The Polar Express Is NOT Appropriate For Kids, According To Reddit

There are countless classic Christmas movies that everyone flocks to at the end of every year. One of the more recent additions to this holiday entertainment catalog is "The Polar Express." Released just shy of two decades ago, the animated film brings a unique take to the Santa Claus saga with a heavy dose of Tom Hanks added in for good measure. Many see the movie as a fun, family-friendly, nostalgic experience. But a significant number of Reddit users have definitively decided that the movie is not appropriate for younger audiences — even if that's clearly the primary demographic it caters to.

A Reddit thread set up in the wake of the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday ferociously attacked the wholesome aura surrounding "The Polar Express." The thread, which was created by u/lawless_k, is bluntly titled "The Polar Express is awful," and it kicked off the anti-Christmas frivolities by stating, "My 2 year old loves trains, so I thought the polar express would be a great Christmas movie to watch. Boy was I wrong. It's terrifying."

From there, u/lawless_k went on a surgical tirade, attacking everything from the film's unsettling animation style to the fear tactics and manipulation used by adults on children throughout the film. The conductor was equated to an angry, abusive dad and accused of red-flag behavior. Even the process of boarding children on the train was compared to a lesson in kidnapping. The initial post ends with the line, "So icky. Don't show this movie to children. It makes that creepy behaviour seem acceptable," the user wrote.

The aforementioned assault on the credibility of a modern Christmas entertainment staple was backed up by plenty of other Reddit users. They even opened up the floor to critiques and judgments beyond the family-friendly nature of "The Polar Express," generally highlighting all its shortcomings. One highly upvoted response from u/RiflemanLax read, "Who else feels guilty because they want to punch the annoying kid with glasses in the face the whole time?" u/fivetwoeightoh concisely criticized the film with the line, "Uncanny Valley is in full effect with this one."

u/cgdavidb claims to have worked on the film as a young, up-and-coming VFX artist. If the user's story is true, it only adds to the creepy nature of the film's anti-kiddo analysis. They reported that during production, all of the actors' blinking was removed from the final animation. Elves were given excessively rosy cheeks, too, which led the user to conclude, "This resulted in the elves looking alcoholic."

Further down, a couple of others finally brought a bit of balance to the disparaging nature of the dogpiling conversation. u/Madnarg said, "Just say you don't like it. Your criticisms are valid but you're trying to frame it with forced outrage like it's somehow dangerous. 'Don't show it to children', 'giving abusive dad vibes', 'red flags' – dramatic overreaction. We all need to spend less time on Reddit and TikTok." Fair enough. Similarly, u/peter095837 cut to the chase by simply stating, "I still love the movie." Nuff said. 

Apparently, u/lawless_k's opinion isn't universally agreed on. But there's no doubt that their criticisms resonate with many disturbed adult viewers.