The soundtrack to
Robert Zemeckis' groundbreaking film adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's popular children's book The Polar Express celebrates the season with both classic and contemporary holiday flair. Composers
Glen Ballard and
Alan Silvestri provide the latter, relying on swelling choral arrangements, tender ballads, and polarizing yuletide offerings from Stephen Tyler and
Josh Groban. Tyler struts his stuff on the amiable but derivative "Rockin' on Top of the World," a three-chord rave-up that finds the
Aerosmith mouthpiece channeling a pack of howler monkeys, but it's
Groban's syrupy, future American Idol favorite "Believe" that serves as the soundtrack's commercial centerpiece.
Tom Hanks does his best Gene Wilder on the whimsical and strangely unnerving title track, a wonderfully unhinged performance that will have Willy Wonka fans clamoring for more, and the winsome vocals of preteens Matthew Hall and Meagan Moore give the ballad "When Christmas Comes to Town" a real sense of wonder.
Silvestri's orchestral pieces are effective in tone, yet ape
Danny Elfman's Edward Scissorhands theme so shamelessly that lawyers on both sides must have had words early on in the production.
The Polar Express is ambitious for sure, but the fact that its most sincere pieces are the six classics that make up its caboose is telling. [The 2004 edition included bonus tracks.] ~ James Christopher Monger