History WesternAnimation / ThePolarExpress

Released to theaters on November 10, 2004 by Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/CastleRockEntertainment, this was the first animated feature to be made entirely using MotionCapture technology. It was directed, co-produced and co-written by Creator/RobertZemeckis, with Creator/TomHanks (who also served as an executive producer) doing much of the voice-acting work and performance capture. In addition, the studios worked in cooperation with [[https://michigansteamtrain.com The Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso, Michigan]], whose primary steam locomotive, Pere Marquette 1225, served as the basis for the eponymous train's design and the majority of its sound effects, in addition to having inspired Allsburg to write the book the movie was based on. Besides Hanks, Creator/DarylSabara, Nona Gaye, Creator/PeterScolari, Jimmy Bennet, Creator/EddieDeezen, Creator/MichaelJeter, and André Sogliuzzo voice the characters or provide motion capture performances.

* AngelUnaware: Strongly implied with the mysterious hobo who always appears exactly when the Hero Boy needs him.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The exact time period in which the events of the plot take place is never specified, which strongly adds to the timeless, otherworldly quality of the story. The titular train itself is based on a [[CoolTrain Berkshire 2-8-4]], first built in 1925, but the fashions of the characters and level of technology inside the train suggest anywhere from the early 1930s to the later 1940s. The only definitive piece of evidence we have as to the setting of the film is that it takes place ''after'' 1931, as the Know-it-All Boy mentions the train was built in 1931 (he's wrong, the exact train the Polar Express was based on was built in 1941, but at the very least the dialogue confirms that 1931 has already happened.) The North Pole is depicted as a highly sophisticated DieselPunk metropolis with an advanced level of technology bordering on RaygunGothic. Of course, it ''is'' a magic train that clearly doesn't follow the laws of time and space anyway.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:All of the kids return home better from the lessons they learned on their adventure and the Hero Boy's belief in Santa is renewed. And while he initially loses the bell Santa gave him, Santa finds the bell in his sled and delivers it to him Christmas morning, much to his delight. However, while Sarah is seen listening to the ringing with him, Hero Boy's older self reveals she and all of his friends eventually lost the ability to hear it as they grew up because they stopped believing in Santa Claus. Hero Boy, on the other hand, can still hear it after all these years.]]

** Holly (Hero Girl) left her ticket safely on her seat, which she was going to return to. Chris (Hero Boy) proceeds to take the ticket to give it to her for some reason and promptly loses it.

A young boy, straining to hear the silver bells of [[SantaClaus Santa's]] sleigh on Christmas Eve, instead hears a train's whistle. He goes outside to find a magical train, the eponymous Polar Express, which was sent to pick up the boy and hundreds of other children to go to the North Pole and Santa's workshop. There, one of the passengers will receive "the first gift of Christmas".

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_polar_express_movie_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:''[[TagLine This holiday season... Believe.]]'']]

Released to theaters on November 10, 2004 by Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/CastleRockEntertainment, the film was the very first animated feature to be made entirely with MotionCapture technology. It was directed, co-produced and co-written by Creator/RobertZemeckis, with Creator/TomHanks (who also served as an executive producer) doing much of the voice work and performance capture. In addition, the studios worked in cooperation with [[https://michigansteamtrain.com The Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso, Michigan]], who's primary steam locomotive, Pere Marquette 1225, served as the basis for the titular train's design and the majority of its sound effects, in addition to having inspired Allsburg to write the book the movie was based on. Creator/DarylSabara, Nona Gaye, Creator/PeterScolari, Jimmy Bennet, Creator/EddieDeezen, Creator/MichaelJeter, and André Sogliuzzo voice the characters or provide motion capture performances.

** CoolButInefficient: That said, it still suffers a throttle jam, and the headlight bulb gives out in the middle of the run.

* IncrediblyLamePun: When Hero Boy is trying to find the brake on the runaway observation car:
-->'''Hobo:''' Take a ''brake'', kid! How 'bout a nice, good, hot cup o' joe?!

* AscendedExtra: The Scrooge puppet appears briefly in the film but is the main villain of the tie-in video game. I’m

---> Conductor: He will choose (looks at Hero Boy) One of you.

* AscendedExtra: The Scrooge puppet appears briefly in the film but is the main villain of the tie-in video game.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The train passes by Herpolsheimer's, which was a real department store in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

* TheAllegedCar: As much of a cool magic train it is, it still shows signs of this such as the throttle jamming and the headlight bulb giving out in the middle of the run. TruthInTelevision, as steam engines are naturally self-destructive machines that require constant upkeep, hence why the railroads replaced them with diesel engines.

** The train having mechanical problems en route is also this, because steam engines are notoriously difficult to maintain and are prone to breakdowns at the worst possible times--the real 1225 was in need of a major overhaul on both her boiler and drivers during the film's production, and wouldn't get either till 2010 and 2022 respectively!

** Steam engines are naturally self-destructive machines that require constant maintenance and upkeep (which is part of the reason they got replaced by diesel power in the first place), and no part of it is immune to the occasional breakdown, even on a magical engine like old 1225. The pin holding the throttle in place is one such part, and it eventually wears out and needs replacement. Unfortunately, such wearing happens just before the train approaches the steep downhill grades of Glacier Gulch, when it sticks and causes the throttle to jam.

* TheArtifact: The book's epilogue is used as narration over the movie's final moments, wherein Chris reveals that his friends ''all'' lost their ability to hear the ringing bell as time passed. However, in the movie, one of the train passengers befriended by Chris happens to be from his own hometown. The notion that he wouldn't have kept in touch with Billy, or that Billy would ever have stopped believing if he had is pretty dubious, to say the least.

* RunawayTrain: After Caribou Crossing, the throttle breaks and the train runs out of control going through glacier gulch at dangerous speeds before ending up on the ice lake. Then once the train reaches the North Pole, Hero Boy accidentally steps on the caboose's coupling rod when climbing aboard to get the Lonely Boy, causing it to detach from the coaches and flee downhill through the Pole.

Released to theaters on November 10, 2004 by Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/CastleRockEntertainment, the film was the very first animated feature to be made entirely with MotionCapture technology. It was directed, co-produced and co-written by Creator/RobertZemeckis, with Creator/TomHanks (who also served as an executive producer) doing much of the voice work and performance capture. In addition, the studios worked in cooperation with [[https://michigansteamtrain.com The Steam Railroading Institute of Owosso, Michigan]], who's primary steam locomotive, Pere Marquette 1225, served as the basis for the titular train's design and the majority of its sound effects, in addition to having inspired Allsburg to write the book the movie was based on. Daryl Sabara, Nona Gayle, Jimmy Bennet, Creator/EddieDeezen, Creator/MichaelJeter, and André Sogliuzzo voice the characters or provide motion capture performances.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: When an otherwise good kid does one naughty thing at the last minute, the elf in charge of the naughty and nice lists takes pity on him and lets him on the good list anyway, but marks it against him for next year.

* GivenNameReveal: InUniverse, Hero Boy spots a present for someone named Billy. This prompts the Lonely Boy to reveal his name is Billy.

* MagicHair: When the train is moving at a really fast speed, especially in Glacier Gulch and when the observation car comes loose, Hero Girl's braided hair doesn't blow backwards at all.

* NoNameGiven: Most of the characters don't have any names. The subtitles in the DVD and Blu-ray releases even refer to the characters as "Hero Boy" (named out of universe as Chris), "Hero Girl" (named out of universe as Holly), "Conductor", etc. The exceptions are Billy the Lonely Boy, the main character's sister Sarah, and of course Santa Claus and his reindeer.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The exact time period in which the events of the plot take place is never specified, which strongly adds to the timeless, otherworldly quality of the story. The titular train itself is based on a [[CoolTrain Berkshire 2-8-4]], first built in 1925, but the fashions of the characters and level of technology inside the train suggest anywhere from the early 1930s to the later 1940s. The North Pole is depicted as a highly sophisticated DieselPunk metropolis with an advanced level of technology bordering on RaygunGothic. Of course, it ''is'' a magic train that clearly doesn't follow the laws of time and space anyway.

Released to theaters on November 10, 2004 by Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/CastleRockEntertainment, the film was the very first animated feature to be made entirely with MotionCapture technology. It was directed, co-produced and co-written by Creator/RobertZemeckis, with Creator/TomHanks (who also served as an executive producer) doing much of the voice work and performance capture.

* TheAllegedCar: As much of a cool magic train it is, it still shows signs of this such as the throttle jamming.

* CoolTrain: They were dead-on with the Berkshire, and it quickly reveals itself to be a ''magic'' train, upping the cool factor.

* TheGrinch: In the video game the Scrooge puppet tries to ruin Christmas for the kids.

* InkSuitActor: Creator/TomHanks and [[Music/{{Aerosmith}} Steven Tyler]].

** Smokey the Engineer gets annoyed when his throttle starts to stick and tries to rattle it loose. All he does is sheer off the pin holding it in place, causing the key component to break off, speed up the train as it approaches a dangerous downhill grade, and results in said pin breaking an entire frozen lake worth of ice as the train derails on it and is attempting to get back on the tracks right as the ice breaks off.

* NoOshaCompliance: The track layout for the Polar Express is horrifically unsafe (rails just above water level where they can easily ice over, dangerously steep slopes), and the train is apparently not very well maintained before the big run of the year. The train is also poorly secured once it reaches its destination, leading to the observation car sliding downhill and nearly going off the tracks.

* RunawayTrain: After caribou crossing the throttle breaks and the train runs out of control going through glacier gulch at dangerous speeds before ending up on the ice lake. Then once the train reaches the North Pole, Hero Boy accidentally steps on the caboose's coupling rod when climbing aboard to get the Lonely Boy, causing it to detach from the coaches and flee downhill through the Pole.

** Hero Boy blows the train whistle while saying "I've wanted to do that my whole life!" So did [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII Doc Brown]]. In a further nod to ''Back to the Future'', a flux capacitor can be seen mounted on the locomotive's boiler backhead when the cotter pin shears off. Santa's sleigh also leaves behind a trail after it disappears.

** That troublesome ticket flaps around in the breeze like the feather from ''Film/ForrestGump''.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: At the very end of the idealism side.