Polar express, the cast and director of the film
Polar Expressfilm that goes in broadcast on Wednesday 25 December at 2.05pm on Italia1, is an animated film that arrived on the big screen in 2004 and was directed by Robert Zemeckis, who also wrote the screenplay together with William Broyles Jr. The subject of the film is based on the illustrated children's book of the same name written by Chris Van Allsburg, and published in 1985. This book was awarded the Caldecott Medal the following year.
Directing the Polar Express film is Robert Zemeckis, who directed masterpieces and box office successes such as Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and all three Back to the Future films. On the other side of the camera, the cast includes an old acquaintance of his:
Tom Hanks, the Oscar-winning actor, who was directed by Zemeckis in many successful films, including Forrest Gump and Cast Away. Among the main protagonists, alongside Tom Hanks, Nona Gaye, Josh Hutcherson, Connor Matheus, Leslie Zemeckis, Julene Renee, Chris Coppola and Eddie Deezen.
Polar express, the plot of the film
The plot of the film Polar Express is centered on the adventures of a man originally from a place in the state of Michigan, Grand Rapids. The man's name is never revealed during the film, which retraces, with rapid flashbacks, an extraordinary adventure he experienced when he was a boy. On the night of Christmas Eve, the little boy goes to bed convinced that it is not Santa Claus who delivers the presents, but that his mother and father put them under the tree. In fact, the boy, unlike his younger sister, does not believe in his existence.
When there are a few minutes left before midnight, the boy hears a very loud noise and sees a light outside the house. There he notices that there is a steam train outside, on which he reads the writing “Polar Express”, at the head of the train, there seems to be a somewhat gruff but not bad man who informs him that that train takes children to the Pole North, where they will be able to meet Santa Claus. The little boy decides to leave and on the train he finds himself with other children in pajamas singing Christmas songs, while he is served hot chocolate. The protagonist of the film makes friends with both a nice little girl and two other kids, Billy, shy and poor, and another who has a very annoying know-it-all attitude.
He then meets an adventurer who always drinks coffee and lives on trains and reproaches him for his lack of sincerity and for constantly being in the balance between believing and not believing. Various vicissitudes follow, then the train reaches the North Pole where the three friends meet Santa Claus who, as tradition dictates, chooses to give it to the little boy.
He would like a bell that has fallen from the reins of the reindeer pulling the cart, which is given to him, so that he can listen to the sound as he watches the sleigh go away. After returning to the train, the boy realizes that he no longer has the bell, which has fallen from a hole in his pajama pocket.
Once he returns home, the next day is the morning in which the presents are opened, in the last small package he finds the lost bell, accompanied by a message from Santa Claus inviting him to repair the hole in his pajamas. Shaking the bell together with their sister, they realize that their parents cannot hear the sound.
The ending of the film sees the adult protagonist saying that the bell still rings for him even though both his sister and friends no longer hear it like they did when they were children.
