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Aardman's latest offering, Arthur Christmas, boasts a sharp script, a great voice cast, and well deserves a festive trip to the cinema this year
There’s an expectation, one quite possibly one with some truth to it, that audiences are willing to lower the bar come Christmas. The logic goes that snow and tinsel hide a multitude of sins, anaesthetising our critical faculties until we’ll happily lap up quipping huskies, insipid Short Cuts rip-offs, and even Vince Vaughan, so long as we’re fed a heart-warming message and some stuff about reindeers along the way.
Aardman obviously
didn’t get that memo, as in Arthur Christmas they’ve delivered a high quality Christmas film just as rich in character and laughs as it is in spectacle.
What's really great about Arthur Christmas’ well-trod story – a sweet-hearted innocent’s belief is tested on a mission to save Christmas – is that it stems from a believable family drama.
Yes, its characters are made of pixels and live with a bunch of elves at the North Pole, but they’re recognisably human. The film’s co-writers Sarah Smith and Peter Baynham, and their voice cast make quite sure of that.
Arthur Christmas’ cast is stuffed with likeable British actors: Jim Broadbent, James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Ashley Jensen, and Imelda Staunton all exude the kind of lovely, warm Britishness usually found only with a proper cup of tea and a lovely custard cream. They’re a perfect match for Aardman in that respect, the studio which, from Morph to Wallace and Gromit, has long delivered a solid line in Brit loveliness.
James McAvoy provides the voice of Arthur, guileless and clumsy but with a child-like love of all things festive and a firm believer in Christmas magic. Arthur has been tucked away in an admin post at North Pole HQ while his over-achieving older brother, Steve, [Hugh Laurie] waits to receive the coveted red and white suit from their father.
In the world of Arthur Christmas, the position of Santa Claus (it’s a co-production with Sony, so we’ll forgive the Americanism) is passed throne-like down the family line. There’s a neat Charles and Liz dynamic going on, as the eldest son waits impatiently for the position of “non-executive figurehead” to fall to him.
Hugh Laurie’s Steve Christmas is a Bluetooth headset-wearing general-type who embraces all things technological in a bid to hit targets. His bookshelf sports a Thatcher biography, in his walk-in wardrobe hang Versace Santa Suits, and he mumbles about quantitative easing in his sleep. What’s missing in efficient Steve is what inept Arthur has in spades: Christmas spirit.
Arthur Christmas is built around the idea that even magical families with mythical powers have the same flaws as any other. Whether your lot delivers presents once a year from the middle of the Arctic Ocean or runs a chippy in South Shields, it’s the same deal. Grudges, rivalries and resentments build up. Siblings struggle for parental approval. Younger generations yearn to prove themselves while older generations are anxious to remain relevant. The film’s brilliantly observed post-Christmas dinner board game bickering is the best proof that the Christmases are just like the rest of us.
The film's action takes place one Christmas Eve, kicking off with a militarily precise gift-drop carried out by armies of elves. We’re treated to some lovely sci-fi and action nods, as well as a Monsters Inc.-like imagining of the goings-on in a child’s bedroom on the night before Christmas.
When one little girl is left present-less though, it’s up to Arthur, his curmudgeonly Grandsanta [the wonderful Bill Nighy] and a punky Scottish elf [Ashley Jensen] to dust off the old sleigh and keep the magic alive.
What follows is a sometimes spectacular round-the-world dash dotted with Aardman’s trademark great visual details (the Haynes manual for the sleigh and discarded tubes of chimney lube are just two blink-and-you’ll-miss-them gags), led by a sharp script and a lot of imagination.
The plot might well be familiar territory, and the pacing may veer a little off course two thirds of the way along (Arthur’s epiphany is the film at its most awkward), but that’s little matter when we're presented with such a lot else to enjoy. A magical scene at the Serengeti National Park and a narrowly-avoided elf coup both make full use of the scope afforded by the film's CGI.
After the globe-trotting adventure touches down, Arthur Christmas wraps things up with a finale that’s exciting, funny and touching. While I can’t see Arthur’s oddly-phrased “Do it with worry” catchphrase reaching Bob the Builder-level ubiquity anytime soon, Aardman have given us a new family Christmas hero (or two, if you count Grandsanta).
Arthur Christmas well deserves a place alongside Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas and A Muppet Christmas Carol in the canon of modern festive must-sees. If you’re anything like me, after you catch it this year on the big screen, you’ll want to pick it up on DVD ready for next time the house is filled with the rustle of Quality Street wrappers and that weird tinsel smell. Perhaps you’ll join me in raising a glass of sherry to Aardman when you do, by way of thanks for a lovely, lovely piece of work.
Aardman obviously
didn’t get that memo, as in Arthur Christmas they’ve delivered a high quality Christmas film just as rich in character and laughs as it is in spectacle.
What's really great about Arthur Christmas’ well-trod story – a sweet-hearted innocent’s belief is tested on a mission to save Christmas – is that it stems from a believable family drama.
Yes, its characters are made of pixels and live with a bunch of elves at the North Pole, but they’re recognisably human. The film’s co-writers Sarah Smith and Peter Baynham, and their voice cast make quite sure of that.
Arthur Christmas’ cast is stuffed with likeable British actors: Jim Broadbent, James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Ashley Jensen, and Imelda Staunton all exude the kind of lovely, warm Britishness usually found only with a proper cup of tea and a lovely custard cream. They’re a perfect match for Aardman in that respect, the studio which, from Morph to Wallace and Gromit, has long delivered a solid line in Brit loveliness.
James McAvoy provides the voice of Arthur, guileless and clumsy but with a child-like love of all things festive and a firm believer in Christmas magic. Arthur has been tucked away in an admin post at North Pole HQ while his over-achieving older brother, Steve, [Hugh Laurie] waits to receive the coveted red and white suit from their father.
In the world of Arthur Christmas, the position of Santa Claus (it’s a co-production with Sony, so we’ll forgive the Americanism) is passed throne-like down the family line. There’s a neat Charles and Liz dynamic going on, as the eldest son waits impatiently for the position of “non-executive figurehead” to fall to him.
Hugh Laurie’s Steve Christmas is a Bluetooth headset-wearing general-type who embraces all things technological in a bid to hit targets. His bookshelf sports a Thatcher biography, in his walk-in wardrobe hang Versace Santa Suits, and he mumbles about quantitative easing in his sleep. What’s missing in efficient Steve is what inept Arthur has in spades: Christmas spirit.
Arthur Christmas is built around the idea that even magical families with mythical powers have the same flaws as any other. Whether your lot delivers presents once a year from the middle of the Arctic Ocean or runs a chippy in South Shields, it’s the same deal. Grudges, rivalries and resentments build up. Siblings struggle for parental approval. Younger generations yearn to prove themselves while older generations are anxious to remain relevant. The film’s brilliantly observed post-Christmas dinner board game bickering is the best proof that the Christmases are just like the rest of us.
The film's action takes place one Christmas Eve, kicking off with a militarily precise gift-drop carried out by armies of elves. We’re treated to some lovely sci-fi and action nods, as well as a Monsters Inc.-like imagining of the goings-on in a child’s bedroom on the night before Christmas.
When one little girl is left present-less though, it’s up to Arthur, his curmudgeonly Grandsanta [the wonderful Bill Nighy] and a punky Scottish elf [Ashley Jensen] to dust off the old sleigh and keep the magic alive.
What follows is a sometimes spectacular round-the-world dash dotted with Aardman’s trademark great visual details (the Haynes manual for the sleigh and discarded tubes of chimney lube are just two blink-and-you’ll-miss-them gags), led by a sharp script and a lot of imagination.
The plot might well be familiar territory, and the pacing may veer a little off course two thirds of the way along (Arthur’s epiphany is the film at its most awkward), but that’s little matter when we're presented with such a lot else to enjoy. A magical scene at the Serengeti National Park and a narrowly-avoided elf coup both make full use of the scope afforded by the film's CGI.
After the globe-trotting adventure touches down, Arthur Christmas wraps things up with a finale that’s exciting, funny and touching. While I can’t see Arthur’s oddly-phrased “Do it with worry” catchphrase reaching Bob the Builder-level ubiquity anytime soon, Aardman have given us a new family Christmas hero (or two, if you count Grandsanta).
Arthur Christmas well deserves a place alongside Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas and A Muppet Christmas Carol in the canon of modern festive must-sees. If you’re anything like me, after you catch it this year on the big screen, you’ll want to pick it up on DVD ready for next time the house is filled with the rustle of Quality Street wrappers and that weird tinsel smell. Perhaps you’ll join me in raising a glass of sherry to Aardman when you do, by way of thanks for a lovely, lovely piece of work.
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