Arthur Christmas – Movie Review

Before the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead premiered I felt I needed a nice movie, something to raise my spirits before a possibly horrendous episode of a show I love so much, but that I might drop from just bad direction from the show runners. Since it’s the holidays I needed a Christmas film, so I found one that I’ve heard is unique in its style and is gaining a following over the years. That film is Arthur Christmas and after watching it I think I’ll be watching this film every Christmas season from now on. The characters are memorable, the story engaging, the art style very appealing, and mixed together with the meaning of Christmas to make a super fun movie.

So let’s start with the characters, who again were just super fun to watch. The main characters are the Claus family, which through the environment we learn go back hundreds of years. There are currently four Clauses alive in this world: Grandsanta, the old, grumpy loudmouth who thinks all the new tech is against the old Claus way; Steve Claus, a well-built tech genius who designs and is the main guy who gets all work done (so basically a smart, hunky Santa); Malcolm “Santa” Claus, the current head of the North pole who is often forgetful and unable to keep up with all the tech of Christmas; and lastly Arthur Claus, the main character who’s a young, spry man with a caring heart of gold. All four of them are so fun to watch, their personalities and character traits stand out and they make all of them super enjoyable to watch. Oh, and Arthur is voiced by James McAvoy, the guy who also plays the new Professor Xavier and the guy who plays Kevin (and all his personalities) from the movie Split! I was in for a treat.

So what’s their big story? On Christmas Eve a young girl named Gwen Hines becomes the only person forgotten by Santa Claus and his elves. It wasn’t that she was a bad girl, but an error in the super technological system of gift giving (which is a huge highlight in the movie) causes her gift to be forgotten. Arthur, as the kind, caring believer of Christmas, decides to go out of his way to deliver her present before the sun rises in a few hours. With the help of Grandsanta and his old sleigh (which was replaced by a city-sized red UFO) he goes on a crazy journey to get the present to her. During the trip Grandsanta makes some big screw ups that almost get them caught and threatens the existence of Santa Claus. To make matters worse Arthur discovers that Grandsanta only helped so people would stop thinking of him like he’s nobody anymore and learns how forgetful and lazy his father, Malcom "Santa" Claus, really is. Both of these almost ruins Arthur’s belief in Christmas, which was a really sad moment in the movie. Eventually he realizes that it doesn’t matter who delivers the gift, if it’s delivered.

This is eventually leads to the big lesson the movie has: Giving and caring based on free choice is one of the best things you can ever do for people. It’s one of the reasons why, despite his flaws and mess-ups in the past, makes his father pass the mantle of “Santa Claus” onto him over his more talented and effective brother, Steve. It’s that level of caring and thoughts for others that make Arthur the best choice for being Santa, and for his bickering elders to let to and have him take over is… man that was touching and humble. With how the story goes this lesson just hits perfectly and makes the film just so much more enjoyable.

Again, a majority of the characters in this animated movie are fantastic to watch, but Arthur was just a treasure. This guy spent his free time looking over letters sent to Santa Claus and replying to them, something that makes him think all those children out there are very important and are the big focus of the Clauses. He is laughed at because of his childish nature and mistakes, but he doesn’t mind that, he just wants to be a caring person. He does have a breaking point like any person, but even with that he has a strong belief in his style of work.

And speaking of style, the comedy in this film was so good! From Grandsanta making silly mistakes while driving through a city to the elves almost melting down the North Pole to even Gwen writing to Santa how she can’t find him or his house on Google Maps, I had a great laugh out of this movie. One of the major jokes in the movie is when Grandsanta tells how his last sleigh ride almost started World War III. My god I almost spat my soda out I was so surprised by this comment. While it did feel like a movie for a younger audience at first, it has themes and jokes in it for pre-teens and young adults. Much of the humor felt in place of when it happens and just makes me smile whenever I think of any of the jokes. So yeah, we got strong levels of fun in Arthur Christmas.

Another aspect of the film that I really enjoyed is how style of the film. In the first few minutes I was greeted with elves delivering presents like it’s Mission Impossible, with tons of movement and life to it. You really can feel the pressure the elves are going through as they go into every house on the planet (or in this case almost every house) to deliver the presents before morning. Along with the futuristic technology, you get pulled into a unique type of North Pole. We also get some nice environments with places such as Seattle, Mexico, Cuba, Africa and England. Saying that out loud makes it sound like a weird complication and the plot can get weird with some of these places, but it was still great fun. The only one that really felt out of place was Africa, when the sleigh is stopped and Authur, Grandsanta, and a stowaway elf named Bryony Shelfley almost get eaten by lions. But still, the animation in all these places and the art style feels great.

This does bring me to a small complaint about the film and that’s some of the accidents with the real world. Grandsanta leads our Arthur on a merry ride (joke not intended) with his sleigh and despite having a small freakout over being spotted later on he’s mostly unconcerned with going through places that are highly populated and crashing through several obstructions that would attract attention. It hurts the whole sneaking about thing that all the Clauses highly believe in and even for a crazy old man these actions are just plain out of place. I mean the old man did say he almost started World War III with his last ride, so I’d think he’d be a little more careful in how he handled things. But again he’s old, grumpy, and crazy so maybe he was having a lapse of judgement or something. Either ways these interactions, while fun and comedic, just don’t feel right in this movie. Despite this fault and a few others, I felt film stood up well and left me with a grand smile and a few tears on my face.

Overall Analysis

From now on I am going to be watching Arthur Christmas at least once during the holidays every year because this was a fantastic animated Christmas movie! With some really fun characters, awesome animation and environments, and lots of energy to it, this movie rocks! I had great evening watching this film, seeing characters relearn the meaning of Christmas and the power of being a nice person. James McAvoy won me over with his enthusiastic performance as Arthur and the interactions Arthur has with his family and the elves of the North Pole. Along with some really neat visuals and a unique look at the North Pole and how work there is done, Arthur Christmas will hopefully live on in the future as a Christmas classic. I give Arthur Christmas a 9 out of 10.

Soon to come: The mid-season finale of season 8 of The Walking Dead!