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'The Polar Express': Music Captures the Magic of a Timeless Holiday Classic

Bringing the awe and wonder of a classic Christmas tale to the big screen is a daunting proposition for even the most visionary of cinema artists. Expectations run high and it's all too easy to fall short of the movie that most fans have already played out in their imaginations.

When the classic in question is the beloved Chris Van Allsberg book, "The Polar Express," the stakes are even higher. There are few examples in all of literature that better capture a child's view of the holiday, with all its attendant enchantments and astonishments. Simply put, when tackling a film version of a story so universally known and loved, you better get it right.

It was an injunction foremost in the mind of Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis when he set about assembling the creative team that would bring "The Polar Express" to theaters this Christmas season. First and foremost among the myriad elements that would go into recreating the magic of "The Polar Express" was music.

In conjunction with a cutting edge motion-capture technology called "performance capture" that stretches the envelope of what modern digital animation can express both visually and emotionally, Zemeckis employed a broad aural palate to both help tell the story and enhance the gorgeous visual components of the film. Small wonder that his first choice in musical collaborators would be Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard.

Between them, Silvestri and Ballard have a movie and music resume that reads like a virtual encyclopedia of A-list entertainment. Acclaimed film score composer Silvestri's portfolio includes "Back To The Future," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Forest Gump," "Contact" and "Cast Away" among his most conspicuous credits... and those only count his work with Zemeckis. Multi-Grammy winning producer and songwriter Glen Ballard has been front and center on a host of multi-platinum releases, including chart-topping hits by Alanis Morissette, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Shakira, Christina Aguilera and literally dozens of others.

"Of course Alan and Robert had worked extensively together," explains Ballard, "which turned out to be a great advantage for me, since I was able to plug right into an existing creative relationship. But the real luxury was being involved in the project almost from the inception."

"I've done eleven films with Bob and this one was unique in that we began thinking about the music even before the script was finished," adds Silvestri. "It was a very fluid process, which mirrored the process of developing a whole film from a very slim children's book. Bob had created almost a stream-of-consciousness story treatment, but if there's one thing I've learned from working with him over the years, it's that even when it seems like he's just brainstorming, he's really telling you exactly what he wants. At one point he suggested that maybe we should have a song about hot chocolate, so we went off and wrote 'Hot Chocolate.' The work was very intuitive, but at the same time very focused."

It was the kind of hands-on involvement what would result in a near seamless musical mesh between the film itself and the songs written around it. "The intent from the very beginning was to create music that would not only augment what was on the screen, but actually help to tell the story," Ballard continues. "We focused in on moments in the plot where a song could express both what the character was feeling and where the action was taking the audience. It was a challenge, but it was also incredibly exciting to be so directly linked to the evolution of the whole project."

"If we had a mandate," remarks Silvestri, "something we heard over and over, it was to think about classic Christmas songs and to try and capture the spirit that made them timeless. That's a tall order. Fortunately, we were working in an atmosphere of complete trust and freedom, which allowed us to really reach for the sky. Bob was operating on that very hazy line between reality and a dream and we just followed his lead."

For Ballard and Silvestri, as with the rest of "The Polar Express" team, what mattered most was staying true to the elusive and ephemeral spirit of the book. "This is a holiday story," Ballard asserts, "but in another way it really transcends genre. There's quiet beauty here, as well as something slightly dark. In other words, it's not your usual Christmas tinsel. The journey that the audience goes on is much greater than a train trip to the North Pole. It touches on both the happiness and sadness of the season, an ambivalence that, for many, is part of a very emotionally complicated time. All of that was what we wanted to embody in the songs we wrote."

"We understood going in that we needed to embrace the spirit of the season," Silvestri observes. "But more than just a Christmas story, "The Polar Express" is about belief, about losing it and finding it and that was the real challenge of composing these songs. In a very real sense we were writing the music of the bell, which is the sound of belief."

Ballard, Silvestri and Zemickis had some notable assistance in achieving that goal as the soundtrack took shape. "We wrote two songs, the title track and 'Hot Chocolate' which were sung by Tom Hanks, who stars in the film," explains Ballard. "On a song called 'Believe' we were lucky enough to get Josh Groban and Steven Tyler agreed to perform 'Rockin' On Top Of The World.' It just doesn't get any better than that."

Indeed it doesn't. Also included on "The Polar Express: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" is an Alan Silvestri performance of "Spirit Of The Season" and "When Christmas Comes To Town" sung by Matthew Hall and Meagan Moore. "Suite From The Polar Express" and "Seeing Is Believing," a pair of orchestral compositions by Silvestri, round out the film's original music.

"My previous film work has largely been in scoring," remarks Silvestri. "This was the first time I really got involved in writing stand-alone songs, because, in one sense, this film borders on being a musical. For an old rock and roll drummer and guitarist, it felt like coming full circle. But this is also a pure Christmas experience, which meant that we also wanted to touch on the familiar and beloved musical traditions of the season." To that end, the soundtrack also spotlights "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Winter Wonderland" by The Andrews Sisters, Kate Smith's "Silver Bells," "It's Beginning To A Lot Look Like Christmas" as performed by Perry Como and The Fontaine Sisters, Frank Sinatra's rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters.

"None of us involved in this project have ever painted by the numbers," Ballard concludes. "We had a real responsibility to take a story beloved by so many millions and bring something fresh and new to it. Along the way, I think we also discovered new ways to make music an integral part of the film going experience."