The farthest station of the Orient Express

The 2024 movie-of-the-month column began with an animation piece, and so it shall end, one that in fact just hit its 20^th year anniversary (since this has been a bit of a leitmotiv as well). Polar Express is a 2004 animation movie directed by Robert Zemeckis (the same one that directed the Back to the Future trilogy) with the voice acting of Tom Hanks; it is a Christmas story, and thus explains why I have chosen it for the month of December.

The plot is pretty simple: a boy that has almost stopped believing in Christmas is invited to take the train to the North Pole, where all the cheery magic happens. Time stops and the journey begins. After various adventures, the protagonists eventually meet Santa Claus who gives them the will to believe once again in Christmas. It is a story made for children, but there is also something more to it. The fact that the main character has stopped believing in magic – and Christmas in general – is an obvious analogy of growing up; the fact that by the end of the movie he starts hearing the chimes of the Christmas belles becomes somewhat a symbolism for seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

For its time, Polar Express was pretty well made, considering how the early two-thousands went heavy on the hyper-realistic animation techniques. As a side note, to my knowledge, it is one of the few examples where a hurdy-gurdy is animated; it’s not an important bit of information, but it is one that you might find interesting.

I would give this movie 6 out of 10 Steven-Tyler-looking-elves.