Polar Express (2004)

"The Polar Express" is the traditional Christmas-season kick-off movie in our house. My wife loves its joy, innocence and animation. Me, I'm a Scrooge. See, it's the damn eyes. I can't get past the lifeless, dead-as-a-marble stare of every CGI character in this Robert Zemeckis-directed tale of a boy who travels to the North Pole. I'm not a total hater. The story is fantastic for children, especially with the brilliant Tom Hanks providing most of the voices, and the music by Alan Silvestri is pure joy. I love whole chunks of the animation, including the train's journey up and down mountains, across frozen bodies of water and through a wonderfully designed elf village that looks like a New England factory town. But watching CGI department store mannequins attempt feeling is not my idea of Christmas magic. Bah humbug. C+