The Polar Express

One thing is clear from Hollywood's latest attempt to generate photorealistic human characters through computer animation: the technology is not yet capable of accurately reproducing a child's sense of awe, and that's a fundamental problem in director Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express, which tries very hard to be an instant-classic Christmas movie about a little boy (voiced by Spy Kids' Daryl Sabara) whose fading belief in Santa Claus is restored when an enchanted steam train pulls up outside his bedroom window on Christmas Eve and takes him to the North Pole. Despite pointedly stretching Chris Van Allsburg's classic 28-page picture book into a feature-length film with several video-game-like sequences, the behind-the-scenes adventure in Santa's spectacularly realized world does spark a certain level of wonder—even if it's hard to see in the soulless, pixel-driven doll orbs that are the characters' eyes. The film also features Tom Hanks providing the voices, faces, and motion-captured body language of several characters, including the train conductor and Kris Kringle himself. Optional. [Note: Available in both single-disc widescreen or full screen versions, or in a double-disc widescreen version, DVD extras on this double-disc edition include “A Genuine Ticket to Ride” featurette (12 min.), the never-before-seen Smokey and Steamer song “You Look Familiar” (7 min.), “True Inspirations—An Author's Adventure” profiling author Chris Van Allsburg (6 min.), the five-minute “Believe” featurette with Josh Groban performing at the Greek Theatre, “Behind-the-Scenes of Believe: Bringing a Hit Song to Life” (5 min.), “You Look Familiar: The Many ‘Polar Faces' of Tom Hanks” (4 min.), “Meet the Snow Angels” on the filmmakers' Christmas memories (3 min.), five Easter eggs, the THQ PC game demo with two playable levels, a DVD-ROM weblink, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a sure-to-be-popular but somewhat disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review—Nov. 11, 2008—Warner, 2 discs, 100 min., G, $20.98—Making its second appearance on DVD, 2004's The Polar Express boasts a great transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. New to this double-disc release is the 3-D version of the film—bundled with four pairs of 3-D glasses—in addition to the standard version, but no DVD extras except trailers. Bottom line: the 3-D version of this flawed but entertaining family film offers solid dimensional effects but the brilliant colors are muted by the glasses.][Blu-ray Review—Nov. 25, 2008—Warner, 100 min., G, $34.99—Making its second appearance on Blu-ray, 2004's The Polar Express features an excellent transfer and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound. New to this Blu-ray release is the 3-D version of the film—bundled with four pairs of 3-D glasses—in addition to the standard version. Blu-ray extras carried over from the original DVD release include “A Genuine Ticket to Ride” featurette (12 min.), the Smokey and Steamer song “You Look Familiar” (7 min.), “True Inspirations—An Author's Adventure” profiling author Chris Van Allsburg (6 min.), the five-minute “Believe” music video with Josh Groban performing at the Greek Theatre, “Behind-the-Scenes of Believe: Bringing a Hit Song to Life” (5 min.), “You Look Familiar: The Many ‘Polar Faces' of Tom Hanks” (4 min.), “Meet the Snow Angels” on the filmmakers' Christmas memories (3 min.), and trailers (missing is the interactive game demo). Bottom line: although it received mixed reviews, The Polar Express looks wonderful on Blu-ray.]