It’s too short!

Fine… I guess I can do better than that… The 2004 Christmas hit, The Polar Express, has a runtime of 1h and 40min. This puts it on par with a lot of other Christmas movies that are mostly aimed at children such as Elf, Arthur Christmas, and A Christmas Carol, which all have a very similar runtime.

Considering how popular this movie is in my household, I really wish there was an extended Lord of the Rings-style director’s cut. Our family would happily sit through a 4h version of this magical film, sipping on hot chocolate and cuddling up in our pyjamas.

The Polar Express was first shown at the 40th Chicago International Film Festival in October 2004 and was released in theatres for the general public in November of that year. It earned about $23.3 million during its opening weekend. The film was released on DVD and VHS in November 2005, and it was later released on Blu-ray. It was also released in Anaglyph 3D Blu-ray in 2008 and in full Blu-ray 3D in 2010.

While there are plenty of options for watching it here in the UK, hardcore fans like us would recommend having the DVD and soundtrack on hand, just in case the streaming gods go ahead and do something silly like take it off the air!