Director Robert Zemeckis revolutionized the art of animated film in 1998's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT by dropping cartoon characters into the same frame with flesh-and-blood actors. In THE POLAR EXPRESS live action and animation have merged seamlessly resulting in sparkling super-realism. A landmark technique Zemeckis and his Sony Pictures Imageworks team call "Performance Capture" perfectly suits the tenor of this wondrous children's Christmas story by Chris Van Allsburg. A disillusioned little boy just old enough to doubt the existence of Santa Claus has the adventure of a lifetime one fateful Christmas Eve. Clad in his pajamas he climbs aboard a magic train to the North Pole driven by a kindly train conductor (voiced by Tom Hanks who starred in both of Zemeckis's Academy-Award winning films FORREST GUMP and CASTAWAY). Among myriad jaw-dropping moments the train plummets brakeless through crystalline mountains in a simulated roller coaster ride. Going off the rails skidding sideways and snaking v...