The Polar Express
Short description
A boy on the night before Christmas lies awake, hoping to catch the sound of sleigh bells, when a steam train pulls up outside his house. The conductor invites him aboard the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole, where Santa Claus will present the first gift of Christmas. Other children are on board, and the journey takes them through snowy landscapes and hazards before reaching its destination, with the boy's doubts about Santa tested along the way.
The 2004 film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr. and produced with Steve Starkey and Gary Goetzman. It was the fourteenth of twenty-three films he has directed in chronological order, arriving between What Lies Beneath and Beowulf. Tom Hanks leads the cast as the adult version of the boy, the conductor, the hobo and Santa Claus; Leslie Zemeckis, Eddie Deezen, Nona Gaye, Peter Scolari and Michael Jeter also appear. The production was based on Chris Van Allsburg's picture book and used performance capture animation, with 53 credited cast members and 272 credited crew.
Made for 165 million dollars, the film took 318 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from 270,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 from 7,038. A critics' rating of 6.7 from 210 reviews sits close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on a short story by Chris Van Allsburg, "The Polar Express," published in 1985. The story consisted of only 32 pages, but contained a large number of illustrations (Van Allsburg is primarily an artist). Therefore, the plot of the story was largely supplemented by the personal ideas of Robert Zemeckis.
- The roles of the mother and sister of the main character were 'played' by Robert Zemeckis' wife, Leslie Harter Zemeckis.
- The film entered the Guinness Book of Records as the first film where the entire performance of the actors was conveyed by digitizing real people.
- Tom Hanks "plays" five roles in this film: the boy protagonist, his father, the conductor, the Spirit of Christmas, and Santa Claus.
- The address the conductor mentions at the very beginning of the film is the real address of the house where Robert Zemeckis spent his childhood.
- In the scene where the protagonist pulls the train whistle, he says, "I've dreamed about this all my life!". Emmett Brown does the same thing in another Robert Zemeckis film, "Back to the Future Part III" (1990).
- The locomotive that pulls the Polar Express is modeled after a real existing locomotive, the "Pere Marquette 1225", which is housed at the railway institute in the city of Owosso, Michigan. Skywalker Sound staff specifically came to Owosso to record its sounds (wheel clatter, steam release, whistle...). This locomotive was built in 1941 and was scheduled to be scrapped in 1951. However, in 1957, it was purchased by Michigan State University and displayed on campus. In 1971, a group of enthusiasts began restoring the locomotive to working order. The restoration was completed in 1985, and in 1988, this locomotive began pulling excursion trains.
- The view of Santa Claus's city at the North Pole refers to the history of American railroads. The architecture of the buildings on the square in the city center is based on the architecture of the Pullman factory buildings, located near Chicago. The Santa Claus factory's control center is modeled on the interior of Pennsylvania Station, located in New York.
- In the scene where the elves perform the song "Rockin' On Top of the World", one of the elves resembles Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith.
- In the scene in the wagon with abandoned toys, there is a doll of Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Five years after the release of this film, Robert Zemeckis filmed "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey. Ebenezer’s appearance is the same as the doll’s in this film.
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