Don’t let the haters get you down. The Polar Express really is an enchanting, magical film. The problem, of course, is that it’s all magic. Not much is added to the children’s storybook in terms of narrative – it’s just a magical moment stretched out long and thin.

A young boy, beginning to lose faith in Santa Claus, is wisped away on a magic train that brings him to the North Pole where he meets Father Christmas and then returns home before morning comes. That’s it.

But The Polar Express is much more about the journey than the destination. The Train runs, like a roller coaster, up and down the tracks, through a snowy wood, across a frozen lake and up into a clear winter sky. It’s some of the best 3D graphics I’ve seen, and it’s all the better in the literally 3D IMAX version.

On the Polar Express, a young boy finds himself in an ethereal dreamlike world. Apreaching Alice in Wonderland in its random colorful characters, Polar Express is a dream that’s as haunting as it is comforting. This is a world is one where anything can happen, and, as such, it does.

As he reaches a brilliant North Pole, the boy comes to believe in the old man with the white beard. The Polar Express lays down the Christian allegory pretty hard. The boy must have faith before he can see the man who sees the hearts of all. He learns he must get on the train in order to get to his destination, and similarly, he must believe before he can know.

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