IT'S big, it's beautiful and it's certainly seasonal but The Polar Express leaves a few small niggles. It's visually fantastic. I saw it at the Imax in Bristol, where not only do you get a four storey screen and terrific surround sound bit it's in 3D.

I'm sure it's pretty impressive on a regular movie screen too, but there's something extra special about having snowflakes drift towards you, or, seemingly, be inches away from a speeding locomotive.

It's the first ever feature film to be digitally remastered into 3D and released on the same date as in the regular movies and I would certainly recommend a trip to Bristol to see it.

However, both myself and my nine-year-old son Tom felt there was something missing from the movie.

It certainly wasn't schmaltz, there was plenty of that, or Tom Hanks, there was plenty of him.

Perhaps it was the story, based on a classic children's tale by Chris Van Allsburg.

It's not that it's a bad story a youngster is starting to doubt the existence of Mr Claus so a mysterious midnight express whisks him off to meet the big man himself - but it's just not enough to sustain a 100 minute movie.

The plot races from one big action sequence to the next, leaving little time for character development.

What you get is a lot of spectacular set pieces which show off the amazing state-of-the-art animation.

From a technical viewpoint, The Polar Express is stunning.

Using a new motion capture system called Performance Capture, the actors' live action performance are rendered in digital form, driving the emotions and movements of the computer generated performers.

There's no doubt that that's impressive but I did wonder why quite so many of the characters had to be based on and voiced by, Tom Hanks.

He's the gruff but kindly conductor, the mysterious ghostly hobo and Santa himself, to name but a few.

The technique brings an added sheen of realism to the characters; unfortunately, their faces look extremely synthetic, creepily so in the case of some of the children and Santa Claus himself.

And in making them look so close to human, I also wondered why they didn't just use the actors' performances which the graphics were based on.

But gripes aside, The Polar Express is bright and simplistic enough to engage young children.

And if older audiences and parents are likely to enjoy the scenery if nothing else. 8/10

by Jaine Silberberg

THE POLAR EXPRESS

Starring: Tom Hanks, Nona Gaye, Peter Scolari, Eddie Deezen, Charles Fleischer

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Certificate U, 100 minutes