The Polar Express film review

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THE POLAR EXPRESS

Undoubtedly one of the strangest animated features in recent times, The Polar Express is a throwback to another world, specifically post-WWII America. Its message, one of insularity and looking after number one, is decidedly contemporary however, and fits in with the Neo Conservative attitude that clearly dominates America in the light of Bush's recent re-election. The film's makers, who have reportedly stumped up over $150m dollars for its budget, have tried to make an animation as Frank Capra might have approached the genre, but even for him, and for most modern audiences, both the rather unusual animation and the overly saccharine flavour of the film may seem a little too much.

It's Christmas Eve in an unspecified town and a young boy is having trouble sleeping. He has reached that age where his belief in Father Christmas is wavering, but at five minutes to twelve on the special night, something very unusual happens. A huge train pulls up outside his house, and ignoring any advice about getting into vehicles with strangers, he accepts the conductor's invite to leap on board.

The train, he learns, is heading for the North Pole to see Santa, and is packed with other kids just like him. The trip is filled with adventure, literally being a roller-coaster ride for much of its journey and traveling through the most exotic landscape on the way to its destination. A ghostly figure haunts the train's roof, it nearly comes unstuck when it hits an ice field and an enormous herd of moose threaten to derail it. Once the journey is complete, the boy and his fellow travellers arrive at a spectacularly rendered North Pole, where they become lost and discover the machinations behind Santa's enormous set-up, before finally meeting the big man himself and receiving the best present of all, the knowledge that Father Christmas is, after all, alive and well.