Christmas spirit barrels through ‘Polar Express’

A young boy lies awake in his bed on Christmas Eve.

He’s listening for sleigh bells that’ll indicate the arrival of Santa Claus. But he’s not really sure he’ll hear them. Friends have told him there is no Santa Claus. And he’s beginning to have doubts.

That’s when a train suddenly steams onto his front lawn – and the conductor invites him on board.

“Where?” asks the boy. “Why, to the North Pole of course,” replies the conductor.

So begins one of the most popular of children’s Christmas books, Chris Van Allsburg’s “The Polar Express,” as the boy takes a train ride that ends with a meeting with the great man in the red suit and the gift of believing.

And now that book has come to life in a jaw-dropping film that’s bound to become a holiday classic.

The movie’s script (by Robert Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr.) deftly expands a 32-page picture book into a 92-minute film while maintaining the magical tone of a child’s imagination. The unnamed boy meets friends and has rousing adventures on his way to the North Pole that fill in the narrative between the book’s memorable incidents.

Director Zemeckis believes the “moving” in moving pictures is literal – the train duplicates the ups and downs of a roller coaster.

The movie is an exercise in acting, particularly for Tom Hanks, who plays the story’s five principal characters – the boy (though the voice was provided by “Spy Kids” star Daryl Sabara), his father, the conductor, a mysterious hobo on the train and Santa Claus. Because of the film’s remarkable technical achievements, he’s recognizable as Hanks only in three of the roles.

But most impressive, “The Polar Express” is a prototype for new, state-of-the-art developments in computer-graphic animation. It takes the actors’ performances, embellishes them with character looks and costumes, and puts them in action in a virtual world. The world also is an exact copy of the book’s lovely paintings that no doubt helped Van Allsburg win the prestigious Caldecott Medal.

The imagery in “The Polar Express” is as vivid and rich a step forward in digital animation as Disney’s “Pinocchio” was to cel animation in an earlier generation. But the fine writing, Hanks’ astonishing range of performances and the breathtaking visuals wouldn’t mean a thing if you didn’t tear up just a little at the finale.