Arthur Christmas (Blu-ray + UV Copy) [2011] [Region Free]

What a nice little movie this is. Arthur Christmas is very predictable but also a very enjoyable animated comedy that the whole family can enjoy. Aardman animation have now become the British version of Pixar, with Chicken Run, Wallace and Grommitt in The Curse Of The Wererabbit, the underrated Flushed Away and now Arthur Christmas, a charming tale about Santa's youngest son, Arthur, who is determined to make sure a little girl gets her christmas present after it accidentally gets left behind at the north pole. A very good voice cast, James Mcavoy is Arhur, Jim Broadbent is Santa, Hugh Laurie is Arthur's oldest brother and next in line to take over the family business, Steve and Bill Nighy is Grandpa Santa, nearly stealing the entire movie. Animation is very good and there are lots of neat and very funny touches like Santa's elf helpers acting like a marine commando squad when delivering presents, the huge sleigh that looks like a huge spaceship which explains how Santa delivers all the presents in one night and some great and very memorable characters. This will leave you with a big silly grin despite the very predictable plot and only the hardest of hearts or a real grinch could possibly hate it.

Today you get an impression of the amount of lag there sometimes is between me seeing a film and getting the time to actually write down my impressions of it. Tis the start of spring, yet I am now getting around to reviewing 2011's big Christmas hit `Arthur Christmas'. Brought to you by the Claymation talents of Aardman, but like with their earlier (and criminally under looked) `Flushed Away' this is a CGI affair, rather than their more famed plasticine creations. `Arthur' tells the story of Father Christmas' son Arthur and his refusal to allow even one child to go without at Christmas. So far so sickly sweet, but there is an added bit of spice to the film that lifts it from empty child fantasy into something all the family can enjoy - humour.

`Arthur Christmas' is a funny film, especially when Bill Nighy's Grandpa Christmas is on screen. The great Claymation may not be in evidence, but the Aardman funny bone is. Directors Sarah Smith and Barry Cook manage to balance the films comedy whilst still being able to make it a `true meaning of Christmas' style film. Children will enjoy the experience of being in Santa's Grotto, whilst the adults can enjoy some of the sly digs. I am not always a fan of moments being in kids films for the grownups, but in this case it works.

After watching `Arthur Christmas' I was filled with the joys of the season and this is what this type of film should do. The voice cast was filled with great British actors inc. McAvoy, Laurie and Nighy and they are all excellent. However, there is no denying that this film is not up to the standards of `Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit'. I believe this is due to time. A CGI film is relatively quick to make, whilst Claymation takes years. With manual animation you spend countless hours studying the sets and keep adding to them as you think up new visual gags - Wallace is full of them, whilst `Arthur' is strangely devoid of them. Perhaps they did not have time to add that extra Aardman magic to the film.

Being worse than `Wallace and Gromit' is no shame in itself, most things are. `Arthur' remains one of the best recent Christmas films and will be a standard of the season for decades to come.

The movie is great: funny, clever and a joy for all ages over repeat viewings. The UV copy is however a total pain in the behind. Rather than just put in a code and get a download to my iPad I had to sign up for two different web accounts, download a third piece of software and now, hours later, it still hasn't downloaded the movie. God knows if I can get it transfer to the iPad. All a bit rich to use something I've bought. Amazon, use your clout to tell the studios to drop this UV nonsense as soon as possible.