Arthur Christmas
Year: 2011
Rating: PG
Length: 97 minutes / 1.62 hours
There are plenty of Christmas movies out there that explore the different aspects of Santa in lots of different ways. Whether it’s the “origin story” of Klaus (2019) or the “legal magic” of The Santa Clause (1994), there are many different interpretations of the magical main character of the holiday season. The one that does its best to modernize and show the logistical challenge of delivering presents to every kid on Earth in one night is none other than Arthur Christmas (2011).
I’ve always loved Aardman animation, so it felt a little weird to me to see them work their family-friendly magic in this movie with a visual style that did not fit most of their previous work (like Wallace & Gromit). Still, their standard British humor shines through here while also managing to be a heartwarming story of family and legacy. If anything, their version of the Santa Claus mythos makes the most sense with as little magic introduced into the formula as possible (although, most advanced military technologies could be considered magic anyway).
The interesting thing about Arthur Christmas is that it’s really about different approaches to the same problem (the logistics of a one-night present delivery service) while forgetting the most important reason it was being done in the first place. That there are several generations of “Santa,” each of whom has a different idea on how to accomplish this task, is an interesting twist on the formula. The heart of the story, though, isn’t about how traditional or fast this feat is accomplished, but about the recipients on the other end. Kids don’t care how they get their presents, only that someone cared enough to listen to them.
Aardman’s take on the Santa story via military-level logistics, I give Arthur Christmas 4.0 stars out of 5.
