Children's Book to Feature Film # 1- The Polar Express

In the story The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, a young boy boards the Polar Express on Christmas Eve night to journey with other children to the North Pole. The tradition is that the boys and girls get to see Santa leave the North Pole for his Christmas Eve activities. Then, Santa will choose one boy or girl to receive the first gift of Christmas. Santa chooses the boy in the story to receive the first gift. The boy asks Santa for a bell off his sleigh. Santa gives the boy the bell, which he puts into the pocket of his robe. Somewhere along the way home, the bell falls through a hole in the boy’s pocket. When the boy and his sister are opening presents on Christmas morning, the boy had a surprise waiting for him. Santa delivered the bell that the boy had lost.

In 2004, Chris van Allsburg’s story was made into a feature film. While the storyline remains very similar, scenes and characters are added to make the story into a full length feature film. The conductor has a much larger role in the movie than he does in the book. Some scenes, such as when the children are severed hot chocolate, were shown as a musical number in the movie. The movie also included a new problem - a ticket to the Polar Express was lost. Even though the movie is slightly different than the book children love it just as much and are always mesmerized by the story pages that seem come to life on the big screen.