When the children in The Polar Express ring the bell and hear the jingle – a sound that the parents don’t hear because they don’t believe in Santa.
Every time Christmas season comes around, I think about this ringing bell and how it could be connected to nostalgia.
My family and I watch The Polar Express every year for Christmas, the lead up towards watching the movie is more exciting than Christmas itself in recent years – the magic of watching it is filled with nostalgia and remembering every other time I watched it from when I was a kid.
Yet, I seem to forget how bad the graphics are every time I sit down with a cup of hot chocolate to watch it.
Does Nostalgia blind us?
I will admit and say that the graphics for the movie aren’t bad for the era the movie comes from, they’re easy to ignore when watching the train staff dancing around singing for the children on the train and giving them hot chocolate.
It goes to show the strength of the story in The Polar Express – the feeling of Christmas cheer drawing me in enough to dismiss that it feels like I am watching something from more than 20 years ago, hearing “Ticket please” for days afterwards in my ears.
A part of me is glad for the graphics being the way they are, it reminds me that this movie has been around for my whole childhood and that there is effort put into the movie being made.
The graphics to me don’t matter if the movies plot is good and The Polar Express isn’t only good but brilliant, which is only my opinion.
An opinion that is steeped in nostalgia for a movie from my childhood and the memories that I associate with it. Bad graphics wouldn’t stop me from watching this movie or in this instance it’s more old graphics than bad graphics.
With a bowl of popcorn, a cup of hot chocolate, and gathering my family together, I can’t wait to watch The Polar Express for another year this Christmas.
Feature Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
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2nd year - History and Journalism student
