Movie review in the Friday, Nov. 25 Oregonian....
Aardman Animations' holiday cartoon "Arthur Christmas" comes up with a clever answer to the question, "How could Santa Claus deliver all those presents around the world in a single night?"
Turns out the role of "Santa Claus" has been played by multiple generations of single family, and they've ramped up their operation over the centuries to keep up with technology and population growth. Where a sleigh pulled by reindeer levitating on magic dust once did the job, now it's a large-scale military operation involving a massive hovercraft, cloaking devices and tens of thousands of paramilitary elves. The film opens with a giddy, extremely funny set piece in which presents are deployed over a major city with soulless, Tom Clancy black-ops efficiency.
"Arthur Christmas" loses much of that zip (but retains much of its charm) after it settles into its main story -- which involves three generations of the Claus family bickering while the youngest, Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy), tries to deliver a single overlooked present, aided by his barmy grandfather (Bill Nighy) and an overeager elf (Ashley Jensen).
Arthur is sort of a dull hero, but the grandfather is classic, hilarious Aardman -- a thoroughly British eccentric prone to weird nostalgic/fatalistic utterances. (For example, talking about how he used to deal with kids when they'd wake up and see him: "Just give 'em a knock on the head with a sock full of sand and a bit of whisky on the lips!") If they make a sequel, they should just partner ranty old Grandsanta with the peppy elf and leave Arthur at the North Pole.
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(97 min., PG, multiple locations) Grade: B
'Arthur Christmas' (The Oregonian, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011)
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