The Polar Express: A Fastrack to Christmas

By Conor Spencer 23 December 2021

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express holds its own in any debate over what Christmas film to watch during the festive season and continues to have its unique style dissected by writers and families alike. Released in 2004, Variety’s David Rooney concisely described the film as a ‘visually impressive yet emotional frigid fable’.

The Polar Express is instantly recognisable for its distinctive animation which saw it enter the Guinness World Records as the first all-digital capture film. Seventeen years on from its initial release, the piece maintains its charm and rightly steams its way onto those freshly purchased Black Friday TVs each passing year.

Set in 1956, the film is an adaption of the 1985 Chris van Allsburg book of the same name and follows the story of a young unnamed boy who is in his ‘crucial year’, as his belief in Santa Claus begins to wane. Consequently, late on Christmas Eve, he is abruptly awoken by the arrival of The Polar Express, which creates disruption comparable to that of an earthquake, yet fails to wake anyone but the boy in question. After inspecting the train, the young boy discovers the train conductor - one of the numerous characters played by Tom Hanks, as the film attempts to get its money’s worth out of a blockbuster name.

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Once aboard the express, the film embarks on an adventure of questionable realism but spectacular visuals in a journey from the United States to the North Pole at a speed that makes Eurostar services look like Thomas the Tank Engine. Highlights of the journey include a flamboyant hot chocolate catering service (despite its lack of marshmallows and whipped cream) and an encounter with an innumerable herd of reindeer that today would be mistaken for an Extinction Rebellion protest.

Despite these incidents, the locomotive arrives at the North Pole with five minutes to spare; confirming that the service was not operating on any British railway. Whilst in reality the North Pole is a barren wasteland, in The Polar Express it has been colonised by Elon Musk and rented out to Santa and his Elves, where the children witness the festivities that occur in the run-up to midnight.

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Director Robert Zemeckis manufactures an impervious command of stunning festive visuals, which is arguably at its most powerful when the children witness the Aurora Borealis as the North Pole comes into view in the distance. Many of the film’s most recognisable scenes are complemented by its orchestral scores, stirring the viewer’s multiple senses. But even when the Northern Lights vanish and the music fades, the principles that the film attempts to instil in its viewers shine on.

Each child in the film is on a journey that transcends the one taken on The Polar Express as they discover new aspects of life and themselves throughout their journey to see Santa. This voyage of discovery reaches its climax when prior to departure from the North Pole the train conductor inscribes on each child’s ticket an adjective pertaining to them; a word emblematic of the journey they have been on thus far and the room for growth which remains.

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Despite a bizarre and somewhat anticlimactic wider storyline, The Polar Express retains enough charm and generates enough intrigue to manufacture itself into a staple Christmas film for many.

As we steam into the final weeks of the year, it may feel as if life for the past twenty months has been a service running with severe delays or constant engineering. The Polar Express does not erase these aches, nor does it have that seminal festive figure like Buddy the Elf, Kevin McCallister, or John McClane, who we traditionally seek out in Christmas movies. However, Zemeckis’ attempt to reach out into the future of digital filmmaking offers its viewers a visually pleasurable journey back in time to that ageless feeling of festivity. It reignites a set of emotions that will outlast concerns about new variants and covid borne Christmas chaos because life, like The Polar Express, can always recover from derailment.