The Polar Express – Picture: Warner Brothers Pictures
The Polar Express has for many become a Christmas staple being on the must-watch list. A dozen regions of Netflix are streaming The Polar Express for Christmas 2021 and we’ll take you through where you can watch them and if you can’t on Netflix, where you’ll find it streaming instead.
Set on Christmas Eve, The Polar Express follows a young boy who is losing faith in Christmas. He boards The Polar Express which makes its way to the North Pole.
Among the voice cast for the movie includes Tom Hanks, Leslie Zemeckis, Eddie Deezen, Josh Hutcherson, Michael Jeter, and Nona Gaye.
Although some argue that the movie falls into the uncanny valley effect The Polar Express did go on to gain 3 Oscar nominations when it was released in 2004 which is now 17 years ago.
Why isn’t The Polar Express on Netflix in the United States?
Back in 2020, you were able to stream The Polar Express on Netflix US. It was added on April 1st, 2020 but swiftly departed a few months later in July 2020.
To understand what movies stream where and why you need to look at who owns the license. In the case of The Polar Express, Warner Brothers own the distribution rights so, therefore, essentially chooses where the movie streams. It often lends it out to other providers in 3-month stints.
We were expecting Warner Brothers to stop licensing out the movie and keep it for its own HBO Max service which launched in May 2020. To date, though, that’s not happened.
As per previous years, Netflix’s DVD service does still carry the movie so you can rent from there.
Is The Polar Express on Netflix in other regions?
In the United Kingdom, the movie is once again streaming on NowTV for the holiday season as per previous years. You can also watch in the United Kingdom if you have a Sky Movies subscription.
Although Netflix Australia held the movie for Christmas 2022, that’s not the case in 2021.
A dozen Netflix regions currently hold the movie for Christmas 2021 (down from 20 regions in 2022 and down from 17 in 2019).
According to Unogs, the regions streaming the Polar Express in 2021 includes:
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- France
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Japan
- The Netherlands
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Switzerland
Let us know in the comments if you wanted to watch The Polar Express on Netflix.