Arthur Christmas Review

Arthur Christmas: is it a festive sequel to Russell Brand’s comedy remake? Or has Arthur the Aardvark finally made it to the big screen? Or is it in fact a seasonal Aardman animation about a dysfunctional family on Christmas Eve who just so happen to be the Christmases – as in Father Christmas (though their surname is apparently interchangeable with Claus). It is the latter. The Christmas family, as you might expect, deliver presents to all the children in the world on Christmas Eve. This is done using highly advanced technology, not least of all a city-sized, sleigh-shaped spaceship. Unfortunately, despite all of the Christmas’s technical ingenuity, one child’s present fails to be delivered, so hapless youngest son Arthur takes it upon himself to get the gift to her himself.

The whole ‘how Santa does it’ theme has been visited regularly enough to almost be a genre in itself. Fred Claus, The Santa Clause films andThe Polar Express have all visited this idea and more recently Hop took a similar approach with the Easter bunny story (such as it is). As such, much of what should be inventive and amusing about the film falls a little flat. Arthur Christmas’s commando elves are akin to Hop’s commando rabbits and images of vast present production lines have been done before in The Polar Express to name two such instances. That said, the volume of fun ideas is such that for every miss, there is a hit – I laughed at the suggestion that the space-sleigh converts milk and cookies to biofuel, for example. Keep your eyes peeled for the hundreds of visual gags scattered throughout the film.

Whilst the film boasts an impressive array of British vocal talents – James McAvoy, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent head up a list of names often associated with British ensemble casts and are complemented by the likes of Hugh Laurie, Ashley Jensen and others – McAvoy as the titular character is often incredibly annoying. He whines, whinges and squawks, frequently repeating his inane blabbering ad nauseam. Fortunately the other characters are far less tedious. Nighy’s grouchy granddad, Jensen’s resourceful elf and Imelda Staunton’s composed Mrs Santa are all fun to watch.

On the whole, Arthur Christmas is a pretty enjoyable and often fairly funny adventure that should tide over younger viewers until at least New Year. The film is also witty enough and put together with a level of care and skill that should also satisfy – if not enthral – older viewers too. I’m concerned girls might not enjoy it as much as boys though; the film is a bit of a sausage fest. Whilst the idea of succession is one of the slightly more complex and interesting ideas the film plays with, what might have been more interesting still – and more importantly, fun – would have been to pursue the idea of a female Santa taking over the family business. If it’s now good enough for the Royals…