The Polar Express

The schmaltz content gets higher and higher, as if administered through a drip feed, until by the end we are drowning in sucrose.

People in Hollywood should never work with children or animals, W.C. Fields once said. Maybe that should be expanded to hyper-realistic computer-generated children and reindeer, too.

As a spectacle, The Polar Express looks remarkable. As a film, however, it's the equivalent of an elaborately wrapped Christmas present containing a nice new pair of socks.

Tom Hanks (in a number of roles) and the other actors do a nice job of voicing their parts, but the waxy animated faces they've been given are off-putting.

At some point very early in the 3-D IMAX version of The Polar Express, technology trumps banality and you helplessly surrender to the shock and awe of this big, often thunderous movie.

Director Robert Zemeckis once again harnesses a new technology to an engaging fable in this digitally animated adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's holiday tale.

A “Harry Potter meets Scrooge” hodgepodge enacted on a plateau of plasticity.

While on paper everything about The Polar Express seems to point towards the feature being a disaster, the final product stays on the rails to become anything but.

Director Robert Zemeckis adds tenderness to this roller-coaster ride of a train, the thrill and adrenaline are constantly offset with unrestrained emotional punches.

But the technology was not quite up to the challenge of Mr. Zemeckis's vision.