The Polar Express - "Mystery Letters" Explained

When I was looking into all the special features and the different versions of Polar Express, I came across Reddit threads wondering HOW the letters on the Ticket would change if they rewound the scene!

Well, I dived into the DVD and here's the reason why. There are three languages encoded on the DVD. BUT, beyond just different audio tracks, DVD authoring allows for multiple "angles" of a particular scene. So the majority of the movie is the same, but a pre-selected angle will be SET depending on the language you pick:
English - Angle 1
French - Angle 2
Spanish - Angle 3

Then, at the appropriate moment on the movie, you seamlessly are given a different angle and you see different letters depending on the eventual languages that will show up on the ticket itself! Very cool. I'm not sure why DVD playback is such that rewinding a scene can break the angle pre-selected at the menu... but that is why you could be watching in English, but 2nd or 3rd watching's of a scene seem to cycle through the different angles.

I think this is the coolest thing, though, that DVD's could do... and also not implemented on many movies. But those that used it to the advantage I'm now going to start pointing out in my Art of the DVD looks.

You actually have 3 slightly different versions of the movie packed onto the same DVD with this branching angle setup. If you were to choose a language on a streaming service... I imagine they'd have to have the entire thing encoded for that language - so 3 completely different versions on the server.

Hope you found this fun too.