I Believe in Santa

I watched The Polar Express tonight. It isn't something I normally would have turned on - but someone brought up the theological implications of what the movie's saying about belief and reality, so I had to turn it on and see for myself.

The claim I was given before watching was, if I remember correctly (and I might not, in which case, I apologize), that the movie seemed to say that a thing was real because you believed in it. There would, as far as I'm concerned, definitely be something wrong with this message.

However I have to respectfully disagree (if, again, I am correctly remembering the thought) that this is what the movie says. Santa and everything accompanying him exist before the boy finally says that he believes; before he is able to see Santa or hear the sleigh bells. The things of the north pole are all around him, yet his disbelief - his lack of faith - separates him from the reality of Santa. Once he believes, and for as long afterward as he does believe, he is able to hear the sleigh bells, to recognize/hear something that is very much real despite the disbelief of others. It seems to me to be a very sound theological basis. What is real is there whether you believe it is or not.

Granted, I don't know what to make of the one boy who never experienced Christmas until he got on the Polar Express. He did seem to believe before, but had become discouraged as Santa - what, ignored him? - and then his being on the train made his house suddenly decorated. Was he being tested? Did he have to believe anyway before he would be rewarded for his enduring faith with a tree and a present? I suppose in a certain level it fits in, you know, enduring through suffering even when God (right, Santa, the movie was Santa) feels distant and his presence isn't so obvious, but... again. Why? I got a theology degree so that I could sit around and over-analyze children's movies.. I don't think the people making the movie actually intended to include so much meaning here. Or maybe they did. Either way I'm confused as to why it was included.*

Oh, and the style of animation bothers me, but this style always has. It's a nice enough movie otherwise. You know, for someone not trying to over-analyze it. Possibly also for someone with kids to watch it with instead of a sleeping dog. Or maybe that's just me.

*This was a book first, if I recall. If this was in the book, then I'm more confused about why the author included it. Let's give credit where it's due.