The Polar Express (movie) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Polar Express |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Produced by |
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| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 21, 2004 (Chicago International Film Festival) November 10, 2004 (United States) |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $165 million |
| Money made | $310.6 million |
The Polar Express is a 2004 American 3D computer-animated film based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg, who also served as one of the executive producers on the film. Directed, co-written and co-produced by Robert Zemeckis, the film features human characters animated using live action motion capture animation. The film tells the story of a young boy who, on Christmas Eve, sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. The boy joins several other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus preparing for Christmas.
The film stars Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, and Eddie Deezen, with Tom Hanks in six distinct roles. The film also included a performance by Tinashe at age 9, as the CGI-model for the female protagonist.
The film also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory.
Contents
Plot
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the night of Christmas Eve in the 1950s, a boy is growing bitterly skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus. As he struggles to sleep, he witnesses the arrival of a steam locomotive on the street outside his home, and dons his robe to investigate, tearing the robe's pocket as he retrieves it. Outside, the train's conductor introduces the train as the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole. The boy initially declines to board, but jumps aboard the train as it pulls away.
In a passenger car, he befriends a spirited and amicable girl, and a condescending know-it-all boy. The train stops to pick up an impoverished child, Billy, who also declines to board; Billy changes his mind, and the boy applies the brakes to allow him to board, which attracts the conductor. As Billy sits alone in the train's rear dining car, hot chocolate is served in the passenger car, and the girl saves her hot chocolate for Billy. As she and the conductor cross to the dining car, the boy notices she left her ticket behind unpunched, but loses hold of the ticket between the cars when he attempts to return it. The ticket reenters the passenger car, but not before the conductor notices its absence and escorts the girl back to the rear car.
The know-it-all claims that the conductor will throw the girl from the back of the train; the boy recovers the ticket and dashes to the dining car in search of the conductor, climbing onto the roof from the rear platform. He meets a hobo camping on the roof, who offers him coffee and discusses the existence of Santa Claus and belief in ghosts. The hobo skis with the boy along the tops of the cars towards the train's coal tender, where the hobo disappears. In the locomotive's cab, the boy discovers that the girl has been made to supervise driving the train while engineers Steamer and Smokey replace the train's headlight. The boy applies the brakes, and the train stops while the conductor witnesses a herd of caribou that is blocking their way, The conductor pulls Smokey's beard, causing him to let out animal-likes noises, therefore clearing the caribou horde. The train continues on, but at extreme speed. The throttle's split pin sheers off, causing the train to accelerate uncontrollably down a 179-degree grade and onto a frozen lake. Smokey uses his hairpin to repair the throttle as the train drifts across the ice to realign with the tracks moments before the ice breaks. The boy returns the girl's ticket for the conductor to punch, and as the three return to the passenger car, the boy is accosted by an Ebenezer Scrooge marionette, taunting him and calling him a doubter, in reality controlled by the hobo.
The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas, from Santa himself. The girl discovers Billy still alone in the rear car, and she and the boy persuade him to come along; however, the boy accidentally unhitches the car, sending it back along the line to a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children sneak through an elf command center and a gift sorting office before accidentally being dumped into a giant sack full of presents, where they discover that the know-it-all kid stowed away. The elves escort them out as Santa arrives. A jingle bell flies loose from the galloping reindeers' reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He shows the bell to Santa, and Santa selects the boy to receive the bell as the first gift of Christmas. The boy asks to keep the jingle bell, Santa says yes, and he places it in his robe pocket.
The wayward rear car is returned to the train as the children board to return home, but then the boy discovers that he had lost the bell through the hole in his robe pocket. He returns home and awakens Christmas morning to find a present containing the bell. He and his younger sister Sarah ring the bell to their delight; their parents, not believing in Santa, lament how the bell is "broken." As an adult, the boy reflects on how his friends and his sister grew deaf to the bell as their belief faded over the years. However, the bell still rings for him, as it will do for all those who believe.
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Hero Boy (motion-capture only), Hero Boy's father, Conductor, Hobo, Scrooge puppet, Santa Claus, and the Narrator
- Daryl Sabara as Hero Boy (voice)
- Josh Hutcherson as Hero Boy (additional motion-capture)
- Leslie Zemeckis as Sister Sarah (motion-capture only) and Hero Boy's mother
- Isabella Peregrina as Sister Sarah (voice)
- Ashly Holloway as Sister Sarah (additional motion-capture)
- Eddie Deezen as Know-It-All
- Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak as Know-It-All (additional motion-capture)
- Nona Gaye as Hero Girl
- Chantel Valdivieso as Hero Girl (additional motion-capture)
- Meagan Moore as Hero Girl (singing voice)
- Tinashe as Hero Girl (motion-capture modeling)
- Peter Scolari as Billy the Lonely Boy (motion-capture only)
- Hayden McFarland as Billy the Lonely Boy (additional motion-capture)
- Jimmy Bennett as Billy the Lonely Boy (voice)
- Matthew Hall as Billy the Lonely Boy (singing voice)
- Dylan Cash as Boy on Train (voice)
- Brendan King and Andy Pellick as Pastry Chefs
- Josh Eli, Rolandas Hendricks, Jon Scott, Sean Scott, Mark Mendonca, Mark Goodman, Gregory Gast, and Gordon Hart as Waiters
- Andre Sogliuzzo as Smokey and Steamer (voice)
- Michael Jeter as Smokey and Steamer (motion-capture only)
- Chris Coppola as Gus the Toothless Boy and an Elf
- Connor Matheus as Toothless Boy (additional motion-capture)
- Julene Renee as Red Head Girl and an Elf
- Phil Fondacaro, Debbie Lee Carrington, Mark Povinelli, and Ed Gale as Elves
- Charles Fleischer as Elf General
- Steven Tyler as Elf Lieutenant and Elf Singer
- Dante Pastula as Little Boy
- Eric Newton, Aidan O'Shea, Aaron Hendry, Kevin C. Carr, Bee Jay Joyer, Jena Carpenter, Karine Mauffrey, Beth Carpenter, Bill Forchion, Devin Henderson, and Sagiv Ben-Binyamin as Acrobatic Elves
- Evan Sabara as a Young Boy (additional motion-capture)
Production
Architecture
The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.
Polar Express Locomotive
The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive, with a cowcatcher, modeled after the Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child.
In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached the engine's owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study the engine. The engine in the film is modeled from the PM #1225's drawings and the sounds from recordings made of the 1225 operating under steam. The whistle, however, was taken from Sierra Railway #3.
Awards and honors
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard), Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan) and Best Original Song for "Believe" (music and lyrics by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri)
The film was nominated at the 3rd Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture."
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Polar Express for its Top 10 Animated Films list.
Train Trips
The film has spawned multiple real-world holiday train-travel experiences based loosely on the film's train journey, such as the Polar Express train ride held at the Grand Canyon Railway and Hotel, and the Polar Express Train Ride of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
The Polar Express Experience
In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the Polar Express Experience, a motion simulator ride based on the film. The attraction is a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008, and is now open annually during the Christmas season.
The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusement parks around the world including Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Dollywood (during the annual Smoky Mountain Christmas event), Vancouver Aquarium (2009 — 2010), and Warner Bros. Movie World (during the White Christmas events in 2010 and 2011).
Video game
A video game based on the film was released on November 26, 2004 for GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and Windows, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ. The plot of the game is somewhat different than the film version. Within the game, the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet—who is set as the main antagonist of the game—attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to stop the children from making it to the North Pole.
See also
In Spanish: The Polar Express para niños
