We took the kids to the matinee. Four is a bit young for movies I thought going in. Fourty-one is a bit young for movies I felt leaving. The volume was incredibly high but the seats were very high in the back so I sort of braced myself fairly comfortably through the visual and audio onslaught. By the end I was exhausted...but that is why I avoid movies. They are the crack Psyops troops for consumerism.

At parts the cartooning was very good, especially the frozen lake scene. Other times, especially with some of the facial expressions it was poor and distracting. We were familiar with the children's story on which it is based and Tom Hank's voice is not as irritating as it might be if you actually saw all 23 of the movies he shows up in in a year. There was an interesting but not fully resolved hobo character - this is a train movie after all - and one embarrassing scene lasting 5 seconds near the end involving former drug addicts (the least of their wrongs) and their continuing public rehabilitation. Most disconcerting was the main charater's resemblance to my buddy Art (Ed.: as illustrated) and the obvious failure of that face to let loose on a string of ripe sewer talk at anytime during the movie.

I would never go see it again. My life was changed little.