It pulled in around $23 million or so, easily outpaced by The Incredibles, which more than doubled Polar's take with a cool $51 million in its second week.
So why didn't The Polar Express, powered by the unbeatable team of Tom Hanks and Bob Zemekis pull in numbers like that? That damn movie has been everywhere, and it had a built-in audience based upon fans of the book.
Want to know what I think?
I haven't seen the movie, but I feel this makes me perfectly qualified to explain why people didn't go see it, since I'm one of them.
Why didn't I go see The Polar Express? I'm obviously a fan of CG movies (see my recent comments on The Incredibles.) I'm also a huge Chris Van Allsburg fan.
For those of you that don't traffic in kids' books like I do (due to my profession), he's a pretty brilliant author-illustrator. You may know him as the creator of Jumanji, that Robin Williams-there's an elephant on Maple Street-thing from some years back.
The Polar Express is a deservedly classic book. I read it for a few years to my students, but stopped after a while. I was getting too embarrassed about choking up at the end, plus every damn elementary school teacher had read it to my kids already through the years.
What's so great about him? Aside from his startling orginality, his stuff is creepy as hell, man. Go into your local bookstore and check it out. All of his images are these fuzzy, dream-like images that have a slightly menacing quality to them. The wolves watching the train pass by in The Polar Express is but one example. His recent covers for The Chronicles of Narnia are another.
I suggest two books to get an idea of what I'm talking about: One is called The Widow's Broom, which I used to read every year around Halloween. I can't find it online, but there's this gorgeous picture of a witch, illuminated by firelight. She's young and shapely and sexy as hell. I always loved how he chose to show the witch that way, instead of as the usual old crone with the crooked nose that we're used to seeing.
The other book is called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. A dozen or so illustrations, with a title and caption for each. Nothing else. You have to imagine the rest. (Another book ruined by too many teachers, myself included, turning it into a "writing exercise.") They're hypnotic, and I never tire of looking at them and imagining what might be going on. The picture to the right is my favorite. It's called Another Time, Another Place. And the caption reads: "If there was an answer, he'd find it there." I still get excited about what could possibly lie in that gleaming city beyond the mountain range.
Allsburg knows that childhood is mystery and danger and darkness and chaos. It's also innocence and joy and all that crap, but when you're a kid you don't know that.
I think that's why people stayed away from The Polar Express.
If you knew the book, you knew that it was sweet and life-affirming in that way that only Christmas stories can be. But it's also melancholy and tinged with the sadness of the adult world, and watching those previews, I don't see that.
I see dancing waiters and CGI Porn, and too many characters stuffed into the story to make it longer. And they all have creepy digital eyes that freak me out.
The book of The Polar Express is one of those rare things: A Christmas tale that gets every note just right. It never gets too sappy (as most Christmas tales do) nor does it get too juvenile. It possesses the wonderment of childhood and the sad realizations of adulthood.
We smile at the way the Boy hears the bell at the end, knowing in his heart that Santa Claus does exist, but we also nod our heads in agreement when the adults do not hear the bell. We know. We know the belief doesn't last. Childhood ends, and becomes a sad and nostalgic memory.
The best stories, "the ones that really matter", about childhood have that quality. In Peter Pan, Wendy chooses to leave Neverland and grow up. Christopher Robin gives up Pooh. And Boo Radley saves Jem and Scout and ceases to be a monster in the closet.
Maybe the movie version of The Polar Express has that quality. I'll go see it one of these days and decide for myself. But judging by the previews, I don't think so. And I think America realized it as well, knowing that The Incredibles promised, and delivered, more.
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