"Is a bird, is a plane. No... Is Arthur Christmas"

Title: Arthur Christmas
Year: 2011
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama
Director: Sarah Smith, Barry Cook
Writer: Peter Baynham, Sarah Smith
Runtime: 97min
Cast: James McAvoy,  Jim Broadbent, Billy Nighy, Hugh Laurie
Produc.: Aardman Animations, Sony Pictures Animation
Budget: $100 million approx.

In Arthur Christmas, Santa (Jim Broadbent) and his team of elfs are carrying out the mission of delivering their gifts to the children all over the world, when carelessness leads to an english girl to be about to be the only one who does not receive hers. Realizing this fact, Santa and his son Steve (Hugh Laurie) see it as absolutely impossible, given the lack of time, to do their bit with the child. From that moment it would be up to Arthur (James McAvoy), youngest son of Santa, to make the present reach the girl and prevent her from stop believing in Christmas.

If I am to be honest, I must say that I had no idea of what I would come across. What happens is that if one were to follow all the Christmas movies that are made every year, one would notice that a large majority of these appear to be  the result of the "cut and paste", which leads them to be very boring.

When I heard of its release I immediately arose into two streams of thought, opposite from one another. On one hand I questioned the fact that a producer had decided to launch another Christmasy boredom, probably full of the usual clichés. On the other hand, however, I wonder if maybe in this Arthur Chsirtmas was to be a twist that distinguish it from other films of the same style, and finally I ended up being very pleasant surprised.

In this new cinematic vision of Santa´s activities it does no longer starts from the idea that this chubby and graying-beard guy is an immortal, who for centuries has been devoting to please billions of children worldwide. On the contrary, and as in the rest of us, Santa is part of a family with several generations, and where every so often is emerging a new St. Nicholas.

As we are shown, and given the century we live in, Santa has lately been able to take advantage of the best in high technology to work more quickly, comfortably and safely on board of the magnificent S-1, a sort of spacecraft, easily mistaken for a UFO. At the same time, Santa is accompanied by a team of small, agile elves, who constitute an essential element in each operation.

On the beginning of the film we learn how complex comes to be the working methodology of Santa, whose elves move as if olympic gymnasts, delivering the gifts in the style of Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible. What's more, Santa has an impressive infrastructure worthy of the NASA, from where he is being made a complete and constant, minute by minute tracking of his progress around the planet. In control of this facilities is the unique Steve Christmas, eldest son of Santa, a guy who has seamlessly fulfill his tasks, but who we later learn that lacks of a true notion of what is the meaning of this festivity. Then, on the other side we know Arthur, who receives, responds and manages the millions of letters that come to his father. Arthur, the youngest of the family, we see that is quite clumsy, although he will very soon play a key role in the film, being of the family the one who fits the name better, something of which he will be able to feel proud of.

The problems for Santa will begin when, given a little accident, a gift is moved from its location so that when the gifts are to be delivered, this one (a bike for a girl) goes unnoticed and fails to reach its destination. When the mission is finished and Santa's already gone to sleep, an elf who is taking care of the cleaning runs into it, lost in the dirt, and raises the alarm immediately. At this point, and now with Santa, Steve and Arthur and all the elves aware of the incident, a dispute will arise between whether or not it is possible to deliver this bike, and if for the first time in history will they have to accept that after many missions, the perfect and so meticulously planned roadmap of the Christmas has had a flaw.

The situation here could not have been raised better, where we have on the one hand Santa and Steve, a father and son who want to terminate the mission to go to rest, and who claim that Arthur, who according to them shortly understands the issue, gets that, considering the millions of gifts that are given, a single one that does not reach its destination should not bother him. But to us is much more easier to agree with Arthur, who is the one who really lives the Christmas spirit, and the only one who has had the opportunity to read the letter from Gwen, where the girl was telling Santa that she believed in him. Arthur knows that no child deserves to be left without a present, and that there could be no worst pain than waking up in the morning to see a little girl discovering that her bike is not under the tree.

A worried Arthur ends up talking with Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) on the issue. Grandsanta, one of the most interesting characters of the film, a funny 137 year old, short and stooped man, who uses a cane and a denture. It ends up being very interesting how this man, which none of his relatives would believe, becomes the voice of wisdom and experience, and who guides his grandson on the way to do things as should be done.

Grandsanta will propose Arthur to go out and deliver that last gift, but not in an advanced ship but in a sleigh pulled by reindeers, and although Arthur is not very convinced at first, he ends up giving in, venturing into what will become from now on practically a road movie, played in large extent by them. Along the road to the town of Trelew in England (home of the girl), Arthur and his grandfather will go through a lot of crazy situations, which include having to face a hungry pack of lions (and which´s resolution will be something completely crazy), evading the police, or missing, one by one, each of the reindeers that pull the sled along different scenarios, which will force them to take measures, first absurd, then could be said as "extreme".

As the flick is nearing its final development will be just when Steve and his father come to understand what Arthur meant when he emphasized the importance of every child receiving his gift and no matter the difficulty thatt that could implied.

The intelligence with which the directors have put into images the pose is so outstanding that one could even ask, "Why did I have to grow up and stop believing in Santa?". Out of the many endings, which as I said before, seem things of the "cut and paste", in this case we have a script that uses fresh material and ideas to focus on the meaning of gifts and to discover the magic that comes with that moment when the kid opens the present and smiles.

My rating: 8/10

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