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This was actually an incredible film despite the super creepy life-like eyes that felt like they were staring into my very soul. Enjoy :)

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FULL REACTION - The Polar Express

Enjoy watching along with me the full-length reaction!

Comments

Anonymous

I remember watching this a thousand times as a kid and relating to Billy so much it hurt. Maybe one day I'll have a magical train pass through my street.

Heida

This film gives me so much nostalgia! It is based on the book of the same name by Chris Van Alsburg who also wrote Jumanji and Zathura. The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis who also directed Forrest Gump, the Back to the Future triology and A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. The close shots of Hero Girl's ticket floating in the air is an intentional nod to the feather in Forrest Gump. Also, when the engineer and fireman try to grab the pin necessary for the train's throttle, a working flux capacitor is visible in the background, referencing Back to the Future and could mean the Polar Express is a functioning time machine. And when Hero Boy sounds the train's whistle he says that he has wanted to do so his whole life, as does Doc Brown in Back to the Future III. This is kind of a Christmas Carol film because Hero Boy is Scrooge and doesn't believe in Santa anymore causing the three ghosts of Christmas (the Hobo, Conductor and Santa) to change him forever. The Hobo is the Ghost of Christmas Past and plays the role of Christmas Future. He tries to intimidate Hero Boy into changing his ways, using only himself instead of the future. The Conductor is the Ghost of Christmas Present and is in charge of keeping order in the present to get Hero Boy to Santa. Finally, Santa is Christmas Future and changes Hero Boy forever, like Scrooge. The film used 3D motion capture techniques to digitally record the actors' physical performances before "skinning" them with their animated forms. The children's roles were acted by adults, using oversized props to get the movement right. Tom Hanks plays six different roles in the film: Hero Boy, Hero Boy's father, the conductor, Hobo, Santa and Scrooge. Initially Robert Zemeckis considered having him play all the roles but after trying, Hanks was too exhausted to do them all. Three different actors play the role of Hero Boy: Tom Hanks does the motion capturing and adult voice, Daryl Sabara does the voice acting and Josh Hutcherson does additional motion capturing. Nona Gaye, daughter of Marvin Gaye, plays Hero Girl. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith plays the elf lieutenant/singer. Director Robert Zemeckis' wife Leslie provides the motion capture for both Hero Boy's mum and sister. The theme heard throughout the film is nearly identical to the theme in Elf. It is also the melody to an original song called Believe, sung by Josh Groban. It was nominated for an Oscar and performed by Groban and Beyoncé during the award ceremony in 2005. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Grammy. There is a theory that the conductor time-traveled to help his past self since Tom Hanks also voices the older version of Hero Boy. And there is an actual Polar Express train ride that travels every year on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City, North Carolina.

Alice Be Kind Please Rewind

Polar Express came out in 2004, when I was 26 and I had never seen it til now. There are so many movies and TV shows to choose from and so little time to watch them all. Very glad I finally watched it 🙂 it was wonderful and weird at the same time. I loved all the lessons: Know-It-All's "Learn", Billy (Lonely Boy)'s "Depend On", "Rely On", "Count on", Hero Girl's "Lead", and Hero Boy's "Believe" (I remembered his Be at the beginning and his doubt throughout the movie, and I just knew: Believe 🤗❤ Eddie Deezen (voiced Know-It-All ), was in Grease 😊 also a great movie.