The Polar Express

The Polar Express arrived in theaters November 10, 2004, adapted from Chris Van Allsburg's beloved 1985 picture book and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr. Zemeckis shot it with motion-capture animation — performance capture ran from June 2003 to May 2004 — and poured a budget of $165–170 million into it, more than any animated feature had cost before.

Tom Hanks played six roles, including the Conductor, in the story of a boy on Christmas Eve who is starting to lose faith in Santa. He boards a magical train bound for the North Pole; there's a showstopper number built around hot chocolate; and at the Pole he's chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas. He asks for a sleigh bell from Santa's reindeer, loses it through a hole in his pocket, and finds it under the tree on Christmas morning with a note from Santa. The bell, the film promises, rings only "for all who truly believe."

Reviews split right down the middle. Some hailed it as an instant holiday classic; others called the digital humans "lifeless zombies," and the character animation became a textbook citation for the "uncanny valley" — that space between human and not-quite-human where the eye catches something wrong. Roger Ebert, who liked the film, allowed that it was "a little creepy... in that sneaky, teasing way." Audiences settled the argument with repetition: an initial $286 million gross kept climbing through annual re-releases, eventually passing $318 million, and the Josh Groban song "Believe" (written by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard) earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The film settled permanently into the holiday calendar — the one whole classrooms watch in pajamas every December, hot chocolate optional but encouraged.