From Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman Animations, the latter being the iconic British company behind many beloved hand-crafted films such as: ‘Wallace & Gromit,’ ‘Chicken Run,’ ‘Morph’ and ‘Early Man.’ Comes a festive family adventure focusing on ‘Santa’s son: ‘Arthur’ as he races across the globe to deliver a present to an overlooked child, and although the film doesn’t feature the impeccable stop-motion animation the company is well-known for, it does make-up for its mostly generic CG visuals through its amusing moments, charming characters and inventive story.

Plot Summary: On the night of Christmas Eve, after ‘Santa’ and his enormous team of elves believe themselves to have succeeded in another year of present delivery for the children of the world. ‘Santa’s clumsy son: ‘Arthur’ and a skilled wrapping elf named: ‘Bryony,’ discover a young girl’s present has been misplaced, leaving her the only child in the world without a gift from ‘Santa.’ Fearing what the young girl will think when she awakens to find nothing under the tree Christmas morning, ‘Arthur’ sets out on a desperate mission with ‘Santa’s elderly father to deliver the forgotten gift…

Directed by Sarah Smith and Barry Cook, ‘Arthur Christmas’ is actually the first directorial effort from Cook since the Disney flick: ‘Mulan’ in 1998, with Smith having never directed a feature before in her career. Yet even with these fairly inexperienced directors, ‘Arthur Christmas’ never gets muddled within its own story, managing to balance its many characters, exciting sequences and themes of family and symbolism/icons immensely well, whilst the film also cleverly answers the question that has perplexed children around the world for years, that being: “How Does Santa Deliver Every Child’s Present in a Single Night?” The only major issue ‘Arthur Christmas’ suffers from as a film is its fast-pacing, which does remain very quick throughout the runtime and results in some scenes feeling very rushed.

James McAvoy portrays the film’s protagonist: ‘Arthur,’ who is likeable enough and easy to root for as a character in wanting to deliver the misplaced present, though I could see McAvoy’s performance irritating some viewers, as ‘Arthur’ is always very energetic, jumping from fearful to cheerful incredibly fast even if it is a nice change-of-pace for a protagonist to have nothing but love for the Christmas season. The rest of the cast of Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie, Ashley Jensen, Jim Broadbent and Imelda Staunton are all exceptional in their roles as the ‘Claus’ family, adding up to a splendid family-dynamic which the story actually explores a fair amount of.

Just as lively as the film’s fast-pacing, the animated cinematography for: ‘Arthur Christmas’ is very innovative, constantly displaying a number of visually interesting and fairly unique shots, many of which capture the massive scale of the ‘S-1,’ the high-tech sleigh-replacement ‘Santa’ now utilises, as it soars across the sky. Additionally, with ‘Arthur’ and ‘Grandsanta’ being unfamiliar with the modern world due to them being mostly confined to the North Pole, much of their journey revolves around them accidentally arriving at various locations as they attempt to find the young girl’s home in Trelew, England. And each location manages to feel diverse and allows for many exhilarating set-pieces, from the sleigh being chased by the Spanish police force through Trelew, Argentina, to ‘Arthur’ and ‘Grandsanta’ almost being eaten alive by lions after finding themselves on the Savannah plains.

However, the original score by Harry Gregson-Williams is the complete opposite, as the film’s soundtrack is your standard animated score with little memorable or interesting about it. From tracks like ‘Trelew, Cornwall, England,’ ‘Operation Christmas’ and ‘Goodbye Evie,’ the original score is fairly disappointing when considering many of the film’s creative ideas in regards to its story. Still, with that said, the track: ‘One Missed Child’ does capture ‘Arthur’s true awe at the sight of the original sleigh perfectly, as short as the scene itself may be.

The animation itself isn’t extremely well detailed but does remain attractive throughout the story, despite my distaste of a few of the character’s designs that is, as I personally found many of the characters to appear far too cartoonish and even slightly unappealing, particularly when it comes to many of the elves’ designs. These design choices are actually intentional, however, as the animators decided to approach the character designs with the goal of making them feel authentically British and quirky, rather than air-brushed and immensely appealing.

On the whole, ‘Arthur Christmas’ has far more merits than it does faults, as the film serves as a refreshing take on the typical ‘Santa’ saves Christmas story. Interjecting a family dynamic and a large array of adult-centred humour into what is already an entertaining and surprisingly smart narrative for a family flick. So even in spite of its average-looking animation and overly-fast-pacing, ‘Arthur Christmas’ is truly a joyful film to watch with a heartfelt message at its core, and I feel is likely to become a modern Christmas classic in time. Final Rating: high 7/10.