa Claus.
And there is something eerie and dead about these children's eyes, making them resemble those evil, stoic kids of the 1960 horror flick "Village of the Damned."
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And it's certainly an exciting movie -- never more so than when the Express speeds through snow-mantled mountainous regions of wolves and potential avalanches on the way to the Pole, or when we catch our first sights of the amazing North Pole city, a "Metropolis" closer to Fritz Lang's than Superman's -- or Santa's.
Tyger, tyger loose in Metropolis.
The train is loaded with other children, also dressed in their PJs, among them Hero Girl (Nona Gaye), who fixes Hero Boy with a cool, scrutinizing stare that’s supposed to be friendly and welcoming but actually looks like something you’d expect from the telekinetic twins in Brian De Palma’s “The Fury,” the ones with such potent supernatural powers they can make people bleed just by looking at them — you expect his brain to explode any minute.
Robert Zemeckis makes films that lean toward the fantastical, such as the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "Contact," and "The Polar Express."
Robert Zemeckis ("Cast Away"/"Beowulf"/"The Polar Express") slickly directs this simple-minded sob story comedy about a simpleton from Alabama (filmed in Varnville, South Carolina) with an IQ of 75, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), who was named after a southern civil war hero and founder of the KKK and was filled with evangelical righteousness by his proud traditional southern bred dutiful loving mom (Sally Field).
Zemeckis' "Roger Rabbit" and "Forrest Gump" were both, in their own ways, technological marvels.
Roger Zemeckis teams up, once again, with Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump,” “Cast Away”) in an experimental animation that is the first genuine foray in what is dubbed Performance Capture.
Hollywood veteran Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump," "Back to the Future," "Cast Away") directed "The Polar Express" using high-tech "capture" technology that transforms real filmed material into animation.
Zemeckis has pioneered the interface between live action and animation in films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994).
Santa Claus himself is kind of underwhelming; as someone else pointed out, despite being played by Tom Hanks, Santa looks more like Tim Allen in The Santa Clause.
Strangely, although Saint Nick sounds like Hanks, he resembles the Tim Allen version from The Santa Clause.
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A small boy (one of Hanks's six roles, but voiced by Daryl Sabara from the "Spy Kids" movies) known in the story as Hero Boy, has his doubts about Santa Claus's existence.
Tom Hanks, for example, aped the movements, actions and expressions of the young hero of the story even though the audience sees a computerized version of a young boy and hears the voice of a young actor (Spy Kids' Daryl Sabara).
Incidentally, when he begins speaking as himself, his voice is that of Spy Kids star Daryl Sabara.
The story follows a restless and nameless young boy (voiced by Daryl Sabara of "Spy Kids"), old enough to have some doubts about parts of Christmas, who wakes up to the roar of a train barreling down the street in his neighborhood.
The story is based on Van Allsburg's yule time tale of a disbelieving boy (Daryl Sabara, from the "Spy Kids" movies) who is given another chance to witness the magic of Christmas.
When hot chocolate is served, we get a spectacular song-and-dance number that recalls "Be Our Guest" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast (although the song isn't as memorable).