Jump to content

The Polar Express


GRDadof3

Recommended Posts

Speaking of The Polar Express in the retail thread, this movie is now a holiday classic just like Rudolph, Frosty, It's a Wonderful Life and all the rest. It's been on the networks once already, and I believe it's scheduled to be on again at least once more before Christmas. I've probably seen this move 1/2 a dozen times now with the kids, but it's really cool to watch it and see all the Grand Rapids mentions, and now probably every year here on out:

) Chris Van Allsburg's childhood home in the beginning, which is apparently somewhere near Breton Downs Elementary. The street, the houses, the boy's house both interior and exterior are all computer-modeled directly off of the original home. You can totally picture yourself in some neighborhood around Breton, or Mulick Park, or many other Southeast side or EGR neighborhoods.

) While the train is rolling out of GR, it passes Herpolscheimer's Department Store and it's storefront Christmas display

) When the kids are in the North Pole factory toward the end, the one kid finds a package and says something like "This one is going to Grand Rapids, Michigan!! This one is for me!!".

(turn off your volume if you don't want to hear the song :D )

It'd be interesting to figure out the exact street that it's on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 10
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Christmas and trains go hand in hand :) The locomotive in the film was modeled off of the Pere Marquette 1225. I remember hearing somewhere that they wanted to roll the train into Grand Rapids from Owosso (where it runs excursions) for that red carpet event -- that would have kicked butt.

Here's a Wiki of the facinating history of the 1225.

History of Pere Marquette

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Muskegon Main Street has shown the Polar Express for the last two years, and will again this year, as part of our Holiday Movie Festival at the historic Frauenthal Theater. This year we will also have a working Polar Express model train running in the lobby owned by one of the board members of the Muskegon Railroad Historical society. Also two of their members will be dressed as conductors and punching kids tickets as they enter the theater. Someone suggested we do that last year and I had never seen the movie or know the significance of the ticket puncher. I can truly tell you it is a magical experience to watch the movie is such great surroundings.

Link to Holiday Movie info

GRdad you mentioned a few mentions of GR ties to the movie. I would love to see a comprehensive list of these ties. I have to believe there are more than the three you mentioned. . . .

Yah, someone announced they were going to come to GR before Jacksonville approved it. Not a good idea to "assume" you have permission from a big corporation until you actually have it in hand.

PS: I can do the conductor impersonation if you need one :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Muskegon Main Street has shown the Polar Express for the last two years, and will again this year, as part of our Holiday Movie Festival at the historic Frauenthal Theater. This year we will also have a working Polar Express model train running in the lobby owned by one of the board members of the Muskegon Railroad Historical society. Also two of their members will be dressed as conductors and punching kids tickets as they enter the theater. Someone suggested we do that last year and I had never seen the movie or know the significance of the ticket puncher. I can truly tell you it is a magical experience to watch the movie is such great surroundings.

Link to Holiday Movie info

GRdad you mentioned a few mentions of GR ties to the movie. I would love to see a comprehensive list of these ties. I have to believe there are more than the three you mentioned. . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the IMAX would be great. A quick check of the Celebration website doesn't list any more showings. Are they done for the season? I remember hearing the ads on the radio.

Apparently a few more West Michigan links:

http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michig...es-to-michigan/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338348/trivia

Also, the movie premiere was held in GR. As RDD mentioned, seeing it in IMAX is pretty wild!

Chris Van Allsburg's work is showing at the new GRAM right now through Jan. 20th. He illustrated the entire book too, and there are also works from his books/movies Jumanji and Zathura. It reminds me a lot of Escher's work.

http://www.gramonline.org/exhibitions/future/index.html

Van Allsburg Image Gallery

Escher Image Gallery

burdick.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My understanding is that the buildings at the North Pole were modelled after many of the buildings in downtown GR: both the ones that are still standing as well as buildings that have been torn down.

If you watch the images in that section, you can get a feel for the similarities. Pretty cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

) Chris Van Allsburg's childhood home in the beginning, which is apparently somewhere near Breton Downs Elementary. The street, the houses, the boy's house both interior and exterior are all computer-modeled directly off of the original home. You can totally picture yourself in some neighborhood around Breton, or Mulick Park, or many other Southeast side or EGR neighborhoods.

It'd be interesting to figure out the exact street that it's on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, there's an ad out showing GRAM's movie offerings, and Polar Express will be shown some weekend. Seems like it was the 22nd. Included with (full-price) admission.

The following weekend, after Christmas, is a film that appears to be based on the impromptu Christmas Day truce which happened during WWI. John McCutcheon's song "Christmas in the Trenches" tells the story...if you pull this up on-line, have tissues handy. http://play.rhapsody.com/johnmccutcheon/wa...playBounce=true

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.