Arthur Christmas a delightful movie for kids that parents won’t hate

So I fired up last week’s column and recycled the nonsense that is my omnipresent Top 10 list of Christmas movies and then watched Arthur Christmas and feel the need to update it.
It’s a delight
Arthur is the current Santa Claus’s son, or Father Christmas as he is known around the north pole.
Arthur’s brother Steve wants to take over the operation but dad Malcolm isn’t quite ready to step down.
It’s a mini Christmas coup waiting to happen.
This is animation from Aardman and it just keeps getting better. It’s other-worldy enough to be current, but there’s more fluidity to it and of course they are limited by their imaginations which aren’t very limited at all.
Our story so far.
In one of the better moments in the film we get to see Steve’s ability to orchestrate an army-like delivery system that gets every present out to every kid around the world.
Except one. When they get back they find a gift tucked in the back of the sleigh, and when Steve seems uninterested in solving this problem, Arthur takes it on himself to deliver it.
And so it’s on. A different kind of road trip. And what’s a road trip without a buddy – in this case his Grandsanta (cute eh) voiced by Bill Nighy, who has a great voice.)
And they’re off.
It’s fun. Gransanta is brilliant. They get lost repeatedly and pops asks Arthur to put him and his reindeer out of their misery with a rock.
In one of the funniest moments in the film, they despair at the seemingly insurmountable odds facing them in their quest and Grandsanta says “Hey, don’t give up. They used to think you couldn’t teach a woman to read.”
Snap. In its context it’s not a bad line so save your emails for www.Imtoosensitive.com
I really liked this movie.
And so did my six-year-old granddaughter Anna which is all that really matters at the end of the day.
Do we see room for Arthur to ascend to the sleigh? Will Steve get a job working for the post office since he seems 3/4 of the way to going postal already, and does this restore the Christmas mystique? Oh, get a hobby folks it’s a movie for kids that parents won’t hate.
I think just on the strength of explaining how all those presents get out it should make the Top 10 which means something has to get bumped. These are kinder gentler times. Bad Santa’s off the list. Kills me to say that but perhaps four pages of overdubbed swear words does take away from the Christmas spirit. In Bad Santa – not this movie
It’s sweet and kinda funny and captures something a lot of the pretender contenders miss. It’s funny. And Christmasy.
As always, other opinions are welcome, but wrong. That’s it for this week. The cheque’s in the mail and I’m outta here. Paul