A Christmas classic The kids took because they had nothing, it’s a terrible movie

Pa Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 14 hours ago

Christmas movies can be sweet, bright, colorful and over-the-top fun, making them a good movie to watch every year with the family. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Frosty snowman, Elf, The Santa Clausand A Christmas story these are all classics, but still, for some reason, you find these days Polar ExpressRobert Zemeckis’ motion capture box office disappointment that is considered a modern classic. How anyone can look deep into the soulless eyes of Tom Hanks as the Conductor and think “that’s the spirit of Christmas” is beyond me, because this movie went straight into the uncanny valley and the plot must have lost its ticket because there’s nowhere to go seen

Straight into the uncanny valley

Released in 2004, Polar Express was shot in motion capture, the same style that Zemeckis used later Beowulf and Christmas songspecifically to capture the painterly qualities of a famous children’s book. Thanks to the talent of Chris Van Allsburg, the book exudes warmth and wonder from the pages, but it is very short and lacks the content for a feature film. I would argue that the feature film lacks the content for a feature film, because even when talking to people who like the film, they always only talk about the train sequence itself and leave the back of the film with the kids running through the Elf command center .

Polar Express it’s about a boy hero, a young boy (motion capture by Josh Hutcherson) who loses his faith in Christmas when a train stops in front of his house, and he moves on after being picked up by the Conductor, played by Tom Hanks, on a trip to the North pole. Hanks, as The Conductor, doesn’t play a role big enough for this type of film and for any emotion to register in his performance. Looking like a stern father, the Conductor isn’t the villain of the film, but he’s also not the cheerful conductor you’d expect on a train full of children going to the North Pole.

There’s an action movie on the way made for Polar Express In the film, when it derails and comes over an ice-covered lake, it’s the only moment in the film where it feels like it has any real stakes or momentum. Beyond this point, nothing happens. Sure, it ends with a nice bell-ringing moment (which goes against the original point of the novel), but the moment isn’t worth getting there because of the crappy CGI, the lack of plot, and finally, the nagging kids.

Classic by default

I know Polar Express intended for children, but in the 20 years since the film’s release, it seems that studios have finally realized that children in films can be fully realized characters that transcend the old style of representationa single stereotype, such as the know-it-all, the loner, the hero, and the girl; these are the main children of the film. If Zemeckis had the guts, he’d want Billy the Lonely Boy to get his first Christmas present instead of Hero Boy. However, instead of subverting expectations, we are left with annoying dialogues, weird facial expressions and bad decisions that are obviously designed to give the film something to show on screen.

And yet, precisely because the film is aimed at children, it is considered a classic now, after those children have grown up and look back on the early days with nostalgia. This is the same generation that decided the Star Wars prequels were great, but I can’t judge them too harshly like I thought Three ninjas was the peak of cinema and I loved it Christmas Claymation Special. In 2004, there were no big-budget, G-rated Christmas movies that opened at the box office, leaving Polar Express as a generation favorite by default.

When we’re kids, we have terrible taste, and again, I admit that I love it Three ninjasthat no one talks about Polar Express beyond “I love this movie.” It’s not about the scenes, great moments, iconic lines or classic characters, but people will talk fondly about the movie. It’s because they were kids when they saw it and they still hear the bell today, and not because it’s a good movie or even a good movie, it’s a movie and if you’re a kid, that’s good enough.

Polar Express is broadcast Disney+and Maxif you need reminding that this is a movie where nothing happens.