Rating: Full

 

Cast: Tom Hanks, Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett, Eddie Deezen and Michael Jeter

 

Director: Robert Zemeckis

 

Writers: Robert Zemeckis and William Broyles, Jr.

 

Based on: the book by Chris Van Allsburg

 

Producers: Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis, Gary Goetzman and William Teitler

 

Music by: Alan Silvestri

 

Oscar Nominations: 3 (Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis Sands and William B. Kaplin), Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leanord) and Best Original Song (Believe by Josh Groban))

 

Rated: G

 

Release Date: 04/10/04

 

Favorite Character: Hero Boy

 

Tagline: This Holiday Season… Believe.

 

Quote: “Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.”- The Conductor

 

Fun Facts: Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records 2006 as the “first all-digital capture” film, where all acted parts were done in digital capture.

 

Three different actors play the role of Hero Boy. Tom Banks does the motion capturing and adult voice, Daryl Sabara does the voice acting, and Josh Hutcherson does additional motion capturing.

 

The address spoken by the conductor early in the film “11344 Edbrooke” is the real address of Robert Zemeckis‘ childhood house. The house is in a south side Chicago neighborhood called Roseland.

 

Steven Tyler appears in this film as the Elf Lieutenant / Elf Singer. His daughter, Liv Tyler, appears in Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy as the elf Arwen.

 

Summary: A boy who has doubt about Santa Claus, takes a magical adventure on a train to the North Pole.

 

The Review: Climb aboard on this magical train on this magical adventure. It totally has realistic graphics (despites unrealistic physical elements). It has such a sweet melody to the score. It will still ring its bells for you.