Before the film begins, the audience filled with family’s, had the pleasure of watching Justin Bieber’s video, as he sang Santa Claus is coming to town and the kids loved it especially five year Haley who is already a fan of the Bieb. You better not shout, you better not cry because Arthur Christmas is coming soon to a theatre near you and is the perfect holiday treat for the entire family.
November 25, in Cornwall, England, a young girl named Gwen (voice of Ramona Marquez) is mailing a letter to Santa in hopes that he’ll bring her a nice pink twinkle bike on Christmas morning. Back in the icy North Pole on December 2, Arthur (voice of James McAvoy), son of Santa Clause (Jim Broadbent) is in the mailing room, away from getting into trouble, answering the letters from children all over the world.
December 24, operation Santa Claus is in effect as a field elf battalion falls from a sleigh like spaceship in the sky, invisible to the human eye. Their mission to deliver toys to all children in the world, without anyone seeing them and before the sun rises. A huge spin on the old days of Santa and his reindeer but don’t dismay since thanks to Arthur and his Grandsanta (voice of Bill Nighy), when Arthur discovers this year’s mission is incomplete, he and Grandsanta take matters into their own hands. Out with the new and back to the old, the original Evie sleigh and all of the original reindeer are taken out of retirement. Thanks to magic dust the reindeer are back into the night skies, along with an old companion reindeer wearing an Elizabethan collar seated in the back seat of the sleigh. Their mission, along with a stowaway elf, is to get the forgotten last present to a little girl in England before sun up.
Back at the North Pole, Santa, Mrs. Santa (voice of Imelda Staunton) and Steve (voice of Hugh Laurie), the handsome, intelligent and sophisticated son of Santa who is now running mission control and expected to become the next Santa when is father retires, are all aware the a child has been missed. They believe it’s too late to deliver that last gift so a child will go without her wish this year. But the 136 year old Grandsanta and Arthur are already in the skies, misdirected but in the skies, looking for England. Grant it they steer off course a few times, lose a few reindeer, get shot at as a possible UFO, end up in Africa attacked by wild animals, have a run in with a Chihuahua in Mexico, get lost in the Atlantic but eventually find their way to 23 Mimosa Avenue in England. One problem though, the sun is rising and soon so will the children and even though Arthur is nearby with a very special bike in tow he may not be able to deliver it in time. Thanks to the support of family, new technology along with old ideas, Bryony (voice of Ashley Jensen) a very smart elf, and the support of the entire North Pole family of elf’s, this year’s mission stands a chance of becoming 100% complete along with revelations in the Santa family tree of who is truly the next Santa to be.
This family animated film was truly delightful and is sure to become a traditional holiday film to watch each year. I absolutely enjoyed the concept of new ideas mixed with traditional ones accompanied by some great dialogue. The director really does a superb job of keeping the audience entertained from beginning to end and the writers truly make the film kid and adult friendly. “Arthur Christmas” is a very happy, warm feeling family film that tells the story of how Santa gets to every child’s home across the entire world. Overall, great animation, some wonderful music worth the price of the soundtrack and a heartwarming yet funny story to be enjoyed this holiday season by both young and old. Written and enjoyed this holiday season with three paws out of four by Jon Patch. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.
