The Polar Express (2004) is the Worst Book Adaptation of All Time

The book is genius. The movie missed the point.

Photo by Adam Chang on Unsplash

If you haven’t read The Polar Express, you’re missing out. 

The Polar Express is a 1985 children’s book written and illustrated by Chris van Allsburg, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1986 and has sold over a million copies. On its face, the story is very simple – it tells the tale of a little boy who boards a magical steam engine on Christmas Eve to go see Santa. As whimsical as the subject is, the story is actually slow, deliberate, elegiac, thoughtful, and ultimately, heartbreaking. 

These are very likely not the words you would use to describe the 2004 film adaptation directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. The beats of the story are almost identical between the book and the movie. However, as is often the case with adaptation, the devil is in the details.

The story of the book and movie of The Polar Express are the same. However, the details – particularly the tone – are not. And, as a result, the themes of the movie are not the same – and, I would argue, the themes of the movie are significantly weaker and less meaningful than they are in the book. The Polar Express took a 500-word story about childhood, memory, love, community, trust, and Christmas, and took 100 minutes to tell a story that is, inexplicably, not about any of that. 

I don’t get a lot of pleasure out of yucking people’s yum, and if you love the movie The Polar Express, go right ahead. But I think that the genius of the book is undeniable, and stands out even more starkly when you compare it to the movie that takes more time to communicate much less. The movie The Polar Express has been a bee in my bonnet for nearly twenty years, and it actually owes little to the uncanny valley animation. I just think they got the story wrong. The Polar Express (2004) may be a movie about trains and Christmas, but it’s not The Polar Express that Chris Van Allsburg invited us aboard. 

Here, I’ll show you.

The Book, And Why It’s Spectacular 

Here are the events of the book. I’m going to try to recount them without crying. On Christmas Eve, a little boy lies in bed listening for Santa. He has recently been mocked at school for believing in Santa but still is desperate to believe. Instead of hearing Santa, he hears a giant steam engine outside, where a conductor invites him aboard. The conductor reveals that the train is the Polar Express, and it’s headed for the North Pole. The conductor helps the little boy aboard. The train is full of children in pajamas. Waiters give them hot chocolate and the children sing Christmas Carols together. As the train approaches the Pole, the children are surprised to see no elves. The conductor explains they have gathered in the center of the city, where Santa is preparing to begin his journey. At the center of the city, Santa will give the First Gift of Christmas before taking off for his flight. The First Gift will be given to one of the children aboard the train, who have been brought to celebrate this ritual.

At the Pole, Santa’s reindeer are hitched and waiting at the sleigh, along with a throng of elves. Santa walks out to his sleigh to wild cheers and celebration. He points to the little boy, and the conductor brings him forward and puts him on Santa’s knee. Santa asks the boy what he wants for the First Gift. The little boy knows he can have anything in the world, but what he wants is one of the bells from the harnesses of the reindeer. They make the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard. Santa is deeply touched by the request, gives the boy a hug, and tells an elf to cut a bell from the harness. He then presents the bell to the boy as the First Gift before the crowd. 

The children return to the train and everyone wants to see the bell. However, the boy discovers that there is a hole in the pocket of his robe, and the bell has fallen out. There’s no time to look for it, though, because the train is returning to put the children back in bed before sunrise. The little boy is devastated and leaves the train sadly. As he leaves, the conductor calls out to him, “Merry Christmas!”

On Christmas morning, the boy and his sister (okay now I’m going to start crying) are opening gifts, when they find a little box under the tree. The box contains the bell, and a note from “Mr. C” who says he found the bell in his sleigh. “Fix that hole in your pocket,” says the note. When the little boy jingles the bell, it’s the most beautiful sound he and his sister have ever heard, but his parents say it’s sad that the bell is broken. They can’t hear it. 

As the boy gets older, more and more of his friends, and eventually his sister, can no longer hear the bell. But as an old man, he still hears it, as does everyone who believes.

Isn’t that a nice story? I positively beg all of you to read it and enjoy the beautiful oil painting illustrating the original. For such a simple story, the text is laden with themes, most of which won’t necessarily make sense to a child audience. There’s a strong message of anti-materialism – the boy rejects an elaborate gift for the simple treasure of the bell. There’s a weighty theme of memory – the bell is precious because it reminds the little boy of this magic, dreamlike experience he had as a child. There’s also the theme of childhood magic and innocence, which the boy’s friends all lose with age. The bell preserves a memory of a magical Christmas of his childhood, which the man keeps with him his entire life. It’s a sad, elegiac story, where every line counts. And they do – every line conveys meaning, imagery, emotion, and weight. 

The tone of the story is also impossible to separate from the theme. The experience of being on the Polar Express is ultimately one of safety. The train is warm and secure, full of companionable, pajamaed children. There’s a subtle contrast between the little boy’s school, where children are mocked for believing in Santa, and the joy of the Polar Express where every child is on his or her way to go see Santa. The experience is cozy, magical, and luxurious. The Polar Express serves sweets and hot chocolate. The children sing songs and celebrate. They apparently get along just fine – there’s no hint of jealousy that only one child got the bell, and the other children are empathetic and eager to help when the boy finds he lost the bell. The world outside the train may be dangerous and cruel, but inside the train, the shared joy of being on the Polar Express and having a wonderful experience together reigns. The illustrations underline this idea – outside of the train we see wolves, snow, steep cliffs, and danger. None of this breaches the protective cocoon of the Polar Express. Being on the train is a safe, conflict-free experience, because it’s the experience of being a well-loved child on Christmas. The children are protected, feted, spoiled, and loved.

The children are also treated as important. The purpose of the Polar Express is to complete a ritual: bring children to celebrate Santa’s flight with Santa and all his elves, and to sacralize the moment with the presenting of the First Gift. The presence of the children at the North Pole for Santa’s ritualized send-off is required, because without children, Christmas would not be complete. In a world where children are often cast aside, ignored, or regarded as irritants, Santa and his associates treat the children as honored guests. He and his associates spirit the children away from their homes in a setting where they’re treated as distinguished ambassadors. This is a first-class train, opulently decorated, with top-flight amenities and the best hot chocolate you’ve ever drank. It’s the platinum way to travel to the North Pole. Every step of the way, the children are valued, treasured, and treated exactly the way you’d hope Santa would treat a child. The train is safe and luxurious because that’s what these important kids deserve.

Finally, a key part of the train’s safety, and the honor bestowed on the passengers on board, is the benevolence of the adult staff. Though they have very few lines, the adult characters are emissaries of Santa Claus, and they act like it. The conductor’s few actions in the book are all kind – he invites the boy on board, he explains the ritual of the First Gift, he helps the boy onto Santa’s knee, and he wishes him a Merry Christmas. The elves are enthusiastic and celebratory, and one of them fetches the bell for the child. Santa himself is everything you’d want Santa to be – loving, approachable, aware, omniscient (“fix that hole in your pocket”), and concerned with the joy of every particular child, making a point of returning the lost bell to its proper owner. Santa also seems to understand exactly why the little boy wants the bell and is kindly about his struggle with growing up and wanting to believe in Santa. Everyone at the North Pole and the Polar Express is kind, hospitable, and inviting. They treat the kids the way they deserve to be treated at Christmas.

The story behind the story – the thematic message behind The Polar Express – is about a magical childhood Christmas memory. I haven’t been on the Polar Express (yet) but I still connect with the story it tells – a story about the ways in which kind people show love to children at Christmas, and the way in which this experience of being loved and cared for makes Christmas magical for children. You might  even say that what the Polar Express symbolizes is more or less what Santa himself symbolizes – kindness and generosity, security and protection, and the belief that every child deserves love and care. This experience of being on the Polar Express depends on trust and safety – trust for adults, trust for other kids, kindness from and for both, and the security of being able to celebrate a holiday in peace. The memory of this experience for the boy lasts forever, and his belief in this wonderful night for the rest of his life never leaves him.

The movie The Polar Express is….

Um.

It’s got a choo-choo! Everyone loves choo-choos! With… um, fishtailing passenger cars.

And there’s the… uh, there’s the hot chocolate.

And the… and the elves…

With CCTV footage of children sleeping.

Oh dear. 

The Movie, and Why I Hate It

The movie The Polar Express is about violence, chaos, overstimulation, loud noises, fiends, fire, bickering children, angry adults, mortal danger, ghosts, lurking dread, terror, and materialism. 

Remember the trustworthy, kindly conductor who invited the little boy on board in the book? Yeah, he’s long gone. In his place is a punctuality-obsessed jackass who seems predominantly annoyed by children and is going to get this train to the North Pole on time, Christmas Magic be damned.

Likewise, the choice to board the Polar Express puts a lot more pressure on children. In the book, the train stop is spontaneous – it has its own dream logic that the train stops for anyone and anyone can get on the train. In the movie, the conductor arrives with a damn dossier on the boy, showing that he knows the kid doesn’t really believe in Santa anymore. This seems to be the reason why the train stops. However, this means that the trust between the child and the conductor is much more important. The little boy has been invited to go on a train to see something he doesn’t think is real. One would expect the conductor to be patient, and to answer a lot of questions to assure the child that he’s going on a wonderful journey instead of wandering away from his home in sub-zero temperatures. But that’s not what the conductor does. Instead he says they’re on a tight schedule and when the kid doesn’t get on board, pulls away immediately. This will be the conductor’s MO for the rest of the evening. The train is no longer particularly harmonious – one of the kids (Braces) is honesty just the worst, and another is unhappy and standoffish for most of the trip.

From the beginning, the little boy at the center of the story justifiably has no trust in the conductor. When the train stops to pick up a little boy named Billy, who doesn’t want to board, the conductor is completely content to leave Billy behind. It’s the little boy who has to stop the train so Billy can come see Santa, and the conductor is pissed. The relationship of trust between the little boy and the conductor is gone from this point on. When a little girl loses her ticket,¹ the conductor leaves with her, and the children assume based on their previous experience with the conductor that he must have thrown her off for the wolves to eat. The child then has to climb up on the roof and get directions from a ghost to find the engine, because he’s sure as shooting not going to ask an adult on board for help. The child does not trust the people driving the Polar Express. The train is not safe. 

Now, to be fair, the girl hasn’t been thrown off and is in fact driving the train while the train driver fixes the headlight. I assume the idea is that kids will think it’s really cool that she gets to drive the train, but this is a tremendous amount of responsibility for two kids who really should be in the back singing carols, which they soon discover. The girl, who has something of an arc about learning to lead and have confidence in herself, struggles to remember which lever on the train is the brake, which they realize they need to pull when the driver starts to beg them wildly to stop the train. The kids are then blasted with freezing weather, have to maneuver around reindeer herds, and almost derail the train on an icy straightaway, which would kill everyone on board if the driver wasn’t able to quickly get the train back on course. All the while, the fireman and engineer scream and make incredibly obnoxious, jarring noises. Then the conductor yells at them for stopping the train. THIS TRAIN IS NOT SAFE. 

Back on the train, the boy and girl go find Billy, who doesn’t want to get off at the North Pole. Persuading the boy to get off really should be the conductor’s job, which he’d be able to do well if he was the kind, approachable man of the book – but he’s not, so once again, adult responsibilities belong to children. THIS TRAIN IS NOT SAFE. However, when they talk to Billy, they accidentally uncouple the train car and the car goes spinning off into Santa’s workshop. There they see the elves, who talk like Joe Pesci and are incredibly angry all the time.

Santa’s workshop is a giant mechanized factory where gifts are processed and sorted. If you loved the particular kindness and generosity of Santa who assiduously returns the bell to a broken hearted little boy, you’ll be pleased to know that that was apparently a one-off experience for the old man. No, these are sweatshop conditions where gifts are mechanically made and sorted and where children dare not tread. Likewise, the piles and piles of gifts belie the gentle antimaterialism of the book. The little boy knows that he can ask for anything in the world from Santa, but instead of asking for a toy, asks to preserve a memory of the magic to bring home with him. The imagery of a mechanized gift factory with a sizable carbon footprint that produces tons of plastic waste sits oddly alongside the message that Christmas is about community, love, enchantment, and joy, not stuff.

Finally, the First Gift ritual occurs not because of the spontaneous good fortune of a benevolent Santa who picks one kid to honor. Instead it’s a transactional relationship where the boy finds a bell that fell off the harness and tries to give it back to Santa. Santa is no longer sagely understanding of the real desire behind a child’s simple wish – the desire to retain some evidence of the journey. Instead Santa’s just impressed that the boy gave him the bell, and selects him to receive the first gift. And yes, the boy doesn’t even really pick the daggone bell. There’s no moment where he forgoes a gift to preserve a piece of the magic. Instead he just finds the friggin bell and tries to give it back to Santa for some honking reason – I guess because he’s scrupulous? I dunno, scrupulosity and honesty aren’t themes in the original book and they aren’t in the movie either. But it’s rewarded, he gets to keep the bell, and that’s the first gift of Christmas. From there, the events of the book play out much the same in the movie – bell gets lost, kid goes home, Santa returns bell, kids hear bell, adults can’t, you can hear the bell if you believe.

However, the symbolism of the bell is completely missing – just like the symbolism of the train itself is missing. As we said, the experience of being on the Polar Express in the book is one of joy and safety – the experience that a child ought to have on Christmas when he is protected, spoiled, honored, sheltered, and loved by kind grown-ups who want to make the holiday special for him. This is what the Polar Express does. This is the meaning of the snacks and decorations and Christmas carols and the First Gift. What the bell originally symbolized was a memory of Christmas magic. It was a token of the most special night of this boy’s life. But it’s not at all clear that this little boy will look back on this harrowing journey with any kind of nostalgia or joy. It actually seems like he had an incredibly stressful night. If the train is not safe, and the people who operate it are not good, then why does the train matter? I would argue that it just doesn’t anymore. What made the Polar Express mean something as a symbol of Christmas is just gone. So what it means to receive a memory of the Polar Express also doesn’t mean anything. 

So, if that’s not what the bell symbolizes, then who hears the bell? What does it mean to “believe” in this story? It seems like belief has changed from being a posture towards the world (believing in magic, childhood innocence, nostalgia) towards believing in the literal existence of Santa. The moment the little boy sees Santa is the first time he’s actually able to hear the bell, so it seems that literally believing in Santa is what’s at issue. But that’s not really a message that has the same weight and resonance of the book. Adults who read and love The Polar Express don’t literally believe in Santa, they believe in what Santa represents. The theme of this movie feels comparatively frivolous. 

Unless, of course, we’re to understand that “believing” in this context includes belief in God in the same way the boy now believes in Santa Claus – namely, thinking he exists. That that the theme song “Believe” is by Josh Groban makes this seems somewhat plausible, and having talked to some friends who remember the movie’s release, it seems this is how some people read it. 

But the lyrics of the song don’t suggest that belief in God is really at issue. It’s belief in… something?

Believe in what your heart is saying

Hear the melody that's playing

There's no time to waste

There's so much to celebrate

Believe in what you feel inside

And give your dreams the wings to fly

You have everything you need

If you just believe

Here’s the thing. Belief in something non-specific is a meaningless theme. Belief in God treated as a proxy for belief in Santa is also meaningless – in fact, it mirrors the worst accusations that critics make about religion. And belief in Santa – the literal Santa – is frivolous. Adults don’t believe in the actual Santa. There’s no theme for adults to hold onto if the meaning of the Polar Express is about the importance of believing in Santa. It renders the story entirely for children, and assumes they will simply grow out of this story. 

But that’s what becoming unable to hear the bell is! If the story of the Polar Express has no meaning for people who don’t believe in Santa, then we, too, can’t hear the bell. But if the story of the Polar Express is about believing in all the things that Santa and Christmas represent – the sacrality of children, their value, the things adults do to care for them and love them, the fact that children deserve this, and our responsibility to do this for children ourselves – then there is a story here you grow into, instead of out of. 

I’d even be so bold as to say that the themes of the book are, for lack of a better word, more Christian. The Christmas story of the incarnation is the story of God showing his love for humanity by becoming a human and walking among us. This kind of love from a benevolent being who loves you, who parents you, who wants what is best for you, and knows everything about you — this is what Santa represents, and it’s a desire that in Christian theology finds its expression in God’s love for humanity. If Santa symbolizes these things, then we get a glimpse of divine love in stories that treat Santa as a symbol of benevolent fatherly love. We don’t get it if Santa stands for nothing besides himself.

This Christmas, I plan to read The Polar Express, again. I plan to cry reading it, again. And I plan on being the kind of person who could hear Chris Van Allsburg’s bell if I hear it. I think these themes are why this story lasts, and why it matters. 

But I have to be honest. I just don’t see them in the movie.

1. I hate the tickets so much. I understand they end up being magical tickets but… come on. Santa Claus, who knows more about children on the planet, designed a system that depends on kids keeping track of small pieces of paper on Christmas Eve. Was he drunk when he came up with this idea? One of these kids will go on to lose a bell approximately thirty seconds after he got it.