Arthur Christmas Review: Overlooked Holiday Gem

With its sweet charm, infectious creativity, and surprising insight into changing with the times, Arthur Christmas is an overlooked holiday gem.

I took the gamble, and while I can’t say it’s one of the best holiday flicks ever made … yeah, I see what they mean. This is a totally delightful, overlooked holiday gem.

No, Arthur Christmas is not a special starring a certain iconic aardvark. Instead, it’s a 2011 animated film from the renowned Aardman Animations, the studio behind Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep Movie, and more. The story focuses on the Claus family, which passes down the name “Santa” to each generation. With the advancement of technology and the size of the world being bigger than ever, the current “Santa” Claus (Jim Broadbent, of Hot Fuzz) no longer uses chimneys or reindeer-driven sleighs to get around, instead relying on the modern-age gadgets spearheaded by his eldest son Steve Claus (Hugh Laurie) to do the job.

Unfortunately, one Christmas, a bike present is accidentally left behind. While Steve dismisses it as an acceptable mistake, Santa’s other son Arthur (James McAvoy, of Speak No Evil) teams up with the previous “Grandsanta” (Bill Nighy, of The First Omen) to take flight on the old sleigh and deliver the gift in time for Christmas morning. The two are also joined by Bryony (Ashley Jensen), the self-proclaimed best gift wrapper of all the elves. So, okay, that all sounds like a fine enough plot for passable family viewing while the parents wish they were watching Die Hard for the ten-thousandth time. What makes it stand out above other Christmas movies you could watch, such as Die Hard which totally is one?

Well, first of all … Arthur Christmas is just really charming. Aardman’s made a name for itself with its off-beat, well-timed blend of witty and slapstick British humor, and the broad variety of characters on display makes for an equally broad variety of jokes that contain more hits than misses. Even when there’s a miss, everyone’s likeable, unique, and even three-dimensional ways of bouncing off each other still carry you through. Nighy as Grandsanta steals the show with an energy that’s expectedly curmudgeonly but still energized and invested in what he’s doing. Arthur’s often manic energy can get too grating for me from time to time, but you at least have others reacting to it in funnier ways.

With how modernized this world is, you may not think the film could squeeze in much classic Christmas atmosphere or visuals, but many a lush nighttime sequence and holiday-centered detail lurk behind every corner. They’re just given fresh and lively coats of paint while keeping the core essence of the season that you’d want for any Christmas viewing. I thought I was going to dislike the really exaggerated character models – I mean, look at Grandsanta; his huge, shiny red nose puts Rudolph to shame – but they work a lot better the more you get used to them.

I’ve started growing numb to elaborate worlds filled with oh-so-wacky gizmos in family films like this, but Arthur Christmas stands out in that regard for how creatively it uses the literal tools at its disposal. Cookies and milk are extracted for fuel instead of eating it now, to save time and presumably a diabetes diagnosis, and elves come up with unexpectedly funny ways to stop children from seeing them like simulating cars’ blinding headlights through windows. We’ve seen made-up “explanations” for how Santa can do what he does, even from a tech angle, but this is among the films that take the most advantage of that setup.

As you may have guessed, Arthur Christmas also addresses how all this technology may or may not suck the spirit out of Christmas. With the main plot being Arthur trying to fix a mistake caused by the machines, it would be easy to assume the moral is just to not lose sight of the old, simple joys that should come with Christmas. But that’s where the real strength of the film comes in: it instead looks at the pros and cons of all sides to, shockingly, create one of the most nuanced looks at Christmas in the modern era I can remember ever seeing.

On one side, you’ve got Grandsanta moaning about the new ways and determined to show that his generation knew how to do the job the best. On the other side, you’ve got Steve Claus and his dedication to what’s brand new, advanced, and efficient, while also wanting to prove himself as a worthy future successor to the “Santa” role. Their motivations range from nostalgia to proving their points to genuinely believing their ways are what’s needed for their current time. We’ve seen people like this over and over, well before this movie ever came out, and we’ve often been in the shoes of Arthur as he’s caught in the middle and made more uncertain of the right thing to do.

The great thing is that no one is made out to be an outright bad person. They’re just flawed human beings with their own personal and philosophical mindsets clashing with each other. At its core, Arthur Christmas is about how to navigate not just the holidays, but life in general as the world becomes bigger, more open, and more complicated. We’ll always be at risk of losing simple analog pleasures as we become more digital and tech-reliant, but such advancements also have their place in enhancing those pleasures. What matters is the core heart of what you try to do, why you try to do it, and that you’re open to anything that can contribute to those goals.

The film even addresses the need to realize your best interests may not have a place someday. The current Santa still loves his job and doesn’t want to give it up, but he’s grown so slow and incapable that he has to step down soon. I really was amazed by how layered every major character ended up being, and how well that all comes out in the voice work. Arthur himself is honestly the one weak link for me. Not that he’s bad, but his animation and McAvoy’s delivery are again too specifically exaggerated a lot of the time. This movie made me say something negative about James McAvoy. Do you know how tempted I am to give it -10 stars for that alone?

Like I said, Arthur Christmas isn’t a new all-time holiday favorite of mine. It can occasionally fall into the realm of somewhat generic family animated fare, mostly in the bulk of the mission in the middle. But every clever, creative piece just keeps building on top of one another until you’ve got an infectiously sweet Christmas comedy and, even more surprisingly, a timelessly relevant look at adapting to and living with changing times. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s way too good to be as overlooked as it is. Seriously, ignore those crappy trailers and take a chance on this one. It may be the surprise Christmas present you didn’t know you wanted.

Arthur Christmas is now available to watch on digital and on demand.

Loud and Clear Reviews has an affiliate partnership with Apple, so we receive a share of the revenue from your purchase or streaming of the films when you click on some of the links on this page. This won’t affect how much you pay for them and helps us keep the site free for everyone.