Against by Jacqueline AshfordThe Polar Express is an unforgivably creepy and depressing movie. It fits better into the category of bland, G-rated Halloween movies than alongside actual feel-good Christmas classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Polar Express’s biggest flaw stems from it’s atrocious CGI. The characters are too realistic to be considered cartoon characters, but too electronic to be accurate portrayals of human beings. The failed realistically-rendered CGI ruins the movie by making it utterly unsettling to watch. What is created instead of warm and fuzzy feelings is an “uncanny valley,” an experience that is familiar and foreign at the same time, causing the brain to become confused and stimulate feelings of fear and repulsion. The Polar Express’ characters (the little children, Santa and his elves, and all other characters voiced by the beloved Tom Hanks) invoke these eerie feelings because they are incredibly human-like in some aspects, but not in others, and all empathy felt for them by the audience is retracted and replaced with apprehensive disgust. No amount of holiday joy and believing in Santa Claus can save The Polar Express from that inevitable fact. However, the CGI fiasco isn’t the only reason it’s a terrible film.There is also the issue of the plot. The story line as a whole brings about melancholic thoughts, and very little of the wonder and magic that is expected at Christmastime. The actions of the children throughout the film do more to perturb the audience than lift their spirits with adoration. They don’t follow the rules set by the conductor, neither while on the train nor at the North Pole, and appear more interested in the presents than the actual experience of the adventure. The conductor isn’t all that great either; he’s stern and harsh to the children, but perhaps that could be forgiven since the children themselves are a rambunctious handful. This is another perfect example of tragic flaws that undermine the theme of the movie. Siding with the conductor is like siding with Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s just sad. And then there’s the creepy homeless man on top of the train, with a boxcar full of puppets. His only purpose is to scare little children that just wanted to watch a movie about Christmas, as if The Polar Express needed more things to make it creepy. The only hope that The Polar Express had of being forgiven was to somehow wrap up its mess with a nice, happy ending. To offer the audience some happy feelings after some miserable hours. Sadly, that does not happen. We, the audience, are left thoroughly disappointed. The main character narrates that he and his sister heard Santa’s sleigh bell, but eventually his sister stopped believing, and only he heard its sound. The movie ends on a sad note, making it an ill-fitting movie for the Christmastime. And in general, a terrible movie for children and adults alike at any time. For by Grace PeelThe Polar Express is, simply put, a cinematic masterpiece- not just within the category of Christmas movies, but within the category of all movies. The Polar Express gets a bad rap because, unlike most Christmas movies, it is not a feel-good family film with a predictable plot full of mishaps and situation comedy. It is instead a commentary on the commercialistic turn Christmas has taken throughout the past half century, and on a more global scale, the loss of idealism and faith that the world has undergone. The movie is about a boy who, like most adolescents, is skeptical of the existence of Santa Clause, but catches a train to the North Pole on Christmas eve, meets Santa himself, and is subsequently forever a believer of the fabled man. This sounds like a cheerful, classic Christmas-movie storyline upon first glance, but the events along the way to Santa’s workshop make it a uniquely unsettling and thought-provoking narrative. An interesting feature of the movie that is rarely seen in mainstream film is the artistic choice of the director to leave the characters nameless. The main character is commonly referred to on the internet as “Hero Boy,” the female lead as “Hero Girl,” the cConductor of the train as “The Conductor,” and so on. The only character with an actual name is Billy, the 8-year-old lonely poor boy on the train. Perhaps this is one of the main messages of the movie: Billy is the only child who is revealed to live in poverty, and thus does not experience Christmas the same way as the other children. The fact that he is the only named character could represent the idea that more importance should be placed on children from low-income families who are less privileged during holidays like Christmas. This idea is and will remain relevant so long as Christmas stays a holiday that highlights differences in income and leads children to compare what they have with what others have. One of the most commonly complained-about scenes in the movie is the one in which the main character meets a creepy homeless man in the middle of making coffee (that he uses to wash his socks) over a fire on top of the Polar Express. The man, who remains nameless like the rest of the characters in the movie, condescendingly talks to Hero Boy about Santa Claus, and indicates that he is not real and the train (as well as the whole journey to the North Pole) is just a dream. He asks Hero Boy if he believes in ghosts, then disappears, hinting that he himself may be a ghost. Throughout the rest of the movie, he reappears to help Hero Boy, Hero Girl, and their friends get out of sticky situations, but as soon as his job is done he disappears into thin air. Though the Hobo is often seen as the creepiest, most ominous character in the movie, he does not exist solely to strike fear in the viewer. He embodies the lack of hope and faith that all adults undergo as they transition from childhood to adulthood, a theme that is developed later in the movie. After Hero Boy gets home to his family he attempts to show his parents the bell that Santa Claus gifted him, but only heim and his little sister can hear it ring. This is because his parents no longer believe in Santa Claus, and subsequently the viewer should assume that they do not believe in or anything mystical or magical. This theme is the main point that the viewer is supposed to glean from the film. Though the animation can sometimes be a bit jarring and disturbingly realistic yet distorted, and there are some scary, not-quite-appropriate-for-children scenes, each and every part of the movie is necessary for developing the theme of the film, which is an important one for all viewers. People are scared off by its serious tone and ominous scenes, as they do not fit within the usual tropes of cookie-cutter Christmas movies, but these characteristics are what make The Polar Express such a unique and powerful story. The dark aspects contribute to the overall meaning of the movie, and make it richer and more emotionally appealing story that is not just relevant during the holiday season, but all year long. Plus, “Hot Chocolate” slaps.
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