This movie has great camera angles that to me, make movie viewing “fresh.”  An example is when the boy picks up the bell that fell off Santa’s sleigh and the camera shows the boy picking up the bell from “beneath the ground” angle.  That is, you are looking up at the boy rather than watching him from the side or from the top angle.  The thin sheet of ice as you look up is a great shot.

Not only that, what the bell represents is another level grown-ups understand too clearly.

Also, this movie has a different “animation” look to it that reminds me of the HBO "Animated tales from around the World" shows that my kids like to watch. 

Moreover, for my four-year old and six-year old, this movie is a nice change from the usual fare of “guns shooting bullets or lasers, crashes of monsters, buildings and cars, or explosions of some kind.  While these PG and PG-13 movies have good qualities, Polar Express is a welcome change.

There are scenes that can be scary to the kids—the scene where the train car is full of discarded toys including the puppet that talks to the boy and the homeless person on top of the train.

If you like action, you'll get that, too, with the train skating scene.  If you enjoy the pacing of "About Schmidt" type movies, you'll have that in this movie also.