The Polar Express is a 2004 American animated musical Christmas adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr., based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. It stars Tom Hanks in multiple roles, along with Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, and Eddie Deezen. It depicts human characters using live-action and motion-capture computer animation, with production sequences for the latter taking place from June 2003 to May 2004. Set on Christmas Eve, it tells the story of a young boy who travels to the North Pole aboard a magical train guided by its conductor.

The film premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 13, 2004, and was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on November 10. It received mixed reviews from critics and initially grossed $286 million against a record-breaking $165–170 million budget, which was the highest for an animated feature at the time. Later re-releases helped propel the film's gross to $329million worldwide. As of 2024, a sequel is in development.

Plot

On Christmas Eve in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Polar Express, a magical train bound for the North Pole, stops outside the house of a boy who is beginning to doubt the existence of Santa Claus. He boards the train after being invited by the Conductor, befriending a spirited girl and a know-it-all boy in the passenger car. The train stops to pick up a lonely boy named Billy, whom the Hero Boy saves from missing its departure by pulling the emergency brake. Billy chooses to sit alone in the observation car.

The children are served hot chocolate, and the girl leaves with the Conductor to deliver Billy a cup. The boy notices her unstamped ticket and attempts to return it to her. The ticket blows through the wilderness and eventually finds its way back onto the train. When the girl discovers that her ticket is missing, the Conductor escorts her out of the passenger car. Fearing that she will be disembarked, the boy travels across the roof to find her, aided by a ghostly Hobo.

Upon reaching the engine, he finds the girl driving the train, as the engineer and fireman repair the headlamp. Following a near miss with a herd of caribou, a throttle malfunction causes the train to speed down a steep hill onto a frozen lake. The lost throttle pin nearly causes a disaster before the engineer regains control.

The train arrives at the North Pole on schedule, where the Conductor announces that one of the children will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa. While trying to convince Billy to join in the festivities, the boy and girl accidentally unhitch the observation car from the train, causing it to roll along a track into Santa's workshop, where Billy finds a present addressed to him. They are dumped into Santa's sack, where they also find the know-it-all boy. After it is loaded onto Santa's sleigh, the elves escort them out.

The Conductor, the children, and elves assemble with a large Christmas tree at the center of the city, moments before Santa arrives. During the celebration, a bell comes loose from the galloping reindeer's reins and lands at the boy's feet; he cannot hear it ring until he wills himself to believe. Santa lets him keep it as the first gift of Christmas. Santa departs, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. The children board the train to return home as the elves re-hitch the observation car, and the boy discovers that he lost the bell through a hole in his robe pocket. The train takes the children home, and the Conductor personally wishes the boy a Merry Christmas.

On Christmas morning, the boy finds a present containing his lost bell with a note from Santa. He and his younger sister, Sarah, joyfully ring it, but their parents can't hear it due to their disbelief in Santa. The boy (as an adult) recalls that event though his friends and Sarah eventually fell deaf to the bell as time went on, it still rings for him, as it does "for all who truly believe".

Cast

Production Development and filming

Tom Hanks optioned the film in 1999 after reading the book to his children with the hopes of playing the Conductor and Santa Claus. The book's author, Chris Van Allsburg, had been unwilling to sell the rights to the book for a film adaptation but changed his mind after learning of Hanks' involvement. Castle Rock Entertainment subsequently made a "seven-figure commitment" to co-produce the film with Hanks's company Playtone, Van Allsburg and William Teitler in March 2000. One of the conditions of the sale was that the resulting film not be animated, as Van Allsburg feared this would not accurately represent his characters. Rob Reiner was originally hired as director, and the film was originally scheduled to be released in December 2001.

After the film was repeatedly postponed, Robert Zemeckis was hired to replace Reiner as director and co-producer in February 2002. Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. subsequently rewrote the film. Zemeckis and Broyles' new draft expanded the roles of minor characters such as the girl, "Know-it-All" and the lonely boy, and added the new character of Hobo. The Scrooge puppet was inspired by Zemeckis considering his childhood toys, one of which was a puppet. After Zemeckis's company ImageMovers's contract with DreamWorks Pictures expired, he made a new deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to fund, distribute and provide studio space for the film.

Despite Van Allsburg's original terms with Hanks, Zemeckis felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million". Zemeckis felt that such a version would rob the audience of the art style of the book which he felt was "so much a part of the emotion of the story". However, Zemeckis also agreed that a conventional animated version would suit the film poorly. To keep his vision a new process was created by which actors would be filmed with motion capture equipment in a black box stage which would then be animated to make the resulting film. Hanks stated that this method of working was "actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do", comparing the process to performing a play in the round. The decision to film in motion capture necessitated another studio to co-produce, as the process was expensive and cost $1 million per minute of footage. After Universal Studios turned down the opportunity, investor Steve Bing agreed to finance half of the film's budget through his company Shangri-La Entertainment, which had only produced one other film. Executives at Warner Bros. were nervous about the film's technology and whether audiences would accept it.

The engine featured in the film was modeled after drawings of the Pere Marquette 1225. In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached its owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study it. The Steam Railroading Institute's executive director Dennis Braid provided several assets for the film, including a bulb and valve gear from the engine, and a box of coal. Sounds from the engine were also recorded for the film.

Principal production of the film began in June 2003 at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, and wrapped in May 2004.

Hanks plays six roles in the film, including that of a small child (whose voice would later be dubbed in by Daryl Sabara). Initially, Zemeckis considered having him play every role, but after trying this, Hanks grew exhausted, and they whittled down the number.

The only two characters in the film to not be animated through motion capture were Smokey and Steamer, mainly because of the huge size discrepancy and their more caricature nature compared to the rest of the cast. Ultimately, the characters were animated traditionally with skeletal animation rigs. A deleted scene on the home media release has the engineer and fireman characters explain through a shadow puppet show that the Hobo is the ghost of a homeless person who was killed while riding on the top of the train. The film was Michael Jeter's last film performance, as he died on March 30, 2003, before he could finish recording his lines as the engineer and fireman. Following his death, André Sogliuzzo was brought in to record the characters' remaining dialogue, as well as re-dub most of Jeter's already recorded dialogue (except for Steamer during the caribou scene).

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album of the film, titled The Polar Express: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released on November 2, 2004, by Reprise Records, Warner Music Group and Warner Sunset Records. The song, "Believe" was written by Alan Silvestri (music) and Glen Ballard (lyrics), and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 77th Academy Awards. It was sung at the 77th Academy Awards show by original performer Josh Groban with Beyoncé and won a Grammy Award in 2006.

The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in November 2007. Having sold 724,000 copies in the United States, it is the best-selling film soundtrack/holiday album hybrid since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991.

Most of the original orchestral score featured in the film was not released on the soundtrack and has never been released. The soundtrack mostly comprises only songs featured in the film. A limited number of promotional "For Your Consideration" CDs, intended to showcase the film's score to reviewers of the film, were released in 2005. This CD contained nearly the complete score, but none of the film's songs. Various bootleg versions of the soundtrack, combining both the official soundtrack album and the orchestral-only CD, have since surfaced.

Architecture

The buildings at the North Pole in the film represent an earlier era in American railroading. Building design drew inspiration from the Pullman neighborhood in Chicago, home of a railroad car manufacturer, the Pullman Company.

Marketing Video game

A video game based on the film was released on November 2, 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 prevent the children from making it to the North Pole.

Merchandise Model railroad manufacturer Lionel produces a variety of Polar Express train sets and equipment, including locomotives, train cars, and trackside buildings. Most of these are in O scale, running on Lionel's 3-rail track, but they also produce an HO scale version, an S scale American Flyer version, and a simplified plastic toy version that runs on G scale (or #1 gauge) track. In all of these sets, the locomotive model is based on the film rather than the real 1225 and thus incorporates the cosmetic changes made for the film (such as the longer cowcatcher and recessed headlight housing).

Before the film was released, Bachmann, another major model train manufacturer, also sold a G scale Polar Express train set based on the book. Apart from the paint scheme, this set made no effort to resemble the book illustrations and used the same 4-6-0 locomotive and open-platform passenger cars as most of Bachmann's other G scale train sets. Bachmann's G scale 4-6-0 is based on ET&WNC "Tweetsie" #12, a narrow-gauge locomotive that looks very different from Pere Marquette 1225. This set was discontinued before the release of the film.