The Polar-Express is a 2004 American animated Christmas fantasy adventure film[1][2] directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr., based on the 1985 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg.

It stars Tom Hanks (in multiple roles), Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, and Eddie Deezen.

The film depicts human characters using live action and motion capture computer animation, with production sequences for the latter taking place from June 2003 to May 2004.

Set on Christmas Eve, it tells the story of a young boy who sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor.

The Polar Express premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival on October 13, 2004, and was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on November 10.

[8] In the 1950s, on the night of Christmas Eve in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a magical train, the Polar Express, stops on the street outside the house of a young boy named Chris.

Much to the Conductor's annoyance, Chris applies the emergency brake, and Billy is allowed on board, but he decides to sit alone in the observation car.

As the train continues its journey with the Conductor, Chris, and Holly standing on the front of the engine, it travels at an extremely fast pace because the throttle handle's cotter pin came loose and fell off.

The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the Conductor announces that one of the children will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa himself.

The children make their way through an elf command center and a gift-sorting office facility, where Billy finds a present addressed to him, only to learn he cannot open it until Christmas morning.

Castle Rock Entertainment subsequently made a "seven-figure commitment" to co-produce the film with Hanks's company Playtone, Van Allsburg, and William Teitler in March 2000.

[1] Despite Van Allsburg's original terms with Hanks, Zemeckis felt that a live-action version was unfeasible, claiming that it "would look awful, and it would be impossible – it would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million".

[13] Steam Railroading Institute executive director Dennis Braid provided several assets for the film, including a bulb and valve gear from Pere Marquette 1225, and a box of coal.

[16] The only two characters in the film to not be animated through motion capture were Smokey and Steamer, mainly because of the huge size discrepancy and their more caricature nature compared to the rest of the cast.

[9] A deleted scene on the home media release has Smokey and Steamer explain through a shadow puppet show that the Hobo is in fact the ghost of a homeless person who was killed while riding on the top of the train.

Having sold 724,000 copies in the United States, it is the best-selling film soundtrack/holiday album hybrid since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991.

[20] The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive modeled after Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan, on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child.

A typical example is Bachmann's more recent HO scale "North Pole Express", which includes a 2-6-2 locomotive (their existing USRA 0-6-0 model with pilot and trailing trucks added) and two passenger cars in a Polar Express-inspired paint scheme.

[32] Although both locomotives were based on existing Brio products, the Polar Express versions were given center-mounted headlights to loosely suggest the appearance of Pere Marquette 1225.

The film has also spawned multiple real-world holiday train-travel experiences based loosely on the film's train journey all over the United States, as well as Canada, and even the United Kingdom under license from Rail Events Inc.[33] These include the Polar Express train rides held at the Grand Canyon Railway,[34][35] Great Smoky Mountains Railroad,[36] Texas State Railroad,[37] Whippany Railway Museum, and the Aspen Crossing,[38] among others.

The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars.

[57] By comparison from the weekend the previous year, the top 12 movies had taken in $136.1 million down to 5% following the debuts of The Matrix Revolutions, Brother Bear and Elf.

The overseas prospects for the film were not especially encouraging, even though The Last Samurai went on to make a considerable sum of money across the globe and was prematurely labeled a flop by the media.

The website's consensus reads: "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded.

[70] Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, writing of its: "deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie" and "haunting, magical quality".

[73] Ian Nathan of Empire gave the film three out of five stars, and said, "For all the fairy-lit wonder, some will rail at the idea of Back to the Future's director dabbling with such a schmaltzy tale.

"[74] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian also gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "After a promising and distinctive start, a railway adventure to meet Santa runs off the rails.

[79] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of The Polar Express if the look of it didn't give me the creeps.

Still, from the looks of The Polar Express it's clear that, together with Mr. Zemeckis, this talented gang has on some fundamental level lost touch with the human aspect of film.

[84] Producer Gary Goetzman revealed in a January 2024 interview with ComicBook.com that a sequel to The Polar Express was being "worked out", indicating the project may have entered development.