20 Facts About The Polar Express

Damn, I feel old...

I still remember when this movie was new. The Polar Express first came out in November 2004, and despite mixed reviews from critics, the movie was a major hit at the box office with a worldwide gross of $318.2 Million and has since gone on to become a holiday staple along the likes of It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Christmas Carol. The film's reception is only grown over the years with many fans and media enthusiasts expressing their joy over the movie and remembering it very fondly. It does still get (unfairly) mocked for its "uncanny animation" at times, but very few people actually seem to dislike the movie and many consider it a Christmas classic. I myself have labelled it as my all-time favourite Christmas movie.

So I think it's only right that I celebrate the film's 20th anniversary with a special post. I know I'm late for the film's ACTUAL anniversary, but better late than never, eh?

For the 20th anniversary of The Polar Express, I'm going to list 20 facts about the movie. I'm sure you'll find these interesting to read too, so all aboard the Polar Express as we ride into this list!

Fact 1: Tom Hanks plays FIVE characters in the movie!

You'd almost think Tom was running a one-man show for this movie, but here you have it. He plays a whopping FIVE characters in the entire movie. Said characters include Hero Boy's adult voice as the narrator (and also the motion capture for Hero Boy), Hero Boy's father, the Conductor, the Hobo and even Santa Claus himself. Naturally, because his voice is so damn iconic, it's easy to recognize him every time you hear them speak, so you're essentially hearing Tom Hanks attempting to play five different characters. Unfortunately, he's no Mel Blanc, so it's pretty obvious. XD Why does Tom play so many characters in this? Beats me. I guess because he was the producer, he wanted to make the most of it by having the most characters to play? I have no idea. Funny enough, he WAS going to play everybody, but trying such a thing exhausted Tom, so Robert decided that giving him less characters to play would be better for him, hence Tom only plays five characters in the end.

Fact 2: Hero Boy and Hero Girl's real names are Chris and Holly

Remember how Hero Boy and Hero Girl's names were never revealed in the movie? Well according to some art books of the movie, they do have names. And wouldn't you know it, their names are ironically Christmas themed. I mean how on-the-nose do you have to be when your characters in your CHRISTMAS movie are named "Chris" and "Holly" respectively? Still, now you know what their names are. Also, fittingly enough, Chris shares a name with the author of the original Polar Express book, Chris Van Allsburg. Heh, what's next, we have an adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel and there's a character named "Roald" in it? XD

Oh and additional trivia, apparently the Know-It-All Kid's called "Lenny" and the Conductor's called "James". Huh, we have a movie about a train and the conductor's called "James"? This isn't the first time I've seen a piece of media with trains and a character named James in it...

Yep, you know what I'm talking about. XD Now we just need a movie about trains with a conductor named "Thomas" in it.

Fact 3: The Polar Express would've cost ONE BILLION DOLLARS to film in live action!

Some might ask about the need to make The Polar Express animated if the animation's going to be as realistic looking as it is. Well, turns out there's a practical reason behind it. When Tom Hanks pitched the idea, Chris Van Allsburg insisted that the film not be animated. However, Robert Zemeckis declined to film it in live action as it would've been too costly to film it that way, so motion capture was done instead as a cheaper alternative. It also stayed true to Chris's desires as Robert felt animating the movie traditionally wouldn't have done it justice, so in the end, we got this middle ground where it's sort-of live-action and sort-of animated both at the same time. Anyway, the budget for this movie was about $165-$170 million. If he tried to film it in live-action, it would've apparently cost $1 billion! I have NO idea why that's the case, but I'm no financier or budgeteer, so what would I know? Maybe all the expenses would've gone to just filming the scenes on the train and all the CGI they'd need to use for certain scenes, as well as paying the actors and such? So yeah, it was more practical (and cost-effective!) to just make it animated, hence why we have the mo-cap movie as we know it today. Now some might ask "Why not just make it animated rather than use mo-cap?" Already explained it, Chris Van Allsburg didn't want the movie to be animated, so that wasn't an option. Mo-cap really was the only middle ground they could find to make it work.

Fact 4: The movie was the final film role of Michael Jeter

And now for a rather sad fact about this movie. This film was the last role for actor Michael Jeter. He was an American actor who was best known for films such as The Fisher King, Jurassic Park III, Mouse Hunt and Patch Adams. He was also the unfortunate guy who got barbecued alive in the electric chair in The Green Mile. Man, that moment was messed up...

But enough on that. In this movie, he voiced Smokey and Steamer, the driver and fireman working on The Polar Express. Sadly, he didn't live to see the movie completed, passing away at the age of 50 in 2003 from an epileptic seizure. Voice actor André Sogliuzzo filled in for him after his passing, and needless to say, he was a spot-on replacement. I genuinely can't tell when Michael ends and André begins, the transition is that seamless.

As is, this guy sure picked a good movie to end his career on, didn't he? I'd love it if my career ended with a movie that would go on to be a Christmas holiday classic for many. ^^

Fact 5: The Polar Express itself is modelled after the Pere Marquette 1225, a real steam train

Contrary to what the Know-It-All Kid says, he's wrong about what kind of train The Polar Express itself is. No, the train as we see in the movie is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive and is modelled after the Pere Marquette 1225. As you've probably guessed, it's a real steam train and used to be on display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan, on the campus of Michigan State University. Nowadays, it's been upgraded and refurbished and is currently still in operation to this day. The train itself was even used to provide a lot of the sound effects that were used for the Polar Express in the movie.

Chris Van Allsburg actually recalls playing on the train back when it used to be on display. He'd attend football games at the stadium during childhood and would play on the train. This is what likely influenced the train's depiction in the book and movie. It's also rather ironic that the film takes place on Christmas and Pete Marquette 1225's number is essentially the date of Christmas Day, the 25th of December. It's like it was destined to be in this story, wasn't it? I also imagine the film's popularity increased this train's popularity and many train enthusiasts have sought out the real thing as a result. Good thing it's still around to this day, isn't it...?

Fact 6: The movie came about because Tom Hanks loved reading the book to his kids

They say inspiration can come from anywhere, and in this case, making The Polar Express into a movie came about from a very wholesome place. You see, Tom Hanks had the original book and would enjoy reading it to his children. So much so that in 1999, Tom himself personally went to Chris Van Allsburg to option the rights for playing Santa Claus and the Conductor for the movie. Chris himself was reluctant to let a film be made of his book, but he quickly changed his mind once he heard that Tom Hanks was interested in making a movie. We can hardly blame him, eh? I mean if Tom Hanks wanted to make a movie based on my own books, I know I'd struggle to say no to that. XD

Fact 7: Steven Tyler, the lead singer of the rock band Aerosmith, plays an elf in the movie

No, I'm not making this up. They actually got THE Steven Tyler to play an elf in the movie, and also perform a song too. As you can see in the image above, the elf even resembles Steven Tyler. Of all the random celebrities to include in this movie, why him? It's like getting Jon Bon Jovi to play a pixie in a movie about fairies, it's just so bizarre. XD

Fact 8: Smokey and Steamer were the only characters NOT to be motion-captured

Motion-capture is a method of animation in where live-actors would perform the movements of the characters and then would be digitally altered and overlayed with CGI, so they end up looking animated. Smokey and Steamer are the exceptions to this rule. Why is that? Apparently, it's because of the huge size discrepancy and how their designs are more caricature compared to the rest of the cast. So, in order to animate them, they were animated traditionally with skeletal animation rigs. Funny isn't it how they're the only actual "animated" characters in the movie while everyone else was motion-captured? And while we're talking about Smokey and Steamer...

Fact 9: Smokey and Steamer explained the Hobo's backstory in a deleted scene

Yep, there you have it. Apparently, there's a deleted scene where Smokey and Steamer explain the Hobo's backstory. They would do this through a shadow puppet show. So, what's the Hobo's backstory? He is in fact the ghost of a homeless person who was killed while riding on the top of the train.

Yeah, I'd say that works.

Why was the scene deleted? I don't know. Maybe they wanted the Hobo to seem more mysterious or something? I think in the end, it worked for the best that the Hobo's backstory was left a mystery. It made him more interesting a character for how mysterious he was. At the same time, it would've been a nice bit of world-building and would've given Smokey and Steamer another scene to shine in, so it would've been nice to have it in too. If they ever make an extended cut of the movie with the scene left in, I'm sure it'd make for an interesting watch.

Fact 10: Inspiration For The Architecture Design

One of the highlights of the movie is seeing its depiction of the North Pole. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the film's depiction of the North Pole is the best depiction ever put into any Christmas movie. So how did they make it look so good?

The buildings as we see them apparently represent an earlier era in American railroading. Guess that makes sense given, you know, it's a movie starring a train. The building design in particular drew inspiration from the Pullman neighbourhood in Chicago, which is home of the Pullman Company, a railroad car manufacturer. Needless to say, looking at the building in the picture above, I can see what they mean as you can see where that inspiration came from. A lot of the buildings in the North Pole to have that same red brick and grey roof colour scheme after all.

Fact 11: The Polar Express got a video-game adaptation

It probably comes off as no surprise since back in the 2000's, nearly every movie that got made also got a video-game adaptation. The Polar Express is no exception. Released about the same time as the movie, the game was made available for the PS2, the Nintendo GameCube, the PC and the Gameboy Advanced. In terms of gameplay, it's broken down into six chapters and gives exploration opportunities for the player, plus it contains puzzle-solving and some mini-game styled elements. The plot is also largely the same, only the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet that we see briefly in the movie ends up becoming the game's antagonist who attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to get them thrown off the train. Nice to know the game missed the damn point of the film in how it didn't need an antagonist to tell its story.... =P

The movie is a beloved holiday classic. The game...not so much. Then again, most games based on movies are considered pretty poor. I myself have never played the game, so don't ask my opinion on it. Will I ever play it? Maybe not...

Fact 12: The movie was recorded in the 2006 Guiness World Records for being the first all-digital capture movie

Not much else I can say other than that. As a result of this, The Polar Express is viewed as a record-breaking movie and one of those movies that made history in some way. It's also noteworthy for being Warner Brothers's first ever computer animated film. In terms of records, its $165-170 million budget was also the highest budget for an animated film at the time. Not so special compared to nowadays when Disney will crank out animated films with $200 million budgets, and then have the balls to be baffled when they have a hard time making a profit off of them. =P

Fact 13: The book's author also wrote Jumanji and worked on Disney's The Little Mermaid

When looking up facts for this post, I was rather surprised to hear about these ones.

OK, so we all know that Chris Van Allsburg wrote the book that The Polar Express movie was based on. Do you know what else he did? He wrote the book that Jumanji is based on too! Yeah, Jumanji and The Polar Express were both written by the same author! Can't say I would've made that kind of connection, but here we are. XD

Oh and if that wasn't mind-blowing enough, this guy apparently worked as a visual development artist on Disney's The Little Mermaid. Gosh, this guy's done it all hasn't he? Successful children's author, worked on a Disney movie, his books have become successful (well, some of them at least given Zathura: A Space Adventure bombed) and beloved movies, this is the kind of career authors like me DREAM of having! I wonder how his two daughters feel about knowing their dad has these kinds of credentials under his belt...

Fact 14: Hero Girl was motion-capture performed by Tinashe

If you're familiar with the name "Tinashe", then you've likely heard some of her music. Well, as it turns out, before she made it big as an R&B singer, she actually had a role in The Polar Express back in her youth. As mentioned above, she was the motion-capture model for Hero Girl while Nona Gaye (who happens to be the daughter of Marvin Gaye, another famous singer) provided the character's voice. Tinashe would've been about 11 years old by the time the film was released (she was born in 1993, the film came out in 2004).

I have to say looking at her grown up as an adult, I think I can still see some resemblance to Hero Girl in her. Who knows, maybe Hero Girl as she is in the movie would've grown-up to look like her...

Fact 15: Herpolsheimer's was a REAL department store

Bet you thought they made it up for the movie, didn't you? Well, I won't judge. I thought the same thing too. XD

But nope, Herpolsheimer's WAS a real department store. It was first founded in 1865 by William G. Herpolsheimer and ran its business all the way until 1990 after the company went bankrupt. So, it does make you wonder given the train passes by a Herpolsheimer's in the movie, what time period does this take place in? Herpolsheimer's still exists, so this must be before the 90's at the very least. Or maybe it's some parallel world where Herpolsheimer's never went bankrupt and still exists. Imagine if other defunct shops like Woolworths still exist in that world too...

Fact 16: Billy the Lonely Kid and Sister Sarah are the ONLY characters whose names are said aloud in the movie

You ever noticed that when watching the movie? Yeah, Billy and Sarah (Hero Boy's sister) are the ONLY characters in the entire movie who are actually given names. Everyone else's names are never said, and we needed supplementary material in order to find out what their names were. So, what made Billy and Sarah so special that we got to learn THEIR name, but nobody else's? That's so weird. XD

Fact 17: The Polar Express was nominated for three Academy Awards

The movie is also noteworthy in the history books for being an Oscar-nominated movie. Sadly, it didn't win any Oscars, but it got at least three nominations. They were for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Song for "Believe". The song DID win a Grammy at least, so the film didn't go empty-handed at least.

One thing I'll never understand though is how it got nominated for these awards, but didn't get a Best Animated Feature nomination. I mean Shark Tale gets nominated, but not The Polar Express?! Who the hell gives crap like SHARK TALE a Best Animated Feature nomination instead of The Polar Express?! Go home Academy Awards, you're drunk. =P

Fact 18: The Scrooge puppet seen in the movie would later become Jim Carrey's version of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol 2009

We all remember the Scrooge puppet that the Hobo uses to scare Hero Boy with, right? Well, have you ever noticed that something about it looks...familiar?

The resemblance is striking, isn't it? ;)

While the puppet's inclusion was actually based on a puppet from Robert Zemeckis's childhood toys he used to play with, it is easy to believe that the puppet could've also been used as an inspiration for how Jim Carrey's Scrooge would look in Robert Zemeckis's own adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Whether the puppet was intentional foreshadowing or unintentional foreshadowing for that movie's later existence, I don't know. Maybe if someone can ask Robert himself about it and get a definitive answer, that'll be interesting.

Fact 19: There's an actual Polar Express train set you can get

Yeah, no duh, am I right? The Polar Express did indeed get a train set made of it. Produced by Lionel, they released a few different Polar Express sets. One is a mini model train like what you see in the picture above. It's the kind of train set that you might have circling around your Christmas tree. They also made bigger sets which come with a more detailed replica of the Polar Express and its coaches, some figures of the characters as seen in the movie and even a replica of Santa's bell.

Now one has to wonder if Hornby will ever make their own Polar Express set. I know my brother would buy it in a heartbeat. The closest we've got is an actual model train of Pere Marquette 1225 at the least, so that could always pass off as the real deal...

And finally:

Fact 20: There's an actual Polar Express experience you can ride on

Yep, you read correctly. The Polar Express isn't just a book or a movie anymore. You can actually go on a Polar Express Train Ride for real! No obviously, it's not like the movie where they travel to the North Pole and we meet real elves and the real Santa Claus, but it is a train ride themed after the movie that you can travel on for that extra bit of Christmas fun. If you take part in this experience, passengers are served hot chocolate and fresh cookies, chefs will occasionally dance down the aisles in a recreation of the "Hot Chocolate" number, every child that boards the train is given a sleigh bell as a gift, and you can even meet the Conductor, the Hobo, and Santa himself during the ride.

Fittingly, the Pere Marquette 1225 operates annual Christmas trips in Michigan, so it really does feel like riding the real Polar Express, though it sadly only took the identity of the film engine for the 2004 season. In order to avoid paying copyright to Warner Brothers, the operators would run it as the "North Pole Express". Yeah...it's just not the same.

You might think this is an American only event, but no, the event runs in the UK too with events held at the Wensleydale Railway, South Devon Railway, Spa Valley Railway and Edinburgh, and most recently they've hosted one at London, Euston.

So if you live in the US or the UK and love The Polar Express, this could be the event for you... ;)

And there you have it, 20 facts about The Polar Express. Which one interested you the most? I'd love to hear your comments down below.

Next week, I'm returning to the world of Xadia as The Dragon Prince reaches its final season. See you then media fans!