The Polar Express - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Polar Express



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
2004’s The Polar Express is one of those movies where you think of it as a bloated CGI mess of creepy animation, or a solid emotional Christmas story, there is no in between it seems. Back in 2004 Zemeckis really wanted to make a photo-realistic animation film that would literally become the next talked about thing. And technically he got his wish. He used a sort of rotoscoping animation style that looks weirdly hyper realistic for the time period (when we were all using PS2’s as our gaming systems) and it was such a jarring visual experience that people came out of the theater oddly creeped out. The story itself happens to be a rather heart warming and sentimental Christmas tale, but the bizarre animation style is what the film is really known for even 18 years later.

The story revolves around a boy who has lost his faith in Christmas and subsequently Santa Clause himself as well. He doesn’t visit the Santa at the mall, and has even stopped making Christmas lists to old St. Nick as well. In fact, Christmas is a time of year that just doesn’t interest the boy anymore. However, as he drifts off to sleep on Christmas Eve this fine year the child is awoken to a clattering and rattling outside of his home. Stumbling out of bed confused and wondering what is going on, he finds himself face to face with a train in front of his house, with the conductor (Tom Hanks) calling him aboard.

It’s not exactly hard to see that this is a magic train, but what it’s purpose is, is something the child has to find out himself. On board he meets friends from all races and creeds, as well as finds out that the train is going to take him to the North Pole where he will get to meet Santa Clause himself. Despite KNOWING in his mind that Santa isn’t real, the child is soon drawn in to an adventure that will stretch his imagination as well as open his heart to old things that he had locked away in a drawer of cynicism and “reality”.

Stemming from a popular book of the same name, Zemeckis attempts to do another attempt at lightning in a bottle with a modern holiday classic, and half way succeeds. The movie is certainly sentimental and heart warming with great performances by Hanks and everyone involved, but it’s also a bit bloated and syrupy feeling. Much of the conflict is set in place to highlight the gigantic CGI interactions to become a spectacle on screen, and sometimes those interactions just aren’t that believable or impactful. It’s got a sweet message of child like innocence and joy, but also told in a way that’s fairly derivative and told a million times in the past as well. It’s a stunning CGI work that is bizarrely creepy due to the art style, and gets played on IMAX screens and theaters year (which is pretty amazing considering how few films get re-introduced to theaters as is before pandemic), so fans get to have their fill of the holiday film, that’s for sure.




Rating:

Rated G for General Audiences




4K Video: Video:

The Polar Express was a stunning looking Blu-ray back in 2008, but I was wondering how the film would hold up in 4K UHD due to the weird almost digital rotoscoping style of animation coupled with the fact that the film’s animation was pretty much mastered and rendered at 2K. That means this is going to be an upscale vs. a native 4K transfer. Honestly, I’m rather impressed with the new HDR enhanced 4K disc. The film was an attempt at hyper realism back in 2004, but looks rather dated and actually rather creepy in motion. That being said the 4K disc shows some notable differences over the very impressive Blu-ray. First off the bat it’s obvious that the detail levels are more precise and clean, with background objects showing off some solid increases in noticeable details. Things like the night sky and the circled mountain top that the train climbs shows better line detail and a less smeared snow backscape. Things such as faces and intimate details in the train are less noticeable of an increase, but there are little tweaks here and there that make it a better experience.

The HDR enhancement makes much more of an impressive leap with the colors, as the film is a lusciously colored film already, and the use of HDR really makes the bright red seats, or the golden mahogany tones of the inside of the train just POP off the screen. The color timing itself isn’t really changed, it is just that much richer, that much bolder, and a really well saturated experience that drips bright and dimmed colors off the screen. I didn’t really notice any major brightness decreases as 4K UHD discs are prone to do. Instead it looks REALLY similar to the Blu-ray, just with much better colors and some mild to moderate improvements in textural details overall








Audio:

The Blu-ray sported a 5.1 Dolby Digital lossy mix (not uncommon for 2006-2008 Blu-rays) and was a good experience, but Warner has gone back and given us a boost to a full lossless 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix that is really much more punchy and aggressive of a track. The interior of the train is not going to wow and awe the audience as it’s a very dialog driven effort during those moments, but outside the train it’s a lot more intense with the whipping sounds of the wind screaming over the train, or the bawling of reindeer, or the chugging of the train as it rumbles up a steep incline. Fantastic sounding mix, and my only complaint is that I would have KILLED to have heard an Atmos remix of the mix as it’s a really engaging and intense track as it is in 5.1.








Extras:

• You Look Familiar
• A Genuine Ticket To Ride
• True Inspirations: An Author’s Adventure
• Behind the Scenes of “Believe”
• Flurry of Effects
• Smokey and Steamer
• Josh Groban at the Greek
• Meet The Snow Angels
• Theatrical Trailer
• THQ Game Demo

Final Score: ​

Robert Zemickis’s The Polar Express is probably one of the oddest Christmas films I’ve ever seen. It’s sort of a weird and creepy attempt at photo-realistic animation, and even though it has a reasonably entertaining story line, most people can NOT get over the weird animation. It is just one of those films that visibly weirds you out looking at it and no matter if it was literally Die Hard or The Passion of the , the audience would still be weirded out. The 4K UHD disc is a decent upgrade over the Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray (well, sans 3D of course) with good video, excellent audio and all of the extras from the old disc. Fans will find it very appealing.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Hanks, Chris Coppola, Michael Jeter, Leslie Zemeckis, Eddie Deezen, Nona Gaye
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Written by: Chris Van Allsburg(Book), Robert Zemeckis, William Broyles Jr. (Screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, French (Canada), German, Italian, Dutch, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian Spanish DD 5.1, Romanian, Swedish DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish
Studio: Warner
Rated: G
Runtime: 97 Minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 1st, 2022

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[JStewart]

This is one of few films where the 3D effects appear an intentional part of the art. Take them away and things get quite average imo.