The Polar Express

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The Polar Express Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Hero Boy jumps into the car with coal and then gets out of it, the coal doesn't leave any marks or stains on his body or clothes.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When the Hero Girl's ticket has blown outside the train and comes back in and rests on an air intake, in the following shots it disappears and reappears.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Throughout the movie, the number of cars on the train changes, from just three, to as many as eleven plus. This is most obvious when the hobo and Boy are skiing on the roofs of the cars.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Hero Boy is skiing the Hobo atop the train, the camera angle pans several times. At one point, the view is from the front of the train, showing the engine and the two fellows are on the third car, with two cars between them and the engine. Subsequent pans show them jumping at least three more times, and traveling on more than just two cars.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Know-It-All states that the train is a Baldwin 2-8-4 locomotive built in 1931. The Polar Express was modeled from plans of Pere Marquette 1225 which is a 2-8-4 type built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1941.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): The moment the train crosses the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees and 33 minutes North it arrives at the "North Pole" which is located an additional 23.45 degrees north (A fairly lengthy distance). This is not important, as the place can be called North Pole with poetic license, as it's close enough.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The first time the Boy goes downstairs on Christmas eve there is a red snowman skirt on the tree. Then on Christmas morning, as the train is going around the tree the skirt on the tree is yellow kind of color and has bells on it.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): The controls, brakes, and other machinery on the train are set up in ways that don't make sense, but that's because it's pure fantasy.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When the elves are helping the children out of Santa's sack the elves move and motion as if they are getting the "know it all" out of the sack, but there is no boy between them.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Whenever the train is shown during the movie, all the car's windows are fully lit from the inside. However, when the car containing the damaged and unwanted toys is shown in an interior shot, it is very dark and unlit.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the Conductor takes the Girl who has lost her ticket to the engine, they walk along the tops of the coaches rather than simply remaining inside. This makes no sense.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When the elves are first seen, there is an elf that is moving (translating) left to right in front of the train with all the others, but the elf's body is rigid and lifeless, like a toy being slid across the floor. Possibly the computer animation for moving the elf from left to right was correct, but the algorithm for animating the body motion (walking, swinging arms, etc.) was stopped.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): When the train runs into the caribou, the noise they are making is actually that of elk.