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

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.