The Polar Express
Chris Van Allsburg

What is the most interactive medium of all?

A rich, wise man in Silicon Valley --- so rich he did not need to offer up the kneejerk response: “online media” --- had the right answer:

A person in a chair, reading a book.

Butler instinctively knew that was right. As, surely, do you. For we have all had that magic experience of opening a book and entering a drama of knights and knaves, princes and goddesses. This world? We've left it. We are living the book.

But Butler would go one step further:

The most interactive medium of all is a person in a chair, reading a book to a child.

These musings came to mind this morning, when Butler's eye chanced upon a review of the film version of “The Polar Express,” the Chris van Allsburg book that has delighted kids and reduced parents to tears for almost two decades. “A grave and disappointing failure, as much of imagination as of technology,” the Times reviewer opined. Another critic was even more deadly, declaring the film “an advertisement for the Runaway Polar Express theme-park attraction surely coming soon to a Six Flags near you."

Never trust critics --- totally, anyway. But still, these notices were filled with clues. One: There's not enough story in a 32-page picture-and-text book to fuel a feature-length movie. And two: When that movie is animated, using the latest technology, you just know that its creators are going to lay on the special effects.

It's always sad when Hollywood makes a $150-million film that falters for such obvious reasons. But Hollywood 's loss is your gain --- the book is still a classic, and it will provide you and yours with a never-to-be forgotten experience..

How could it not be? On Christmas Eve, a father tells his son that there's no Santa Claus. Later that night, a train packed with children stops in front of a boy's house. He hops on and travels to the North Pole, where Santa offers him the first toy of Christmas. The boy chooses a reindeer's bell. On the way home, he loses it. How he finds it and what that means --- that's where you reach for the Kleenex.

A simple story. A timeless story, and on purpose --- as Van Allsburg has said, “ If you opened up my books and there was no copyright page, you wouldn't be able to tell exactly when it was published.” It's precisely because the illustrations do not anchor us to our time, our town, that we can deal more directly with the theme of the book.

That theme is belief. Not in Santa, though that will do just fine for kids. Belief in really big things, things we hope are true even in the face of all the information that says they are not. Again, Van Allsburg: “We can believe that extraordinary things can happen. We can believe fantastic things that might happen. Or we can believe that what we see is what we get. But if all that I believe in is what I can see, then the world is a smaller, less interesting place.”

Butler believes in magic. Butler believes in miracles. That is the baseline of all the greatest spiritual stories ---the impossible happens. And you can't explain it. Except, perhaps, as C.S. Lewis does: “ Miracles only occur to people who believe in them.”

So as your holiday gift to yourself, buy the book. Not the ‘special edition” with the bell and the CD and Lord knows what else. The basic book. Because it's all you need. And then, of course, find a child. And settle in your chair. And start to read. Before you know it, your eyes will mist, you'll be reaching for the Kleenex, and --- and this is the best part of all, especially for the sophisticated and the hard of heart and the bitterly disappointed --- you will believe.

--- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com

To buy "The Polar Express" from Amazon.com, click here.

Copyright 2004 by Head Butler Inc.