Arthur Christmas

4.5/5

I really loved the direction this film took to a christmas movie. It steered away from the hackneyed "Christmas is about being together" moral and instead went to the slightly less hackneyed "be a good person, not just a person who does good" moral. It was refreshing to see this in a christmas film, and it worked really well. I also REALLY enjoyed the lack of magic in this film. It steered away from the stupidity of Santa using inexplicable magic to fly around the world and instead gave him a (really freakin cool looking) UFO called the S-1, "fairy dust" was actually a mix of various chemicals and whatnot that reacted with the reindeer to make them fly, etc. That world is far more fun to explore instead of this world where we have to buy magic, its more fun to buy fake technology. The animation was really beautiful as well. Wonderful shots of the northern lights, great shots of the icy north pole and ariel shots around the world. This is definitely one for the kids, but i think parents will have just as much fun. It's really adorable, and even gets a bit emotional.