 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Polar Express
- Review Date: November 17, 2005
- G
- Genre: Family and Kids
- 2004
Common Sense Media says
Book-based treat is full of adventure and positive messages.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that despite the wonderful messages and warm-hearted story, the film is primarily an adventure, with lots of roller coaster thrills and some scary characters that might be too intense and frightening for the youngest children. The Express roars, speeds, and skids on its perilous journey to the North Pole. Sometimes out of control, sometimes racing against dangers and obstacles in its path, it’s filled with suspense almost from beginning to end. The child heroes are frequently in danger: from falls, getting lost, left alone on a careening train, in dark and shadowy unknown places facing characters who may wish them harm. The story focuses on a boy who doubts whether or not there is a Santa. (According to the movie, yessiree.)
What's the story?
A boy who is beginning to question Santa lies awake on Christmas Eve afraid he won't hear anything. He hears a sound and runs outside to see an enormous locomotive pull up in front of his house; the conductor invites him to board. The train is bound for the North Pole and our unnamed hero/narrator will have many adventures and find the answer to his questions before he wakes up in his own bed on Christmas morning.
Is it any good?
Director Robert Zemeckis has done a fairly good job of maintaining the integrity of the brief story as it is expanded to feature length. The complications of the journey are well-paced and consistent with the story's themes, though the know-it-all character becomes grating very quickly. It is less successful after the arrival at the North Pole, when the expansion starts to feel like filler, particularly when a nice selection of timeless Christmas standards on the soundtrack gives way to a lackluster rock song that brings the story to a standstill for no discernable reason.
The animators have done their best to preserve the look of Chris Van Allsburg's lovely illustrations. The result is attractive, if coarser and less graceful. There are moments of great beauty, especially the vertiginous ride as we watch a golden train ticket carried away by an eagle. And there are wonderfully imaginative images, dancing waiters pouring hot chocolate from silver pots with triple-spouts, Santa's huge workshops with viewing screens for naughty-nice monitoring and pneumatic tubes for transporting toys, and sometimes people.
Explore, discuss, enjoy
Families can talk about what they believe about Santa, and also about the Lonely Boy and what they think his real gift was.
Families can also talk about each of the lessons punched into the tickets given to the children. Why was each of those lessons the right one for that child? They can talk about the difference between that which can be proven and that which must be believed without proof. When the conductor says, "Sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see," what is he talking about?
What is a "crucial year?" Why can't some people hear the bell? Who is the hobo and why is he there?
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Adult
April 9, 2008
AGE
Taken for a Ride!
What a disappointment! This movie had so much potential -- It had a beautiful story for all faiths, stunning art, Tom Hanks' captivating voices, and a world of fantasy where truly great film could have happened. But once the Polar Express pulled out of the boy's neighborhood, it was a runaway train. The action scenes were so repetitive that by the umpteenth rollercoaster ride, I was wishing my watch had an illuminated dial. Some of the "exciting" scenes - featuring the train skidding across ice, cracking under its weight -- were terrifying to my children, who live in Alaska where cracking ice claims several lives each year -- but worse, these scenes were repeated so many times that I wondered why the producers couldn't find some other misadventures to fill up the time. The addition of a handful of characters (also a time-filler) worked about 50% of the time -- the ghost on top of the train was interesting to the over 13 set; younger kids didn't get it. The redneck engineers seemed out of place, and added nothing to the movie. The main characters worked, but the animation made the insides of their mouths black, which was creepy. The "poor kid" was a wonderful addition, but his character seems to have been given short schrift, so Tom Hanks's ghost could get more airtime. A shame, given the point of the story. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this movie was the music. What an opportunity there was, for a truly memorable score! Except for one sweet song sung by the lead female character - to a modestly successful background -- the score was as hollow as the animated characters' eyes. There was nothing that approached "Can You Feel the Love Tonite?" or "Colors of the Wind". The musical let-down was compounded toward the end of the movie, when Frank Sinatra-style Christmas songs were piped through loudspeakers in a deserted Santa Land. The sound was so eerie, and the scene so strange, I couldn't wait for Santa to load up the sleigh and take off. I wanted to get outa there. What a nightmare, indeed!
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Kid, 12 years old
December 6, 2009
AGE
a wonderful and fun movie that teaches kids the true meaning of chrismas.
The movie is really good. Young kindergarteners and preschoolers and other low grades mostly think that the holidays are just about getting gifs well this movie will teach them that it is much more than that. I would recomend this to young kids, older kids, tweens, teenagers even adults. Because this movie is great enough to bring the chrismas spirit into anyones life. I say this movie is OFF for ages 1-3 (for peril and some mildly scary scenes. IFFY for age 4 (for peril and some mildly scary scenes. and ON for age 5 and up.
What other families should know:
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Kid, 10 years old
December 19, 2010
AGE
Nice, one of my favorite Christmas movies.
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Parent of 2 year old
December 20, 2009
AGE
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Kid, 11 years old
January 5, 2010
AGE
AWESOME MOVIE
I loved this movie. At the end it was very heartwarming about the bell from Santa's sleigh. That over time his friends and even his sister couldn't hear the bell any more. A holiday favorite!
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Parent of 4 and 5 year old
January 3, 2010
AGE
Excellent for kindergarten and up
My almost-6-year old son loves this movie. Parts of it are a little too intense for his sister (age 3 1/2)--there are some suspenseful action sequences that she can't sit through. But all in all it's a wonderful film.
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Adult
April 9, 2008
AGE
Disappointing
I read the book to my kids when they were younger, and they all loved it. So when we saw a trailer for this movie, we all rushed to the theater the day it came out. By the time the movie was over, we were all almost crying with disappointment. This movie is so unlike the book in so many ways.The conductor and waitors on the Polar Express break out dancing at random moments, there's a ghost on top of the train, and the movie doesn't explain how he got there or what his purpose is. Read the book, don't see the movie.
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Kid, 11 years old
April 19, 2011
AGE
Love it!!!
I always loved this movie! Best Christmas special I have ever seen! I always hate to wait until winter to watch this movie because I love this movie sooooooo much
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Adult
February 11, 2011
AGE
Should be rated PG, not G
Way too scary for children. Besides the children getting on a train alone without parents, my child was really distressed when the little girl was taken away by the conductor because her ticket got lost, and then was even more frightened when the boy followed them and climbed up on top of the moving train. Turned it off at that point. Cool animation, but inappropriate for children. Should be rated PG.
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Teen, 17 years old
February 14, 2011
AGE
Great movie!
I remember watching this one all the way back in 2004. It was really enjoyable. Everything about this movie was very interesting, and still is. However, I still think they could improve on some of the animation. Yeah, a lot of it was great, except for those darn eyes. They looked like something out of a zombie movie. Perhaps, I'm taking it a bit too far, but the eyes were the biggest flaw in the movie. They really didn't have any unique expressions on them. They all looked, well, fake. Aside from that, the movie was great. While the book takes some minutes to read, the movie was stretched out into, well, one, big movie. Polar Express, like the classic book, is a great, family-fun adventure for any age. It has nothing bad. Santa Clause did look kind of creepy, but it was very good. If you love the book, I'm sure you'll love the film adaptation as well.
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| Topics: | magic and fantasy, adventures, book characters, holidays, trains |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. |
| Director: | Robert Zemeckis |
| Cast: | Michael Jeter, Peter Scolari, Tom Hanks |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 92 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | November 10, 2004 |
| DVD release date: | November 14, 2005 |
| MPAA rating: | G |
| MPAA explanation: | all audiences |
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