<P> Castle Rock Entertainment produced the film in association with Shangri - La Entertainment, ImageMovers, Playtone, and Golden Mean for Warner Bros. Pictures, as Castle Rock's first animated production . The visual effects and performance capture were done at Sony Pictures Imageworks . The film was made with a budget of $165 million, a record - breaking sum for an animated feature at the time . </P> <P> The film was released in both conventional and IMAX 3D theaters on November 10, 2004 . It grossed $309 million worldwide, and was later listed in the 2006 Guinness World Book of Records as the first all - digital capture film . The film also marks Michael Jeter's last acting role before his death, and the film was thus dedicated to his memory . </P> <P> On the night of Christmas Eve, a Grand Rapids, Michigan boy is growing bitterly skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus . As he struggles to sleep, he is roused by the arrival of a steam locomotive on the street outside his home, and dons his robe to investigate, tearing the robe's pocket as he retrieves it . Outside, the train's conductor (Tom Hanks) introduces the train as the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole . The boy initially declines to board, but jumps aboard the train as it pulls away . </P> <P> In a passenger car, he befriends a spirited and amicable girl, and a condescending know - it - all . The train stops to pick up an impoverished child, Billy, who also declines to board; Billy changes his mind, and the boy applies the emergency brake to allow him to catch up to the train, much to the conductor's chagrin . As Billy sits alone in the train's rear dining car, hot chocolate is served in the passenger car, and the girl saves her hot chocolate for Billy . As she and the conductor cross to the dining car, the boy notices she left her ticket behind unpunched, but loses hold of the ticket between the cars when he attempts to return it . The ticket reenters the passenger car, but not before the conductor notices its absence and escorts the girl back to the rear car . </P>

Who plays the train conductor in polar express