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Polar Express

We saw The Polar Express the day before Thanksgiving, based on the great reviews from Ebert and Roeper, who claim the movie will become a Christmas classic. The movie I saw was a good movie, but I don't really see it becoming a classic.

The strengths of the movie are the actors and the visuals. Hanks adds humor and depth, and the children are pretty good as well, with the exception of the "nerdy" kid - who seems to be the only child in the movie voiced by an adult, the result being a nasal man's voice coming out of a little boy's face, which makes for an irritating experience whenever he is on screen.

A big weakness in the movie was music. First, you have the main theme, which is a direct rip-off of Danny Elfman's score of Edward Scissorhands. Second, the movie can't make up its mind: is it a movie with some music in it, or is it a musical? The first big musical production begins with dancing waiters serving hot chocolate. It's extremely upbeat and sets the audience up for an expectation of more songs like it, but the only other songs are 1) a slow, slow sad-sounding song, 2) canned Christmas songs played in Santa's factory, and 3) a bizarre rockin' Steven Tyler Christmas song. Make up your mind!!!! None of it flowed.

The movie really was beautiful to watch. The animation of the kids didn't bother me in the least. The whole story moves very quietly, and a lot of slow motion is used; I think they wanted the audience to feast their eyes on the artwork, but it resulted in a pace that was just a little bit too slow for its own good. Also, visually speaking, I would have expected the North Pole to be a lot more inspiring than it was.

The funny thing is, with all of these complaints, I still enjoyed myself. The friendship of three of the children was heartwarming, the adults were a good touch, it was great to look at, and an interesting adventure. So I guess that would be a mild recommendation. :)

Posted by wendytime at December 1, 2004 09:11 AM | TrackBack