Advent is upon us here at Tuesday Night is Film Night towers and tonight we are putting our feet up and sipping eggnog in front of;
Arthur Christmas
Arthur Christmas is a new (2011) animated feature film from Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation and follows the story of the current Santa (Jim Broadbent) who is getting on in years, but not as old as Grand Santa (Bill Nighy) who is 136 years old! Santa has two sons; there's Steve (Hugh Laurie) a modern, technologically compliant, militaristic leader who has taken Christmas into the 21st and runs the North Pole operation, with his army of trusty elves, who aid the aging Santa with his deliveries. The second and younger son is Arthur (James McAvoy). Arthur is everything Steve is not, he's clumsy, frowned upon by the elves and a little overlooked by his Dad and is resigned to work in the mailroom. That is until a child is missed...........
We really don't want to go into too much detail of the film, the basic premise is simple, a child's present is not delivered and Arthur who believes so much in the Christmas spirit, really doesn't want this child to lose out. Steve on the other hand, feels that they can write it off as a minuscule percentage loss of the whole operation. So Arthur in collusion with Grand Santa fly off with the old faithful sleigh to right this minor misdemeanor and ensure that every child has received their present from Santa.
And that is it, that is the story, beautiful in it's simplicity but the writing of Peter Baynham and Sarah Smith (who also directed the film), take this simple story and project it to another level. There is so much detail within the film, not just with magnificent computer generated animation, which has layers of complexity, not only in the foreground action but what goes on in the background as well. It's the same with the writing there are many references that only multiple viewings will pick up on. The dialogue for each character is spot on; Steve is arrogant and a strong believer in the modern world, but is not good with children and that is reflected in the way Hugh Laurie delivers the lines. The same with Grand Santa, Bill Nighy uses his vocal talents to deliver the script to perfection and he has some of the best lines in the film. You really cannot underestimate the wondrous writing of Peter Baynham. He uses the script to to introduce another level of expression that you would not normally see within an animated film. And it is an animated film, it is not a cartoon, it is so much more than that. The animation is real enough to be believable, but sufficiently animated so you know it's not. There is a special feature on the DVD which will clarify what we mean there, just in case you thought we were talking nonsense!
There is something magical about Arthur Christmas, it has a real ability to release your inner child and tap into that layer of innocence, taking you back to a time where Christmas was truly magical. What the film also does, is to set out to answer those childish questions that we all asked like; how can Santa visit every child, delivering joy along with the presents? And so much more besides.
The cast is fantastic as well, so much (vocal) talent adding to fun and lots of big names too;
James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Eva Longoria, Ramona Marquez, Michael Palin, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Robbie Coltrane and Jane Horrocks, to name but 12!
We really cannot wait to see it again.
You can probably tell that here at TNiFN we love a Christmas movie, however with Arthur Christmas I think we have found a new classic. It's a simple recipe but one that can be so hard to achieve; how do you take a simple story, but make it a complex, multi-layered, fascinating, gripping, entertaining and funny film? We don't know, but what we do know is that Arthur Christmas does the trick. It will stand the test of time and be a perennial favourite that will be watched over and over again.
Absolutely tinsel-tastic mate!
TNiFN Rating 90%
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