The Worst Film Ever

Perfect cast and a good story

not horrible nor great

Lack of good storyline.

It's hard these days to be an animated movie that's not Pixar or (more and more) Dreamworks. This movie kind of fell short for me, but wasn't too bad.Arthur Christmas is an interesting take on the Christmas narrative that seems a bit too dark and a little all-over-the-place.By dark, I mean, it focuses entirely on the Santa Claus line, while apparently belittling everyone from the Elves to Mrs. Claus. I expect a bit more cheer, or at least recognition, in my holiday flicks, but this movie never offered it. It's a simple, cheap (time, emotion, etc) film to watch, but don't expect yourself to be brimming with joviality after.

It's beginning to become cliché that in Christmas you have to watch movies that have to do with Santa. However, the movies that manage to emerge are either low quality TV movies, or movies based on old ones that really don't have anything new to say. Arthur Christmas is not like the other movies, as the whole family of Santa and their enterprise of giving gifts and delivering them on time is nicely described by the movie. So, the first part was okay, and the last part was fine, however there's a hole in the middle that ruins the rest. At some point, things go way too confusing to follow, and probably way too confusing for the creators as well. Other than that, a nice movie for the family. So, 4 out of 10.

Movies about Santa Claus tend to be rather... traditional. What I mean, they usually keep with the old and tried values. Lots of woodworking, hand-crafting, old methods, putting your back into it. Thus, it is very nice and different to see a film where Santa uses extremely modern methods to achieve his goals. The sleigh has been replaced with an ultra high-tech spaceship, the elves work more like highly-trained special ops units, everything is run with the precision of a military operation and the children are merely a statistic to be achieved.And yet, in the end, not really. That's the first five minutes, the starting point, but the film still holds with the spirit of the old. It simply takes into account the fact that Santa probably would keep up with the achievements of technology, while also exploring the downsides of this. Okay, what's the story? Arthur Christmas, the eponymous main character, is the younger son of Santa, who in turn is the scion of a long life of Santas. And now, during his 70th Christmas Eve, he's all set to turn the reins over to Steve, Arthur's older brother, but it just so happens that they miss a child. And through various reasons it's up to Arthur to save the Christmas of this one lone child, really an insignificant error in an otherwise flawless performance.Pretty basic Christmas story, but it's the premise and the characters that make it worth watching. The animation is very high-quality, the character designs look very nice, the soundtrack works and all in all it looks suitably Christmasy. And the characters are great. From bumbling and senile Grandsanta to the current Santa, who's far past his prime, to Steve, who's ultra-efficient, but self-admittedly not that good with kids, to Arthur himself, who lacks self-confidence and precision, but is pretty much the only one with his heart still in the right place.It's a fun film, and definitely a future Christmas classic. It will dazzle you with its vision and characters, while still delivering the same good old Christmas message that we all expect from our Yuletide films.

***potential spoilers***A surprisingly pleasant new twist on the legend of Santa Claus give the kids and parents ( or freaks like me) a more modern but believable background to the Claus family and their giving ways which have been carried on for generations. Like the new world we live to Santa to has advanced over the years and its now "Operation Santa" when Christmas times roles around. And with Santa on the brink of retirement and his tech savvy son Steve Claus (played by Hugh Laurie) ready to take his place we see the family struggles of Claus and their egos. With a handful of stars in this flick the names that caught my eye were Laurie and James McAvoy but Grand-Santa played by Octopus Face Bill Nighy at times steals the show as he and Arthur try and save Christmas for one little girl in London England. Both feeling they have something to prove the clumsy Arthur and the Grouchy but loving Grand-Santa help bring the spirit of Christmas back to the rest of Claus Family in a cool modern take on saving Christmas. And all in less than 2 hours.Ps. This film also stars Joan Cusack so watch out. AAAARRRRRRHHHH