Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Movie Review - Arthur Christmas

Movie Review - Arthur Christmas


Obviously it's always a worry when there's a pun of sorts in the title of a film, it does seem to be a xmas related issue though, does The Santa Clause ring any bells?

This animation (an Aardman/Sony co-production)  is an unusual approach to the present-distributing-fat-bloke concept which explains in some detail how the family dynasty of Clauses (stretching back to the original St Nicholas) manages the entire process through a combination of space age high tech and an army of highly dedicated elven assistants. The tension generated amongst the males of the family is around the succession to the role and the movie's theme is that the clumsy loser, Arthur, our eponymous hero, despite his lack of technology savvy and tummy possesses the true heart of Santa Claus risking all to ensure that one little girl gets her present, that no child is missed out.

There's a lot to like in this movie, the characters are well conceived, it's fast and fun,there's a rich roster of quality actors supplying mostly British voices and the animation is fine. The presence of hundreds of elves allows the animators to indulge in many almost-glimpsed amusing jokes in the background of each scene.
The story and it's inevitable conclusion (I'll  probably not spoil it by telling you it has a happy ending) are well told and thre are enough twists and turns along the way to make it watchable throughout.

It's not going to be a classic Xmas movie, it's no "Wonderful Life" or "Snowman" but it's an enjoyable evening out for a party of many generations.


A HO-HO-Ho haiku



Santa and his kin
Fill each and every stocking
To miss one, shocking.






.

posted by Stuffy @ 3:28 pm 1 comments