What's the Difference between The Polar Express the Book and The Polar Express the Movie?
| In the Book |
In the Movie |
The Conductor
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The Conductor
Portrayed by: Tom Hank
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The Hero Boy
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The Hero Boy
Portrayed by: Tom Hank
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Mother
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Mother
Portrayed by: Leslie Zemeckis
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Father
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Father
Portrayed by: Tom Hanks
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This Character does not appear.
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Hobo
Portrayed by: Tom Hanks
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The Polar Express Book vs Movie
| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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The little boy is told by a friend that there is no Santa, but he wants to believe. |
He has doubts of his own and has collected clippings that prove there is no Santa. |
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The boy sees the conductor from his window and tip toes out of his room downstairs. |
He hears the train and runs down stairs and outside to see the train. He sees the conductor after a few minutes.
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The boy is helped onto the train by the conductor. |
The boy initially declines to get on the train, but after a moment he reconsiders and runs and jumps onto the moving train. |
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The children eat nougat filled treats with Hot Chocolate. |
They only drink hot chocolate.
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The train never slows down on its journey to the North Pole. |
There are a few stops along the way. Another boy gets on after the first boy hits the emergency brake so he can get on. Train stops when there are many caribou on the tracks. And the train also stops on the middle of a lake after being out of control. |
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The children arrive and see Santa with the sleigh filled with toys. |
The children enter the factory and follow a present and end up inside Santa's sack of toys.
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The boy hears the bells on Santa's sleigh. |
He can't hear the bells. One flies off and it lands near him. He picks it up and tells himself to believe and then he can hear it. |
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The conductor puts the boy up on Santa's knee to receive the first gift of Christmas. |
He is carried by the elves and doesn't sit on Santa's lap. He stands in his sleigh.
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The boy asks for a bell and Santa gets one of the elves to cut a bell from the sleigh and throws it to him. |
The bell falls off before the boy is chosen. He gives the bell back to Santa before asking for it as a gift which Santa does. |
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This doesn't happen. |
There is a ghostly figure riding on top of the train who gives advice and help to the boy.
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There are no tickets. |
The conductor punches all the children's tickets with meaningful words. |
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The one boy is the only part of the story. |
There are three other children who are part of the story. The little girl who is a leader, Billy the poor boy, and the know it all who wants all the presents.
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