Aardman Animations
Digitally animated “Arthur Christmas” delivers a clever script that kids and parents alike will enjoy.
Possibly, the potentates at Britain's Aardman animation studios are unaware of the popular Arthur the Aardvark books and PBS television series. I mention this because so far, to a person, everyone I've mentioned "Arthur Christmas" to has registered a blank expression or assumed I must be talking about a holiday movie starring author Marc Brown's anthropomorphic anteater.
This suggests that audience word-of-mouth will have to do for "Arthur Christmas" what Sony/Columbia -- possibly cowed by "The Muppets" -- has failed to do: i.e., promote the thing, to distinguish one Arthur from another. Fortunately for Aardman, that shouldn't be a problem, because "Arthur Christmas" is a witty family film that justifies the animation studio's opportunistic attempt to board the holly-festooned holiday bandwagon. Parents and kids should give the result a mittened thumbs up.
Like "Flushed Away" (2006,) but unlike the stop-motion Oscar-winning shorts and "Wallace & Gromit" adventures that established Aardman's reputation for quality, "Arthur Christmas" is digitally animated, so it lacks the charm of Aardman's signature Plasticine figures and Claymation-like environments. (Fortunately, Aardman returns to stop-motion next year, with "The Pirates! Band of Misfits.") What it lacks in cuteness, however, it makes up for in cleverness, thanks to a script credited to Peter Baynham ("Bruno," "Borat" and Steve Coogan's "Alan Partridge" series) and director Sarah Smith.
"Arthur Christmas" at last reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: 'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' ...
Rating: PG for some mild rude humor
Length: 97 minutes
Released: November 23, 2011 Nationwide
Cast: James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton
Director: Sarah Smith, Barry Cook
Writer: Peter Baynham, Sarah Smith
The story is very similar to this year's earlier "Hop," but this time Santa Claus (voiced by Jim Broadbent) rather than the Easter Bunny is nearing retirement, with his likely successor being one of his two sons. The older son is handsome, authoritative Steve (Hugh Laurie), a martinet of military efficiency who has modernized and industrialized Santa's operations, establishing "North Pole Mission Control," and replacing Santa's ancient "Icelandic birch" sleigh and flying reindeer with a Santa spaceship. Younger son Arthur (James McAvoy), meanwhile, is earnest but clumsy; he enjoys his job answering children's letters to Santa, and has no desire to dash away all: He's afraid of heights and speed. Plus, "I'm allergic to snow," he confides.
We know from the start that Arthur's "general aura of seasonal positivity" will win the day, but the movie makes getting to this point a lot of fun. To its credit, it doesn't endorse violence by transforming Steve into a villain who must be defeated and humiliated; to its discredit, it adds an unnecessary Hollywoodesque action subplot in which the U.S. military assumes Santa's old sleigh -- purloined by Arthur, the lad's cantankerous, 136-year-old "Grandsanta" (Bill Nighy) and an expert gift-wrapping elf named Bryony (Ashley Jensen). It's an extraterrestrial bogey that must be shot from the sky. In general, I'm not in favor of Christmas stories that clutter impressionable minds with rewrites or expansions of the basic Santa myth (see, or rather don't see, the execrable "Santa Clause" films), but "Arthur Christmas" is an exception.
-- John Beifuss: (901) 529-2394
- |
Comments » 0
Be the first to post a comment!
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.