THE Polar Express, based on the beloved children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, is a colourful if rather twee fable about the magic of Christmas.

Unfortunately, comparisons with The Incredibles, the festive season's other state-of-the-art computer animated feature, are likely to shunt this vehicle for director Robert Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks into the sidings.

One snowy Christmas Eve, an eight-year-old boy (Tom Hanks) lies awake in his bed waiting excitedly for the sound of the bells on Santa's sleigh.

Having gathered evidence that Father Christmas is a myth perpetrated by adults (newspaper clippings, magazine articles), Hero Boy desperately wants to believe in the icon of the Yuletide season but is afraid that he will be disappointed.

At five minutes to midnight, the youngster's bedroom begins to shake as a deafening roar reverberates throughout the neighbourhood.

A gleaming steam train rumbles to a halt in front of the house.

As Hero Boy races outside, he is met by The Conductor (Hanks again) who invites him to board the train. Destination: the North Pole.

He nervously takes his place in a carriage with several other excited children, including a spirited girl (Nona Gaye), a bespectacled know-it-all (Eddie Deezen) and a lonely boy (Peter Scolari) from a poor family.

The children head through the night towards a magical meeting with elves, Santa Claus and a ghostly hobo.

En route, they have to contend with dancing waiters serving cups of hot chocolate, and perilously icy conditions that threaten to derail the train.

From a technical viewpoint, The Polar Express is stunning.

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

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.

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

The Polar Express is bright and simplistic enough to engage young children but older audiences and parents will probably consider disembarking well before the film reaches the North Pole.

Rating 5/10