# Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas is a 2011 animated Christmas comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, and Aardman Features and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film is Aardman's second computer-animated feature film after 2006's Flushed Away. It was directed by Sarah Smith (in her feature directorial debut), co-directed by Barry Cook, written by Smith and Peter Baynham, and starring the voices of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley Jensen. The film tells the story of Santa Claus' family as one of his sons works to deliver an overlooked bicycle to a little girl in Trelew, Cornwall, England before Christmas morning.
Following the under-performance of Flushed Away, DreamWorks Animation did not renew its partnership with Aardman. In April 2007, Aardman signed a three-year deal with Sony Pictures. Originally titled Operation Rudolph, the project was first announced in 2007. Aardman spent 18 months on pre-production on the story and design in the UK before relocating to Sony's animation studio in Culver City, California, for another 18 months of production. On 27 April 2009, it was reported that production had begun with Aardman and Sony Pictures Imageworks working together on animation.
Arthur Christmas was released on 11 November 2011 in the United Kingdom, and on 23 November in the United States. The film received positive reviews from critics, and was a sleeper hit earning $147 million at the box office.

## Plot

Santa Claus is a title belonging to gift-givers that has been carried on for 20 generations. The twentieth Santa Claus named Malcolm Claus is heading his 70th mission, but his role has been reduced to that of a figurehead. The traditional sleigh and reindeer have been replaced by a high-tech vessel called the S-1 that is operated by hundreds of elves who use advanced equipment and military precision to deliver presents. These operations are micromanaged by Malcolm's son named Steve underneath the North Pole. Steve's clumsy and panophobic younger brother named Arthur answers letters from kids. During a delivery operation, a child wakes up and almost sees Malcolm. An elf in the S-1 inadvertently presses a button, causing a present to fall off of a conveyor.
After returning to the North Pole, Malcolm gives a congratulatory speech to the elves. He announces that he has decided to be Santa for another year, much to Steve's frustration; he had been anticipating becoming the next Santa. During the Clauses' Christmas dinner, Arthur's suggestion to play a board game degenerates into a petty argument while Malcolm's father, Grandsanta, criticizes the modernization of the present delivering. Distraught, the family members leave the dinner table.
An elf named Bryony finds the missed present and alerts Steve. Arthur is horrified when he recognizes the present is a bicycle for a little girl named Gwen Hines who lives in Trelew, Cornwall, England. Arthur alerts his father who is at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Steve argues that one missed present is an acceptable error. Grandsanta on the other hand, proposes delivering the present using his old sleigh called Eve (mispronounced as Evie) and the great-great-grandchildren of Saint Nicholas' reindeer, forcefully whisking away Arthur and a stowaway Bryony. They get lost in three different continents, lose several reindeer, and land in danger several times, ultimately being mistaken for aliens and causing an international military incident. Through all of this, Arthur eventually learns that Grandsanta did not come for Gwen but to fulfill his ego.
After losing the sleigh and the remaining reindeer, Grandsanta tells Arthur that the night that he last took the sleigh out, Malcolm and Steve decided to have the sleigh scrapped. Arthur realizes that it all comes down to having presents delivered, regardless of how it is done and who did it. With Grandsanta's and Bryony's help, he manages to recover the sleigh. After the elves start to panic about the neglected delivery, Steve, Malcolm and Mrs Claus take the S-1 to deliver a bike to Gwen. However, they end up in a Trelew in Mexico where Arthur, Grandsanta and Bryony were. Steve gives the bike to a little boy named Pedro but he tries to take it back after realizing that he is not in England.
Arthur, Grandsanta and Bryony lose the remaining reindeer. A General Atomics MQ-1 Predator opens fire, causing them to bail out of the sleigh. All of the male Clauses arrive at Gwen's house before she wakes up only for all of them except Arthur to argue about who gets to place the present. Noticing that only Arthur truly cares about Gwen, they let him place the present. Steve, acknowledging that Arthur is the worthy Santa, forfeits his birthright to Arthur.
One year later, a postscript mentions that Malcolm retires and becomes Grand-Santa's new companion, Steve finds contentment as Chief Operating Officer, Bryony is promoted to Vice-President of Packing, Pacific Division, and the S-1 is renamed EVIE in honor of Grandsanta's sleigh and refitted to be pulled by five thousand reindeer led by the original eight who have managed to return safely.

## Cast
### Claus family

* James McAvoy as Arthur Claus, Malcolm and Margaret's clumsy, eccentric, panophobic, and good-natured younger son who works in the mailroom. He is also Steve's younger brother and Grandsanta's younger grandson.
* Hugh Laurie as Steve Claus, Malcolm and Margaret's older son, Arthur's older brother and Grandsanta's older grandson who is cynical, joyless and incredibly capable of orienting businesses.
* Bill Nighy as Grandsanta, the 136-year-old free-spirited and reckless grandfather of Steve and Arthur. He's a staunchly traditional former Santa (as well as Malcolm's father) who dislikes the modern world. A post-retirement joyriding incident during the Cuban Missile Crisis caused the Claus family to ban him from flying. He comes out of retirement to help Arthur, but his unfamiliarity with the modern world leads them into trouble.
* Jim Broadbent as Malcolm Claus / Santa Claus, the affable and ineffective man in charge at the North Pole. He is Grandsanta's son, Margaret's husband and Steve and Arthur's father. Broadbent also played the same character of Santa Claus in Get Santa (2014).
* Imelda Staunton as Margaret Claus / Mrs. Claus, Malcolm's wife and Steve and Arthur's mother.

### Christmas elves

* Ashley Jensen as Bryony Shelfley, a Christmas elf with a Scottish accent who ends up tagging along with Arthur and Grandsanta on a mission to deliver the present for Gwen Hines.
* Marc Wootton as Peter, a Christmas elf and Steve's obsequious assistant.
* Michael Palin as Ernie Clicker, a Christmas elf and the former head of the Polar communications. He is brought out of retirement to help Steve find Grandsanta's old-fashioned sleigh.
The lead Christmas elves are voiced by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Robbie Coltrane, Joan Cusack, Rhys Darby, Jane Horrocks, Iain McKee, Andy Serkis, and Dominic West.
The other Christmas elves are voiced by Peter Baynham, Kevin Cecil, Cody Cameron, Kevin Eldon, Rich Fulcher, Bronagh Gallagher, Pete Jack, Danny John-Jules, Emma Kennedy, Stewart Lee, Seamus Malone, Kris Pearn, Alan Short, Sarah Smith, and Adam Tandy.

### Other characters

* Ramona Marquez as Gwen Hines, a little girl who lives in Trelew, Cornwall, England. She wants a bicycle for Christmas that Arthur must deliver to.
* Laura Linney as the voice of the North Pole computer
* Eva Longoria as Chief De Silva, the head of UNFITA (which stands for "United Northern Federal International Treaty Alliance").
* Jerry Lambert as N.O.R.A.D.
* Miggie Donahoe as Pedro, a boy who Steve unknowingly tries to give a bicycle to after Malcolm entered the wrong Trelew into the S-1.
* Finlay Duff as French Boy
* Rich Hall as Idaho Man
* Clint Dyer and Donnie Long as the two reporters
* Deborah Findlay and David Schneider as the two generals
* Ian Ashpitel, Julia Davis and Kerry Shale as the three UNFITA employees
Additional voices by Tamsin Greig and Alistair McGowan

## Production

Arthur Christmas was first announced in 2007, under the name Operation Rudolph. It was the first film made by Aardman Animations in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment and its subsidiaries (mainly Sony Pictures Animation), after they parted ways with DreamWorks Animation.
Aardman spent 18 months on pre-production on the story and design in the UK before relocating to Sony's Culver City, US, for another 18 months of production. On 27 April 2009, it was reported that production had begun with Aardman and Sony Pictures Imageworks working together on animation.

## Music

The film was originally set to be scored by Michael Giacchino and Adam Cohen. But, both were replaced by Harry Gregson-Williams at the last minute, having a short span to score the film. The music was distinguished into two approaches on how the Santa Claus family sees Christmas, especially through details that determine the two distinctive characters. Gregson-Williams described the score as devoid of electronics and led by tunes, melody and themes. He used an ensemble orchestra containing 80 players, to provide a colourful orchestration. The album was released on 14 November 2011 by Sony Classical.

## Release

Arthur Christmas was released on 11 November 2011 in the United Kingdom and on 23 November 2011 in the United States. The music video for Justin Bieber's rendition of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town", which plays over the end credits, was exclusively shown in theatres before the film.

### Home media

Arthur Christmas was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on 6 November 2012, in the US, and 19 November 2012 in the UK.

## Reception
### Critical response

Arthur Christmas holds an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 170 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The consensus reads, "Aardman Animations broadens their humor a bit for Arthur Christmas, a clever and earnest holiday film with surprising emotional strength." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
John Anderson of Newsday praised the film as "not only funny and fresh, but . . . a new way of tackling the whole yuletide paradigm: Santa as a high-tech hereditary monarchy." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post described it as "unexpectedly fresh, despite the familiar-sounding premise". Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote that "the plot may be a little too cluttered for the toddler crowd to follow, but the next age group up should be amused, and the script by Peter Baynham and Sarah Smith has plenty of sly jokes for grown-ups." Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald stated that "the movie fails utterly at coming up with a story that merits all the eye candy." Empire film critic Olly Richards gave the film four out of five stars, feeling that the "UFO plotline doesn’t really hold together and, like Santa, the film’s a little flabby around the middle, where it briefly quite literally starts going round in circles and loses a bit of the fun. But it finds an ending that stuffs in all the Christmas jollity and huggy business that is absolutely core to a Christmas movie but without the overdone syrupy nonsense that makes you want to go to the nearest shopping centre and kick over a nativity scene." He concluded that the film "could very well come to be regarded as a Christmas classic". Independent Critic called Arthur Christmas, "a good-hearted, silly and sweet film that it feels like the closest thing we've had in a few years to a minor Christmas classic. The film's mid-section flags a bit as Smith and co-writer Baynham can't quite seem to figure out how to completely flesh it out, but they recover nicely and serve up the holiday season's first salvo of cinematic delight", and praised the voice cast, though felt that Bieber's song was "a disappointingly commercial twist on an otherwise tender-hearted and infectious Christmas film for the entire family." One reviewer, while light in criticism of the animation, called Justin Bieber’s rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" "blatant" and "inexcusable".

### Box office

Arthur Christmas earned $46,462,469 in North America, $33,334,089 in the UK, and $67,622,914 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $147,419,472.
In the United Kingdom the film opened in second place with a £2.5 million weekend gross, behind Immortals. It topped the box office in its fourth week, by which time the cumulative gross was £11.5 million. The film returned to the top of the box office on week seven, during Christmas week, grossing £2.05 million and a total of £19.7 million.
In the United States and Canada the film earned $2.4 million on its opening day and $1.8 million on Thanksgiving Day. It would go on to gross $12.1 million over the three-day weekend and $16.3 million over the five-day period. This was on par with studio expectations. The film went on to gross nearly $50 million domestically against a $100 million budget.

### Accolades

Accolades received by Arthur Christmas :
| Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Animated Film | | Nominated |
| Annie Awards | Best Animated Feature | | Nominated |
| Annie Awards | Character Design in a Feature Production | Peter de Sève | Nominated |
| Annie Awards | Storyboarding in a Feature Production | Kris Pearn | Nominated |
| Annie Awards | Voice Acting in a Feature Production | Ashley Jensen | Nominated |
| Annie Awards | Voice Acting in a Feature Production | Bill Nighy | Won |
| Annie Awards | Writing in a Feature Production | Sarah Smith, Peter Baynham | Nominated |
| British Academy of Film and Television Arts | Animated Film | | Nominated |
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Feature | | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association | Animated Film | | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Award | Best Animated Feature Film | | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society | Best Animated Feature | | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | | Nominated |
| San Diego Film Critics Society | Best Animated Film | | Won |
| Visual Effects Society | Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Doug Ikeler, Chris Juen, Alan Short, Mandy Tankenson | Nominated |
| Visual Effects Society | Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Michael Ford, David Morehead, Emi Tahira | Nominated |
| Women Film Critics Circle | Best Animated Females | | Nominated |
| Young Artist Award | Best Performance in a Voice-over Role, Young Actress | Ramona Marquez | Nominated |

## Video game

An iOS video game titled Arthur Christmas: Elf Run was released in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2011, on iTunes App Store. On 18 November 2011, the game was released worldwide on the iOS and Android platform. Released as a free and a premium version, the game allows players to play as delivery elves, who must quickly and quietly deliver gifts to children. Another iOS app based on the film is Arthur Christmas Movie Storybook, which was released on 30 November 2011.