REVIEW: ‘Arthur Christmas.’ How the Nerd Saved Christmas.
A long time ago, I interned for a company that very much wanted to make a TV Christmas movie. This meant that we were sent dozens of Christmas-themed scripts, most of them involving some sort of wacky riff on the Santa Claus mythology. ("Santa's now a crime-fighter!" "Santa's now a baby!" "Santa's now a woman!") I had to read a lot of these, and most of them were so bad that I quickly came to hate any story involving the jolly fat guy with the white beard.
I bring all this up to say that while most reviews have been pretty positive for "Arthur Christmas," I had a hard time really loving it. I hope my old job hasn't affected me that much, but for me this new movie from the animation studio that brought us "Wallace and Gromit" feels awfully familiar. I guess I'm just a grinch.
Like "The Santa Clause" or "Fred Claus" or "Elf," "Arthur Christmas" tweaks the Santa legend, giving it a modern twist. In director Sarah Smith's film, the North Pole is a combination of "Mission: Impossible," the factory in "Monsters, Inc." and Mission Control. The current Santa (voiced by Jim Broadbent) is getting up in years, but he's not ready to hand over the reins to his son Steve (Hugh Laurie), who runs the Christmas Eve operations from home base like he was a war general. Unfortunately, Santa's gift-giving has become so high-tech -- they have a huge spaceship in place of the old reindeer and sleigh -- that the only person who seems to have retained the Christmas spirit is Santa's other, nerdier son Arthur (James McAvoy). But when it's discovered that one little girl didn't receive a toy she was expecting, Arthur has to team up with his Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) to deliver the gift before sunrise on Christmas Day.
"Arthur Christmas" is the brainchild of Aardman, the company that made its name with "Wallace and Gromit" but also produced "Chicken Run" and "Flushed Away." Aardman's wry British humor is somewhat evident in this new film, but overall I found myself longing for a little more wit in what otherwise feels like a reworking of the story devices that Pixar and DreamWorks Animation use to much greater effect. The hipped-up re-imagining of the North Pole isn't particularly inventive -- it may remind you of Universal's "Despicable Me" -- and the race-against-the-clock plot only rarely shows the heart that would make it really exciting. Even the movie's message about the joy of giving doesn't really warm the cockles of your heart: It just feels like what you ought to say at this time of year.
What is fun about "Arthur Christmas" is Aardman's enjoyably off-kilter character design. Just like with Wallace -- he of the wonderfully funny oblong head -- Arthur and his mates' faces are humorously exaggerated to make them seem vulnerable and lovable in equal measure. There aren't any real villains in "Arthur Christmas" -- Steve is mostly just a bureaucratic pain -- and so you end up liking everybody in this movie, even if none of the characters are particularly fresh. (And, as keeps being the case, 3D proves to be a great asset to animation, giving the film's world extra depth and texture.)
Still, try as I might, I simply couldn't find myself properly cheered by the movie's genial, playful spirit. I think a lot of it has to do with its main character. As voiced by McAvoy, Arthur is a likeable bloke, but he's almost too much of a wimpy guy to really make much of an impact. Even when he's in the center of the action, pulling his family's old sleigh out of retirement to save the day, he doesn't really register. He's the eternal nice guy -- sweet, charming, forgettable. "Arthur Christmas" deserves credit for not being obnoxious like a lot of kids' movies can be, but it's too much in the opposite direction. It feels like something to keep your little ones occupied while you get a moment's rest for yourself.
Grade: C+
