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Movie · Fantasy, Action, Animated · 2004 · G

The Polar Express: parents' guide

6+our pick

Best for ages 6 and up. Rated G.

A visually striking holiday adventure that is more intense than its G rating suggests, best for early grade-schoolers watching with a parent. There is no language, romance or substance content to worry about. The concern is pace and mood: the train races down steep grades, skids across cracking ice, and children dangle from or run along the roofs of moving cars. A ghostly hobo appears and vanishes, and a scene in a dark car full of broken toys features a taunting Scrooge puppet. The motion-capture faces strike some kids as eerie, so we suggest 6 rather than younger.

What's in it

Violence

None

No fights, weapons or injuries. Characters face a great deal of danger aboard the runaway train, but nobody is hurt; that intensity is described under frightening.

Language

None

No profanity. The strongest words are 'heck' and an elf calling someone a 'meshuggener,' a Yiddish word for a crazy person.

Sex and nudity

None

No romantic or sexual content of any kind. The children on the train are friends looking out for one another, nothing more.

Drinking, drugs and smoking

None

No alcohol, smoking or drugs. The only drink of note is hot chocolate, served by dancing waiters in a lively musical number.

Scary or intense scenes

Moderate

Sustained peril: a runaway train plunges down mountains and nearly sinks through lake ice, a boy leaps between moving cars, and a ghostly hobo comes and goes. A Scrooge marionette taunts a boy among discarded, humanlike toys in a dark car.

Worth talking about

The boy has to decide whether to believe in something he cannot see; ask your child what they believe in and why it matters to them.

Where to stream →

On our lists

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Checked October 24th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, bbfc.co.uk, movieguide.org, childrenandmedia.org.au, Dove. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.