The Polar Express

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
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					The Polar Express

Other inventors, like Humphrey Davy and Joseph Wilson Swan, may have done a lot of groundbreaking work in their efforts to create an electric light bulb, but it really is because of Thomas Alva Edison’s work in 1879 that we live today in an artificially incandescent world. Can you imagine being there in Edison’s workshop on 21 October 1879 when he first lit a bulb and kept it glowing continuously for a full 40 hours? One vast step on the historical path of technology and yet at the time it was witnessed by only a handful of people.

In 10, 20 or 30 years’ time, people will look back on Robert Zemeckis’ film The Polar Express and mark it as the moment at which a revolution in animation took place. Using a technique called ‘performance capture’ (where real actors’ movements are tracked digitally and then transformed into the virtual characters that we see on film), Zemeckis has given us the world’s first feature-length p-cap film and taken us into a universe which redefines the way in which animation is seen and accessed as a genre.

Edison’s first bulb glowed for 40 hours. It wasn’t the best, the brightest, the biggest, or the most brilliant bulb that would ever glow, but it was one superlative that no other bulb would be able to match: the first. And that’s what we have with Zemeckis’ film: an historic first. Sure, as the years roll by and technology improves, people will look back and see The Polar Express as somewhat technologically quaint and coarse, but right now the only fair way to describe it is as a sublime innovation which will open up limitless possibilities in the years ahead. I hate animated films and always have done even as a kid, so I write this with the heart of a sceptic, but in looking at The Polar Express you really can see a new dawn in cinema beyond the world of crude animation. Even if you don’t like Chris Van Allsburg's original book; even if you’re a Scrooge at heart and loathe Christmas; even if you hate animations; even if you detest Tom Hanks (could anyone detest Tom Hanks?) or Robert Zemeckis, do yourself a favour and drag yourself along to the cinema and soak up the possibilities of p-cap filming because in doing so you won’t just be gazing on the North Pole, you’ll be gazing on the dawn of a new cinematic creation. You’ll be able to tell your grandchildren that “I was there.”

In the shell of a nut, the story is simple enough: a young boy on the cusp between childhood and early adolescence has simply lost his belief in Christmas and Santa Claus. On Christmas Eve, this young heretic suddenly has a huge train haul up outside his house and he’s invited to take a ride up to the North Pole to visit Father Christmas. The journey offers various thrills and spills, the boy gets to the North Pole, visits the Big Man and has his belief restored. The story itself is festive enough, but it is probably the p-cap that is most riveting. Coming out of the cinema, people are talking about the effects more than the story itself.

And yet, the story does come with some good homespun messages about hope and belief; about friendship and leadership; about having courage to do things; about making a difference in the world we live in.

Sure, some of the animation is less than perfect. The movements can look a little jolty (especially when the kids run); the kids walk in falling snow and yet don’t appear to get any on their clothes or hair, etc, but these things hardly matter. The weakest part of the animation is in the characters’ hands and faces. The skin tends to look rubbery and the subtle movements made by a human face when its innumerable muscles flex or contract are clearly beyond the grunt of today’s computer graphics, giving us characters which have a slightly robotic or Stepford Wives quality about them. But that observation aside, the work is incredible and delightful.

Some of the scenes with the train hurtling up and down treacherous inclines are rather like sitting in a simulator at a theme park – but there’s nothing wrong with that. The best moments are probably the long unbroken shot that follows a lost train ticket on its journey out of and then back to the train; and a wonderful skit in which the children on the train are served with hot chocolate by a host of dancing waiters.

Strangely (and thankfully), the film is not very fast paced. Most kids’ films start off like a fired bullet and then speed up. Zemeckis has the confidence to start the film off slowly and to then let it move purposefully along with only occasional bursts of speed. This is a major plus and turns the film from being a kiddie mush-rush (like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) into a fairly self-assured and thoughtful journey. It is easy to throw brickbats at Zemeckis and say that the film is too slow and too long, but to do so is a complete misunderstanding of what the film is about. In time, perhaps on a second viewing, the detractors will suddenly get it and view the film for what it is and not for what they expect it to be.

The film stars Tom Hanks, Eddie Deezen, Nona M Gaye, and Peter Scolari, although it is really Hanks in his quintuple guises who is the real star of the show. But as a series of animated characters, can you really gauge his performance? The answer to that one has to be a resounding ‘yes’. Maybe we can’t see Tom in flesh and blood, but he does warm up the screen with his voice and bring a depth to the characters he plays that might well have been missing with lesser actors. Hanks is lucky: like many great thesps, he has a distinctive voice – think Cary Grant, John Wayne, James Stewart, Russell Crowe – which gives him a screen presence beyond mere bones and bile. The truly great actors live beyond their physical performance and have voices that are instantly recognisable. In Hanks, Zemeckis has a performer with star quality vocal cords, and it is only fair to say that Hanks does bring a great deal to the film through his vocal range, with his ‘hobo ghost’ character being the most interesting of all the animations on screen.

There are some nice bits that will have the adults smiling: when we see the elves all decked in red, Zemeckis plucks out ‘The Red Flag’ (Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree/Oh Tannenbaum), and towards the end of the film there is a jumping jack elfin rocker performing on stage with an uncanny resemblance to Mick Jagger.

All in all it is a truly great film and one which will be a huge festive favourite for many years to come. The Polar Express may not have pulled up at platform number one in the box office charts, but it certainly deserves to. If you only see one festive film, then see this one. Forget nit-picking and open your eyes and heart to a wonderful film and a wonderful new entertainment genre.

Our Rating: 8 out of 10 (from the adult reviewer)
Our Rating: 9 out of 10 (from the 12 year old reviewer)

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