No child left behind in Arthur Christmas

Produced by Aardman Animations, the studios responsible for the wildly creative Wallace and Gromit series, Arthur Christmas is filled with visuals and characters that demand your attention. Every scene is bright, colorful and full of detail and, even without the 3-D effects, the characters have a distinctive and friendly quality to them.

The plot revolves around the crisis that ensues when one child is in danger of not receiving her gift. Santa’s (Jim Broadbent) son Steve (Hugh Laurie) commands a high-tech operation to guarantee that every gift is delivered for Christmas morning. Elves rappel down from a spaceship-like sleigh and silently drop the goods while Santa, who’s nearing retirement after conducting Christmas Eve missions for 70 years, serves a primarily ceremonial role.

Meanwhile, Santa’s other son, the perpetually cheerful Arthur (James McAvoy), tries to keep up on a steady stream of North Pole gift requests and correspondence from kids around the world. While Steve has turned the delivery of presents into a precise, automated affair, Arthur handwrites his personal responses, taking a genuine interest in keeping the children happy. So, when a glitch in the system results in an undelivered gift, it’s Arthur—with the help of his curmudgeonly Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) and precocious elf Byrony (Ashley Jensen)–who commandeers an old school sleigh to travel across the globe on a mission to keep a young girl’s belief in Santa alive.

The film features a laundry list of British vocal talent and enough sophisticated dialogue and genuine wit to appeal to adults. A truly festive and heartfelt film, it is also peppered with action and slapstick humor that will appeal to children of all ages. It’s one of the best films we’ve seen in some time, actually, largely due to the salty Grandsanta, who provided a good deal of comic relief.