The Polar Express (2004)

This Oscar nominated film is based on the children's book "The Polar Express" written by Chris Van Allsburg.

On Christmas Eve, a boy is thinking that there is no Santa Claus after seeing articles about striking department store Santa Clauses. He hears the loud sounds of a train stopping in front of his house and a conductor (Tom Hanks) gets out and asks him if he is going to board the train that is on it's way to the North Pole. The train is filled with children in their pajamas. The children all have tickets that are punched by the conductor with a couple of letters that don't have any meaning. There are several adventures aboard the train and some songs before the train pulls into the North Pole where what seems like thousands of elves are heading to the town square. The boy is picked by Santa to be the child to receive the first gift of the Season. When he is asked what gift he would like, he tells Santa that he wants a bell that he had seen fall from Santa's sleigh. This bell can only be heard by those who believe in Santa. The child puts the bell in his pocket and re-boards the train to go home. All of the childrens' tickets are punched for the round trip. this time, the rest of the letters spell a word that has personal meaning for each child. While on the train, he discovers that his bell has fallen through a hole in his pocket. When he gets home, he opens a box on Christmas morning and finds the bell along with a note from Santa. He mentions that over the next years, that everyone but him stops being able to hear the bell, meaning that they have lost their belief in Santa Claus.

This film initially did not do well in theaters. Tom Hanks voices six characters during the movie and the animated likenesses of him were so real looking it was kind of strange.

This was the first time that I had seen this movie. I thought that it was pretty good especially for smaller children.

100 Minutes. Rated G. I give this movie THREE STARS.