Review of Arthur Christmas (2011) by Adam W — 02 Feb 2012

I know Christmas is over and this film was out a while ago but I have only just got round to watching so here's my review on it.

Arthur Christmas shows Christmas in a new light, they show it as more of a mission with a large mother ship with elves dropping down delivering presents to each house rather than Santa flying around on his sleigh delivering presents to each house individually one at a time. Santa has become more of a figurehead than the actual brains behind the brains behind it all which is all down to Santa's eldest son; but one year they miss one child and it is down to Arthur and Grand Santa to deliver the presents on time.

Many people hadn't heard of Aardman Studios before so were a bit weary of how this film would turn out; me on the other hand I have watched things from Aardman since I was a little boy and they have consistently been phenomenal and this film is the same. The animation in this film is brilliant, it's not quite as good as Pixar's but it is definitely up there with some of the best looking animated films.

Now the voice acting, Aardman chose all British actors/actresses as the main voices; James McAvoy delivers a great performance as Arthur delivering brilliant timing which makes for some laugh out loud moments. Bill Nighy is brilliant as always playing the voice of Grand Santa, the funniest character in the whole film; I know some people don't think voice acting is very hard or skilled but not anyone can do it as they have in this film.

Now there are a few flaws with this film, one being that by the middle of this film you will start to get a little tired of the continuous bad luck that delays their ever so straightforward journey, and it begins to go round in circles but you can forgive it for picking its self up and delivering a lighthearted Christmassy ending that will sure make any Scrooge love Christmas. The script is brilliantly written though with hilarious moments; the writers don't write to make the kids laugh they write what will make everyone laugh.

This film is very British and it will get you in that Christmas spirit no matter what time of the year. This isn't a kids movie, just because its animated doesn't mean it can only be viewed by children aged fewer than ten, I guarantee that anyone of any age will enjoy this. Arthur Christmas has now been added to my yearly Christmas films to get me in the spirit and it should be in yours too. If you haven't seen this yet and your thinking you will wait for Christmas to watch it, don't, you must watch it now. If it wasn't for the film dropping a little in the middle this would be near perfect but as a Christmas film it is one of the best.