Synopsis: On Christmas day, a boy takes a train to the North Pole; in it there are several other children; on the way they go through many adventures.
Appraisal: At one scene, a girl looks through the train window to a toy store and says: "Oh, look! It's all so Christmassy, and cozy [...]" That scene sums this film up in what pertains to its text, a veritable ode to everything bourgeois and materialistic as embodied in the Christmas tradition. Even the usual hypocritical discourse is reproduced without flaw (the same girl, now speaking for the virtues of Christmas): "It's a time for giving." Needless to say, everyone in the movie is thinking only of receiving. In the end, every kid receives moral directions issued by the train conductor, which might as well be coming from Mussolini himself: "Lead" to the girl, "Believe" to the boy, and so on. The film proceeds like that, with an unflinching solemnity which relaxes on rare occasions to give way to a clumsy sense of humor e.g. in the sequence with the tap-dancing waiters. The striking visual design, coupled with the technique of reproducing live actors in animated form, is what saves the film from complete worthlessness; if you are willing to disregard the dull text and enjoy the film strictly as a visual entity, it may offer some enjoyment for you.
Rating: 38
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