movies: arthur christmas

Every Christmas I make an effort to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, Olive the Other Reindeer and Hogfather.

Next Christmas there will be another movie joining them in my list of Must See Christmas movies... Arthur Christmas!

It's by the folks from Aardman (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Flushed Away), so it's very English and possibly the best film they've produced so far.

I'm not going to lie, I cried towards the end... we're not talking about going a little bit misty eyed, we're talking a full on, face full of tears, crying.

It's a simple enough story, a single child is forgotten at Christmas and Santa's youngest son, the titular Arthur, sets out to make sure she has her present by Christmas morning.  But it's told with so much heart and an equal amount of wit that it ends up being a very moving story.  Not entirely unpredictable, but I can forgive it it's obviousness because I really cared about the characters.

And it mixes updating Santa with modern technology (a stealth spaceship, modern gadgets, satellite tracking... and may be just what modern parents need to answer all those questions about Santa) with the idea of doing what you love and loving what you do.

There's also some brilliant British voice casting... the delicious James McAvoy who makes Arthur so incredibly relate-able and more than a little dorky... everybody's favourite grumpy teevee doctor, Hugh Laurie who injects just the right amount of pomposity as Versace wearing, technology obsessed, Santa-to-be, Steve... and Jim Broadbent as possibly one of the best Santa voices I've heard in a good while.

Other standouts include Imelda Staunton as the incredibly prim and sensible (and more than a little queenly) Mrs Claus and Ashley Jensen as Briony the elf from the wrapping department who can wrap anything using only three pieces of sticky tape...

All in all, a thoroughly heartwarming, sweet little Christmas movie... although I could probably have lived without the Justin Beiber music video that screened before the movie... seriously, all his fans are in the stupid vampire movie anyway...

yani's rating: 4 presents delivered out of 5