Arthur Christmas is a fun Christmas movie. Great character design, a tight script and direction. Sure, it’s got a lot of old Christmas cliches, but there are some genuine, fun and creative moments that make the price of admission worth it. I saw it in 3D. While I don’t think the 3D was particularly helpful or interesting, the movie itself was.
The basic premise: Santa is a generational thing. Passed down from father to son over hundreds of years, the current Santa has two sons: Arthur and Steve. Arthur is a kind-hearted, doofus, while Steve is a driven technocrat. Things are going smoothly when one of the billions of presents is misplaced and rediscovered only after the delivery is done. You can pretty much write the rest.
Hey, look, it’s not going to blow your mind or anything, but it’s fun. The Elves are especially hilarious as Santa has, literally, thousands of them working for him like soldiers. If you think too much about it or if you’re looking for some kind of deeper message in your movie, you’re never going to like this. If you want some Christmas fluff, however, you can do a helluva lot worse. And as they say, it’s fun for the whole family, meaning that there’s no cursing or boobies.
Unless you’re a total Scrooge, you’ll probably like it. I give Arthur Christmas 8 out of 10 keggers.
