Arthur Christmas

One can tell this is the Christmas season in that we have seen a plethora of animated films, and not just animated, but seasonal animated. As with the case of "Arthur Christmas", you can tell Hollywood is trying to cash in on the holiday profits just as Madison Avenue does every year.

This story reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: 'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' The answer: Santa's exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the center of the film is a story of a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur (James McAvoy), with the help of Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) and elf, Bryony (Ashley Jensen) who embark on an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawn due to a major screw up by Santa (Jim Broadbent) and Steve (Hugh Laurie), who runs the operation.

Others to round out the cast are Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Santa, Marc Wootten as Peter, Steve's kiss-ass assistant, Laura Linney as the North Pole computer, Eva Longoria as Chief De Silva, and Ramona Marquez as Gwen.

For a director who has no feature film experience, but a ton of TV experience, Sarah Smith really excelled in this category. The emotion that was emitted and the pacing of the film was veteran quality. Equally, the writing by Peter Baynham and Smith was executed well, with the exception of a few inconsistencies.

The animation by both Sony Pictures and Aardman were seamless and exuded that look you'd expect from a Christmas-type film, so it just puts you in that mood to enjoy and have fun with. The 3D effects were good, but not necessarily needed, but if you have them mixed with the clever animation, it just makes the 'ride' that much more fun.

Out of 4 stars: 3.5                  Rated: PG                        97min.