Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s Christmas time! 🙂 Usually, I would say that to start off a series of four brand-new Christmas reviews per week in December, but that’s sadly not happening this year. Thankfully, I can say it to start off what I hope will be a small collection of cinema reviews.

Whether it’s Christmas films I’ve reviewed already on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ or whether it’s ‘Red One’, I’m happy to share my latest thoughts on any Christmas film after experiencing them at the cinema. Let’s talk about a classic Christmas movie I love seeing.

And it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024. ‘The Polar Express’ is a film I love seeing every year since it came out at cinemas in 2004. Over the years, I’ve seen the film on DVD and Blu-ray. This is the first time that I’ve seen ‘The Polar Express’ in a while at the cinema.

No joke, I didn’t see ‘The Polar Express’ at the cinema in-between 2004 and 2024. This is my second time viewing it on the big screen. Seeing the film on the big screen back in 2004 was quite an experience. I enjoyed every minute of it, since it feels very Christmassy.

Upon revisiting ‘The Polar Express’ at the cinema for the second time this year, it still holds up well after all these years. Mind you, I’ve seen the film umpteen times and know what to expect when it comes to dialogue said by characters as well as where the plot is going.

So, the experience of seeing the film again at the cinema for the second time is not the same as when I saw it for the first time back in 2004. I suppose that is to be expected, but it’s still amazing to see the movie on the big screen and with its impressive CGI animation.

The motion-capture CGI animation was quite a thing back in 2004. I believe this was the first time Robert Zemeckis directed something like this compared to doing the ‘Back to the Future’ films. It wouldn’t be his last foray into the motion-capture CGI animation world.

After ‘The Polar Express’, he directed ‘A Christmas Carol’ with Jim Carrey in 2009. I believe ‘The Polar Express’ is better than 2009’s ‘A Christmas Carol’, especially when the plot is quite straightforward a boy boarding a magic steam train with other kids to the North Pole.

Tom Hanks’ voice is heard pretty much throughout this film when he’s playing a variety of characters, including the Conductor, the Hobo, Santa Claus and Ebeneezer Scrooge. It’s easy to forget he played the Hero Boy when doing the motion-capture aspects of the film.

The Hero Boy was voiced by Daryl Sabara of ‘Spy Kids’ fame as well as by Josh Hutcherson, who I’ve seen in ‘Zathura’ and ‘Bridge to Terabithia’. It astonishes me that the Hero Boy was never given a name in the film as well as the Hero Girl featured in the movie.

Same for the Know-it-All kid. Only Billy seems to get the treatment of having a name in the film. I know there’s the fantastical element of the film to be considered, but surely it wouldn’t hurt to give the Hero Boy a name in order to identify who he is when seeing this film.

I enjoyed seeing ‘The Polar Express’ again on the big screen with a cup of hot chocolate, which was purchased from Costa whilst watching it at Showcase Cinema in Nantgarw. And yes, it would be very remiss of me to point out that it echoes the ‘Hot Chocolate’ song number.

Mind you, I’m sure the kids’ could have enjoyed their cups of hot chocolate board the train without the Conductor, the waiters and the cooks delivering their hot chocolates whilst singing and dancing. Then again, this is a kids’ fantasy Christmas film, so what do I know?

All in all, it was great to see ‘The Polar Express’ again at the cinema after all these years. This film is still impressive in its CGI motion-capture animation. Mind you, I wonder if a film like this can be made today with the characters in live-action instead of being CGI. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂