The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Bells Still Ring: The Cultural Legacy of The Polar Express
The Polar Express stands as a landmark in animation history – the very first full-length computer motion capture film, earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records alongside other Tom Hanks pioneering projects like Toy Story. Twenty years since its release, hosts Nathan and Katy analyze whether this Christmas classic holds up or falls into the uncanny valley.
Katy shares her deep personal connection to the story, explaining how both the original book and film bring tears to her eyes with the iconic line "the bell still rings for all those who still believe." Her family tradition of watching it and singing along to memorable songs like "Hot Chocolate" highlights why this film remains culturally significant despite its technical shortcomings.
Nathan takes the critical perspective, pointing out the occasionally unsettling animation – from the staring little girl to the creepy puppet sequence and questionable hobo ghost character. Both hosts agree these elements seem unnecessarily frightening for a children's Christmas film. Yet they unanimously praise Josh Groban's emotional song "Believe" as capturing the film's magical essence.
The conversation explores how The Polar Express transcended cinema to become embedded in American Christmas culture, with trains across the country transformed into real-world Polar Express experiences complete with hot chocolate, cookies, and conductors punching golden tickets. This cultural phenomenon demonstrates why, despite its flaws, the film earns high marks as a Christmas classic – Katy awards it 5/5 stars for Christmas spirit while Nathan gives 4/5, with slightly lower overall ratings acknowledging the dated animation.
Ready to revisit this holiday staple or experience it for the first time? Listen now and decide for yourself if you still hear the bell ringing!
On the couch. We're laughing, crying, feeling it all, breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaws. Grab your seat, press play. Let's take the pic. Lights camera action. Episode of the Couch Critic.
Speaker 2:Yet again we're late. This time it's not my fault at all. It's actually my special guest's fault, because she doesn't know how to tell the difference between pm and am time.
Speaker 3:Well, get out of here.
Speaker 2:I have my good friend Katie on the show today. Hi, katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm good, nathan. I'm actually only here to defend myself. That's the only reason I'm on this episode today. I would like anyone listening to please weigh in. It would mean a lot to us if you would submit this in our fan mail, or even if you could comment on a post or reach out to us to tell us who you think. Um, if, who do you side with here? So nathan sent me a message about recording 11 40 pm. I think it was 11 35 pm it was 11 30 pm it was 1130 pm on Monday.
Speaker 2:Yes, we'll say it yes, no, not on Monday, on Sunday 1130 on Sunday and said do you want to record tomorrow?
Speaker 3:Well, as any normal person, I was already asleep by 1130. So I didn't read the text until the next morning and so I thought tomorrow was the next day, when really tomorrow was that day.
Speaker 2:When all she had to do was look at the time I sent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, who looks at timestamps? You know I'm not looking at that. I wouldn't have thought he stayed up till 1130 pm on a school night to text me that. So what do you say? Ask Frank Bray. Someone decide with me on this. Anyway, I don't want to miss getting to record this episode with you, Nathan, because it's a really, really special movie for my family and I'm excited to review it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, if you just believe, I will forgive you, but you just got to forgive. If you just believe Speaking of, if you just believe we're talking about the Polar Express. But before we can talk about our likes and dislikes, I have to go over the synopsis. On Christmas Eve, a young boy embarks on a magical adventure to the North Pole on the Polar Express, while learning about friendship, bravery and the spirit of Christmas. The Polar Express stars Tom Hanks as almost every single person in this movie.
Speaker 3:That's one of my likes. I'm going to go ahead and say that's one of my likes.
Speaker 2:Chris Coppola plays the toothless boy and an elf, michael Jeter plays Smokey and Steamer, I guess the train workers. And Leslie Zemeckis, the wife ofbert zemeckis, plays sister, sarah and mother. So that's right. Tom hanks plays almost every single character in this movie. So, katie, I I want to get your thoughts, because you just said how special this movie is to you, because I hadn't watched this movie in a while, which is a shocker, because it's like the quintessential christmas yeah, what's about nathan?
Speaker 3:you know, this came out like 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy, and this movie is actually in the Guinness Book of World Records as the very first all full computer motion capture movie Like this is the first time they ever did this full motion capture computer animation, so it is like a feat. It's kind of like how Toy Story was the first full length computer animation movie which also starred Tom Hanks, and this is like another big moment in the history of movies right here. So, katie, why is this movie so special to you and your family?
Speaker 3:Well, it might be cheating, but I think anyone most people that have heard of Polar Express know it started as a book and I read that book. Growing up I had a little bell that comes with. Sorry to spoil it, but if you haven't seen Polar Express yet, stop listening, go watch. It's the best. I'm going to go and tell you five out of five. In terms of Christmas, I think it just I mean, that's up front. The whole movie is about going to the pole North Pole, ok, and there are now huge cultural things in our like Christmas time that center around Polar Express, so go watch it. Time that center around Holbrook Express, so go watch it.
Speaker 3:But I read this book growing up and I still tear up to this day, at the last page when he says the bell still rings for all those who still believe. And I teared up at the end of this one every time, just watching it with my family. It was an important movie to my upbringing family, but my current family, with my son and my husband, it is a very special movie to us. We love to sing the songs together and, like I said, it's something that just makes me tear up, thinking about him growing up and his excitement and joy around Christmas and I think that's probably the biggest thing and I love the songs that they did. I think they did such a great job honoring the book like straight things from the book Also adding I mean kind of maybe unnecessary storyline. But the book would be a very, very short movie if you stuck with just that plot.
Speaker 2:Well, and this is by the same author who made Jumanji and Zathura, and those movies kind of expanded a lot on the book because, like you said, they would be very short if they just did everything that was in the book. I am going to be You're not going to like me on this episode, katie, I'm going to be the negative guy. Yes, the movie is great. The movie is classic. Like I said, it cements itself in the history of movies as being the first full-length motion capture movie. But I guess I hadn't watched it in a while. The way they move their faces and the way the animation looks, it's creepy, it's just straight up creepy. And I don't know if it's because they've kind of perfected motion capture now with, like the Planet of the Apes movies and even, uh, the A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey, like that was full motion capture and that was also Robert Zemeckis. So I don't know if it's just because they perfected it, and this is the first one. But I also don't say that shouldn't be an excuse, because to me I mean, yes, there are bits and pieces that haven't aged well, but to me like toy story still holds up, like the animation still holds up, and that was like the first computer animated movie.
Speaker 2:Like case in point when he, when the little boy first gets on the train and he sits down and that little girl is like staring. It is like the creepiest little girl face I've ever. Like it's so like she's automatically in stalker territory and she just met the game. And there's like other moments like that, like the way their eyes move and just just little little details that if you're just like all in the movie, you're like oh my gosh, this movie's so magical like you'll just ignore it. Okay, but I'm not like that.
Speaker 2:And santa is creepy and the ghost hobo like that's a rant, I'm assuming that's not in the book. That's creepy. And like when he, when he goes into the, the toy, the toy part of the train and all the puppets are hanging there and then, screwed like scrooge puppet, starts talking. That's creepy. I like it's like one of those movies that you're watching. You're like who is this geared towards? Because you can't show this to little kids, because there's little creepy parts all over and I mean I don't know if it's like too over the head for older kids because of what it's about. It's about us believing in Santa Claus, but you just said your, your son loves it right yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So a few things on what you said. If you're gonna jump right to your negatives, that would be. My big negative is the animation style. I think you're right. We could give them a little credit if this was like, if they're on the very forefront of this style.
Speaker 3:However, I remember as far back as when I first watched this movie, maybe two decades ago, thinking the animation was very weird and creepy and really not liking it. I kind of liken it to a video game. It looks like the characters you'd see if you're playing a video game and they're like really weird. Like the shape of the faces is very weird. So I'm totally with you on that and I do think I don't think it's creepy, but it's very weird. And I think maybe my other, only big negative is that you are correct.
Speaker 3:I think the hobo guy on the top of the train, as well as the scene where they go in with the puppets, is pretty terrifying for a child.
Speaker 3:So, to defend myself, our son did get creeped out by that and when we watched it again, he was like I don't want to watch Polar Express, I don't want to watch it. I said why he's like oh, the creepy guy. So we just skip over that part and even for me, like I'm not a kid and I still don't like it, it was creepy and it it was creepy and it almost feels like an unnecessary creepy. So if I had to, I had to give this like a big negative. I think you could have taken that out or changed the character made, with the hobo guy saying he's kind of helped, he's the doubter right, so he's almost like the the devil on your shoulder helping this kid doubt like oh, santa's not real. I think you could have had like another kid on the train, be that he didn't need it to be a creepy homeless man on top of the train. Well, and.
Speaker 2:But the whole point is that the kid's already starting to doubt anyway, so you didn't really need any character to be that, to be that person who's like making him doubt more. I mean, he's already pretty. He's already pretty much there when he gets on the train, like when they pass by the toy store and all the kids are like super excited about all the presents and he sees the Santa and for some reason he thinks it's the real one for some, I don't know. And then it turns and it shows the gears. He's like I knew that wasn't the real Santa. Of course it wasn't. It's a, it's a robot. It's a robot kid. Of course that's not going to be the real Santa.
Speaker 3:And can I just say that even santa was creepy, just, and I think it was. No, I think I think what's worse is the elves. Okay, so that'd be my last the voice choices for the elves. The elves are like yeah, it's like your grandma that spoke too long. You're like wait, this is a magical world of the elves. I'm like I wanted. I wanted the zoe de chanel, just like cutesy and peppy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, like, and when Billy has his present and the elves like, I think you, I think this belongs to me, oh, you can trust me. I'm like, I'm thinking something bad.
Speaker 3:No, I can't, I can't trust that.
Speaker 2:Oh, don't worry, you can trust me, ok, no, no I can't, you're a creepy, I do.
Speaker 3:I like the annoying kid. I mean he's definitely annoying, but I think that's that's very clever, like he, and he does exactly what he's supposed to do. That annoying know-it-all kid. I like the little girl. I mean I think I love her leadership scout. I don't feel like they did some big agenda thing with the kids and that we're supposed to learn some other side lesson Like. I really feel like the movie stuck to the main point, which was like helping kids still believe and believe in the magic of Christmas and whether that's Santa for you, whether that's something else, like there is magic and power in a story of Christmas from the Bible and maybe just what Christmas means to everybody around the world. So I appreciated that. That there was like a little bit like we're seeing the leadership of the young girl, we're seeing maybe the humility and humbling of this nerdy guy, but it still felt very the whole movie was tracking along with that same storyline. Did you like tom? Did you like tom hanks's performance in all million zillion characters?
Speaker 2:well, I kind of feel bad for the kid who actually did the voice of the kid, because I was looking at the, the list of the cast and everything, and tom hanks is billed as hero boy, which is the kid who doubts, and all that stuff but all he did was the most capture for him well, yeah, and at the very end he's the voice of being, of saying like and kind of like the adult version of him, whatever, but I I kind of I just feel bad for the kid who actually did the voice like throughout the whole movie, because he's he's hero boy, he's my hero boy I did think that was kind of cool, that I was interesting.
Speaker 3:They didn't give anyone names. You know, it's like hero boy, girl, know-it-all boy, like that. No one had a name conductor, um, but would you, would you say this? I think I mentioned it at the beginning earlier, but I would say this is a such an iconic movie and it deserves to be praised because of the influence it's had. I mean, we there are any city that has a train, like a functioning train turns the train into the Polar Express, like that is just like I have been to multiple cities. Our city here in Chattanooga Chattanooga, ch Choo turns in the Polar Express, takes you to Santa. They play the songs. I think last year we got a ticket to one like in Taylorsville not Taylorsville and somewhere near Asheville, and I mean they're doing the hot chocolate dance down the aisle, you get a cookie. I mean it's just, it's a really cool thing to bring in for christmas. It's really special getting to see all these families together on the train heading to the north pole, and I dig that.
Speaker 2:I think that's really fun and interactive yeah, I, I just gotta be the negative guy. I just think it's a weird movie. I, I, I, yeah, it's not one of those movies that I'm like I, I have to watch during christmas I will.
Speaker 3:okay, I will say you need to go read the book because I kid you not, I cry every single time. I cry when I start flipping the page to the last line. And the same thing with Josh Groban's beautiful song Believe. I think it's so precious, it's sweet and makes me tear up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but after the 15th time they played the instrumental of it in the movie it kind of loses its power to me. I'm just kidding, josh groban is amazing. I will say that's one of my biggest likes, that that song is very, very good, it's very beautiful and it I think that's like what brings the emotion to me when I think of that movie the song. It's not so much the movie itself, because the movie is just I can't get past the weird animation I can't Like. If this is an audiobook it takes me out of feeling anything.
Speaker 3:You were just listening to this as a radio presentation.
Speaker 2:Because partially while I was quote-unquote watching this movie, I had it plugged in to my car so it was kind of cool. It was kind of like I was listening to like an audio book of the movie and I kind of enjoyed it. So maybe I should just do that with all my Caroloo. What.
Speaker 3:I said, Caroloo, I think it's just such a quotable thing. And then, you know, it's kind of like when people write songs about graduation and then you're like, cool, Now you just basically solidified yourself as the graduation song. And for this one you're like they wrote a whole song about hot chocolate. I'm like every child now is just like, when they're drinking hot chocolate, like the hot chocolate song, mommy.
Speaker 2:Brilliant. But since you mentioned the caribou part, I have to mention this. This is, I think, one of the first movies I've ever seen, like when I first saw it.
Speaker 3:It was one of the first movies I ever saw that had almost used adult language, because when he's pulling the guy's beard, he pulls the guy's beard just when he's about to say the A word. Did you notice that? Well, you know what I've already. I mean, I'm going to go Celia on Stitch, but I'm already upset about the fact that there's a curse word in the trailer for the live action. I'm not into language, I agree, but normal kid wouldn't catch that, so it's fine. Anyway, let's rate this bad boy. I sounds like you need to give the animation a separate rating from the movie itself. No, no, no. What would you rate? It's a big part of the polar. What would you rate the Polar Express, the movie?
Speaker 2:See as a Christmas movie. Yes, it's going to get five out of five because it's about Santa Claus. Ok, even though I did say last episode that my Christmas rating is based on does it feel like Christmas if I don't watch this movie? Or does it not feel like Christmas if I don't watch this movie? To me, it will still feel like Christmas if I don't watch this movie. So, based on that rating, I'm going to give the Polar Express I'm sorry, katie a four out of five stars. So, for a general rating, because of the creepiness of the animation and what you admitted yourself, the addition, the things that they added to the movie that didn't really need to be there, like the creepy puppets and the creepy hobo ghost, I'm going to give the Polar Express a 3.5 out of five. And the creepy hobo ghost I'm going to give the Polar Express. I'm going to give the Polar Express a 3.5 out of 5. Oh sorry, polar Express, sorry.
Speaker 2:Thomas you don't have to apologize, you're not the one doing it, it's me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to apologize.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm going to give it a 5 out of 5 for Christmas because it's just, the whole thing is about Christmas and again, because it has become part of Christmas lore in our society that there is the Polar Express. In fact, a friend of ours, a mutual friend of ours, stephen, shout out, stephen works at a big church and they did this. Their whole Christmas event was based on Polar Express. It's just, it's iconic for christmas, I think. So five out of five for christmas. And I have to agree with you the, the creepiness and also the animation was weird. I think it says something that I hadn't watched this movie in almost 20 years. You know, like it was just recently that I started watching it again. So it wasn't, it didn't really get me interested the first time I saw it.
Speaker 2:So did it feel like Christmas every Christmas? You didn't watch it.
Speaker 3:Well now, because there's like a memory with my son and we sing the songs, I feel like it will. It will be that way, so I'm going to give it a four out of five for a movie but, five out of five for Christmas.
Speaker 2:Well, there you go, folks out of five for christmas. Well, there you go, folks. The polar express, the episode that I know you were waiting for. You were really sad when it didn't come out when it was supposed to. So there you go but you know what?
Speaker 2:that's the way things happen on the polar, the polar, the polar express that's not how things should happen on the polar express, because it's a magical train where everything should go smoothly, even though it doesn't in the movie. Anyway, so that's the Polar Express. So now we're moving on to a movie that Katie actually reviewed last Christmas episode, I believe. So what I may do is I may give my thoughts and then splice in Katie's thoughts from that episode. Yeah, I'm not watching it again.
Speaker 2:Take it on. Meet me in St Louis, meet me at the fair. It's a classic movie with classic Judy Garland. But is it fully a Christmas movie? I haven't watched it in forever so I guess I'll see. But I do know it's classic. So that's what I'm going to be talking about next Tuesday on the Couch Critic, where every movie gets its close-up.
Speaker 1:It's not just a movie, it's a way of life. We'll watch it together, day or night, so settle in close and don't miss a flick. This is the moment for the couch.
