Matt O’Connor
It’s Day 14 of the Beacon’s Christmas Countdown! Aardman is mainly known for their stop motion animated films like the Wallace & Gromit franchise. But in 2011, they released a Christmas film in partnership with Sony Pictures. This movie is truly unlike anything else we’ve looked at and tells a fun and heartwarming story about Kris Kringle and his family.
In the film, the role of Santa Claus is mantle passed down through the family, and Malcolm (The 20th Santa) is heading the operations for the Christmas season. The present delivery process has been greatly altered through the inclusion of modern technology, and Santa’s transportation vessel (known as the S-1) is piloted by his son Steve remotely. But our main hero is Steve’s younger brother Authur, who answers the letters addressed to Santa. But when a bicycle falls off the S-1, Arthur and an elf named Bryony set out to deliver the gift to a young girl named Gwen.
Arthur Christmas takes a very different approach when it comes to telling the story of what goes down on Christmas Eve, but it does so in a creative way that really gets you invested. One of the main conflicts in the film comes from within the Claus family as Grandsanta believes that the Christmas season has become too modernized, and the resolution of that conflict delivers a strong message.
Aardman always delivers what it comes to their animated projects, and Arthur Christmas is certainly no exception. In my opinion, it’s one of the most underrated Christmas movies out there and really deserves some more appreciation. It’s really a holiday tale unlike any other.
