Wonderful christmas fare - The Polar Express Reviews

One of the best Christmas movies ever made. A simple tale of belief in Santa that may bring a tear to the eyes of parents. The visual effects are superb. Each scene in the movie resembles an elaborately drawn painting. They have done a fine job of capturing the spirit of Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations. Do not be fooled; this is not the simple animation of television's classic Christmas specials. The train is detailed down to the rivets, the caribou would look at home in the real world, and the North Pole is stunning. When you get an aerial view of Santa's Christmas Tree, be sure to pay attention to the compass directions on plaza around the tree. The animators achieved a city at the North Pole that could only be rivaled by a model that would take thousands of hours and billions of dollars to create. Even then, it wouldn't be populated by the countless elves found in the film. When you get an aerial view of Santa's Christmas Tree, be sure to pay attention to the compass directions on plaza around the tree. Watching the film, I forced myself to think for a moment about the motion capture technique used to animate the children and adults. I felt the animated children portrayed emotion much better than most real child actors. After the film, my wife informed me that most of the children were acted by adults, including Tom Hanks. The use of accomplished actors to create child characters succeeds brilliantly. Only someone who has no children and has had every last bit of Christmas Spirit drain out of their dry shriveled heart would not enjoy this movie. We just got back from the theater, and I'm ready to see it again.