The Polar Express Review

The Polar Express


Release Date: 18th November 2004 - Australia


Production Companies
Castle Rock Entertainment (presents)
Shangri-La Entertainment (in association
with)
ImageMovers
Playtone
Golden Mean
Universal CGI
Warner Bros. Pictures


Genre: Animation/Family/

Fantasy

Rating: G

Runtime: 100 minutes


Budget: $170,000,000

Box Office Gross:

$318,428,394 (Worldwide - figure subject to change)


Plot Summary
On Christmas Eve, a young boy doubts the existence of Santa Claus. He boards a train that takes him on a magical trip to the North Pole. During this ride, he embarks on a soul-searching journey that shows him the true meaning of friendship, bravery and the Christmas spirit.


Cast
Tom Hanks - Hero Boy, The Narrator, The Conductor, The Hobo, Santa Claus & Hero Boy's Father
Josh Hutcherson - Hero Boy
Daryl Sabara - Hero Boy (Voice)
Chantel Valdivieso - Hero Girl
Nona Gaye - Hero Girl (Voice)
Tinashe - Hero Girl
Peter Scolari - Billy
Hayden McFarland - Billy
Jimmy Bennett - Billy (Voice)

Eddie Deezen - Know-It-All

Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak - Know-It-All
Michael Jeter - Smokey and Steamer
André Sogliuzzo - Smokey and Steamer (Voice)

Ashly Holloway - Sister Sarah
Isabella Peregrina - Sister Sarah (Voice)
Leslie Zemeckis - Sister Sarah/Mother

Charles Fleischer - Lead Elf

Steven Tyler - Elf Lieutenant/Singer

Crew
Screenplay/Producer/Director - Robert Zemeckis
Based on the Book/Executive Producer -

Chris Van Allsburg
Screenplay - William Broyles Jr.

Script Supervisor - Luca Kouimelis

Associate Producer/Unit Production Manager/

First Assistant Director - Josh McLaglen

Executive Producers - Tom Hanks
and Jack Rapke
Producers - Gary Goetzman

and William Teitler

Producer/Second Unit Director - Steve Starkey

Casting Directors - Victoria Burrows

and Scot Boland
Production Designers - Rick Carter
and Doug Chiang

Art Directors - Tony Fanning,

James Hegedus, Alicia Maccarone

and Norman Newberry

Assistant Art Directors - Scott Herbertson,

Andrew L. Jones and Mike Stassi

Set Decorator - Karen O'Hara

Property Master - Robin L. Miller
Costume Designer - Joanna Johnston
Directors of Photography - Don Burgess
and Robert Presley
Choreographer - John Carrafa

Stunt Coordinator - Allen Robinson

Special Effects Coordinator - Michael Lantieri
Senior Visual Effects Supervisors - Jerome Chen
and Ken Ralston

Visual Effects Supervisor: SPI, 3D IMAX -

Jim Berney

Visual Effects Producer - Craig Sost

Visual Effects Art Director - Martin A. Kline
Digital Effects Supervisors - Rob Bredow,
Mark Lambert, Alberto Menache

and Sean Phillips

Digital Effects Supervisor (3D IMAX Version)/

Pipeline Supervisor: SPI - Rob Engle

Digital Producer - Chris Juen

Digital Visual Consultant - Simon Wells
Animation Supervisor - David Schaub

ImageMotion Integration Supervisor - Albert Hastings

Sequence Lighting Supervisors -

Patrick Cohen, Jep Hill, Carlos Vidal,

Adrian Iler, David Parrish, Robert Winter,

MacDuff Knox and R. Stirling Duguid

Pre-Visualisation Leads - Andrew Titcomb

and Harald Kraut
Layout Supervisor - James C.J. Williams

Effects Animation Supervisor - Daniel Kramer
Film Editors - R. Orlando Duenas

and Jeremiah O'Driscoll
Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Designer -

Randy Thom

Assistant Sound Designer - Will Files

Supervising Sound Editor - Dennis Leonard

Foley Mixer - Frank Rinella

Foley Artists - Ellen Heuer,

Dennie Thorpe and Jana Vance

Re-Recording Mixer - Tom Johnson

Re-Recording/Music Scoring Mixer -

Dennis S. Sands

Songs: Music and Lyrics - Glen Ballard
Music - Alan Silvestri

Music Supervisor - Tom MacDougall

Awards

2005 Academy Awards

Best Original Song "Believe" - Glen Ballard

and Alan Silvestri (Nominated)

Best Sound Mixing - William B. Kaplan,

Randy Thom, Tom Johnson and Dennis S. Sands

(Nominated)

Best Sound Editing - Randy Thom

and Dennis Leonard (Nominated)

Review
THE POLAR EXPRESS is a simple, imaginative holiday movie by director Robert Zemeckis. He brought this technological masterpiece to life with motion capture. In self-producing this film, actor Tom Hanks did a great job performing a lot of characters, including the Conductor. The motion-capture animation was never as realistic as the one used in Avatar, but the film does have great visuals. It would be good to see it in 3D.

While it has the Yuletide spirit, THE POLAR EXPRESS lives up to Chris Van Allsburg's story on which it bases itself. It is worth watching for everyone who has and has not read the book.

Star rating: (4/5) Good Movie

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