2011 · animation · family · comedy
Arthur Christmas
Directed by Sarah Smith1h 37m2011
For hundreds of years, the Claus family has delegated the title "Santa" to a chosen few of its members, which can be passed down upon retirement. Each Christmas, Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in a one-night high-tech operation. However, when one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed ‘acceptable’ to all but one—Arthur Claus, the current Santa’s misfit son deemed ineligible for the title, who executes an unauthorised rookie mission to get the last present halfway around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.
Our read: Arthur Christmas (2011) reads as a cosy, kinetic, grounded animation · family · comedy entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, tender in temperature, redemptive in outlook.
Cosy, kinetic, measured animation / family, grounded in texture. Redemptive, mid-stakes, tender.
- cosy
- brisk
- redemptive
- tender
Watching Arthur Christmas tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How Arthur Christmas feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want heartwarming Christmas animation with clever logistics and British wit.”
Skip it tonight — You are not in a holiday mood or dislike family animation formulas.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Arthur Christmas, with why →
Discussion
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