Trivia / The Polar Express

• Acting for Two:
  • In addition to providing the motion capture for Hero Boy, Tom Hanks also did the motion capture and voice for the Hero Boy's father, the Conductor, Santa Claus and the Hobo.
  • Sister Sarah and the Hero Boy's mother were motion captured by Leslie Zemeckis.
  • Smokey and Steamer were motion captured by Michael Jeter and primarily voiced by André Sogliuzzo.
  • The Elf Lieutenant and Elf Singer were both motion captured and voiced by Steven Tyler.
• Adored by the Network: Disney-owned networks gave the movie this treatment, starting with Toon Disney and the Disney Channel before moving it to ABC Family during 25 Days of Christmas. AMC then acquired the rights in 2018, and it's currently played there in heavy rotation as well.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Tom Hanks serves in this capacity for four separate roles altogether—The Conductor, Santa Claus, The Hobo, and Chris's father.
• Children Voicing Children:
  • Hero Boy/Chris and Billy were voiced by real kids (Daryl Sabara and Jimmy Bennett) at the time the movie was released.
  • The Japanese cast for the four main kids were voiced by kids as well.
• Creator Couple:
  • Conrad Pope and Nan Schwartz, who served as orchestrators for Alan Silvestri's score, are husband-and-wife.
  • Robert Zemeckis' wife Leslie provided the motion capture for Sister Sarah and the Hero Boy's mother.
• Dawson Casting: Nona Gaye (Hero Girl) and Eddie Deezen (Know-It-All Kid) did both the motion-capture and voices for their respective characters.
• Defictionalization: You can actually ride the Polar Express yourself during the holiday season. Patrons are served hot chocolate and fresh cookies, chefs will occasionally dance down the aisles in a recreation of the "Hot Chocolate" number, every child that boards the train is given a sleigh bell as a gift, and you can even meet the Conductor, the Hobo, and Santa himself during the ride. The actual locomotive that portrayed the Polar Express, the Pere Marquette 1225, operates annual Christmas trips in Michigan (though it sadly only took the identity of the film engine for the 2004 season, as its owners chose to run the "North Pole Express" trips to avoid paying copyright to Warner Brothers).
  • Other heritage railroads around the United States run their own Polar Express trains, but for obvious reasons, they are much different than what the Steam Institute of Michigan puts on. Hot chocolate and Santa Claus are still involved, but more often than not, the Hobo and Conductor are not, and for logistical reasons, these trains tend to be pulled by diesel locomotives (as many tourist lines either don't have any steam locomotives at all, or they do, but said locomotive(s) is in no state to be run, either due to the fact it hasn't been overhauled since its retirement from mainline service, it needs to undergo its federally-mandated 1,472 day inspection, there are no certified engineers available, or the railroad simply doesn't want to expend the resources and capital necessary to run a steam locomotive in the winter).
• Deleted Scene: A scene released on the DVD copy of the film showed an entire dance sequence for the late Michael Jeter was cut, revealing the alleged origin story of the Hobo.
• Died During Production: Michael Jeter, who voiced the engineers, died after suffering a fatal epileptic seizure in March 2003. All of his remaining dialogue was subsequently recorded by André Sogliuzzo.
• Edited for Syndication: When aired on ABC Family starting in 2015, the scene where Hero Boy meets the Hobo is cut out entirely, skipping to the scene where he tries to "wake up", which creates a Plot Hole. The second half of the train's arrival to the North Pole and the explanation of the first gift of Christmas were also removed, skipping right to the part where the children see the elves. AMC broadcasts restore these scenes.
• In Memoriam: A dedication to Michael Jeter appears at the end credits. Jeter died in March 2003, a year and a half before the film's release.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Daryl Sabara, Hero Boy's voice actor, is Jewish.
• Looping Lines: When the film went into post-production, the Hero Boy, Sister Sarah and Billy's lines were respectively looped by Daryl Sabara, Isabella Peregrina and Jimmy Bennett.
• The Merch:
  • Lionel's authentic Polar Express model-train set. It also comes with a replica of Santa's sleigh-bell.
  • Hallmark has a series of ornaments, including the Polar Express' engine, and a true-to-life replica of the sleigh bell.
• No Export for You: The two video games were not released in Japan.
• Non-Singing Voice: In the "When Christmas Comes to Town" sequence, Meagan Moore and Matthew Hall provided the respective singing voices for Hero Girl and Billy.
• The Other Darrin: In the video game, all of Tom Hanks' characters were voiced by his brother Jim Hanks, who frequently does this for Hanks' other famous role as Woody from Toy Story.
• The Other Marty: André Sogliuzzo did the voices for Smokey and Steamer except in the Caribou scene, where Steamer (the fat one) was voiced by Michael Jeter, the actor who did the motion capture for both characters. This may have been left in as a tribute to Jeter, who died during post-production.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: The film's release led to a claim that Pere Marquette 1225, the engine that depicted (and inspired) the titular train in this film, was spared from the scrapper's torch because of having Christmas Day (December 25th) as its number. In truth, it was only spared because MSU wanted a steam engine for donation, and 1225 happened to be the first locomotive on the deadline they could get out.
• Posthumous Credit: Despite suffering a fatal epileptic seizure in March 2003, Michael Jeter is still credited for his work as Smokey and Steamer.
• Recursive Adaptation: There were several books of the film released.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: Lionel's model of the Polar Express is largely spot on, but their general, all-ages model of the train gives the tender four wheeled trucks instead of six wheels like the real 1225 (not to mention it being a tad bit shorter). Averted with their higher-end model, which gives the tender its proper truck count. Additionally, the heavyweight coaches are depicted with four trucks instead of their usual six, which the higher-end model fixes.
• Typecasting: Eddie Deezen, who's known to play nerdy characters like Mandark and Eugene Felsnic, voices the Know-It-All Kid.
• What Could Have Been: When Tom Hanks optioned the book, it was originally stipulated that the movie had to be made in live-action. Robert Zemeckis determined that it would have been too expensive for what he wanted to do, so motion capture was used as a compromise. For comparison, the original film cost $176 million. Had it been done in live-action, the film would have been $1 billion.
• Write What You Know: The main protagonist (also named after the author, Chris) is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, also the hometown of the book's author. In one scene, the train passes by Herpolsheimer's, which was (until the 1980s) a Grand Rapids department store that was known for its lavish Christmas displays.
  • Not only that, but the author recalls playing on the real Pere Marquette 1225 as a child. (At the time it wasn't operational, being displayed at Spartan Stadium at Michigan State University, so it was brought out at football games for that purpose). He was even surprised to find that the locomotive in the film was the same one!
  • Also the entire story was Based on a Dream of a magical train one Christmas Eve when he was in-story Chris's age (around 9 or 10).

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