Arthur Christmas

[TheDude]

Not my favourite animated film of the year, enjoyed Tangled, Rio and Rango a little more than this, but it's alright as Xmas films go, harmless fun for all.. 7/10

[superhero]

Sorry I have to disagree with most people, I thought how generic is this film! (I suppose you can't expect any radical changes to the well trodden path of making a Santa Claus film). The animation was quite bland in places and what a poor excuse of a storyline. I think most other people will give it higher marks as it's almost Christmas, it's an animation with some "cutesy" characters, but watching it strictly as a film, it's disappointing especially from the inventive Aardman team. 4/10

[prettyxcool]

I took mum to see this at the weekend at Cineworld 02 using my 3D vouchers, as they were due to expire soon. Would have liked to have watched this nearer Christmas though.

The queue was not particularly long, but there always seems to be at least a 15 minutes wait as you get your tickets and food at the same tills. The servers are just so slow. Glad we arrived at 3.40pm for the 4pm screening, because by the time we were served it was almost 3.55pm, yet it took us a minute to exchange our tickets and get the free Sky popcorn - so really don't understand what the two groups of people in front of us were doing before we were served!

Anyway, the programme was supposed to start at 4pm, a couple of minutes after that an 02 staff came in to apologise, server problems, need to reboot, which will take five minutes, but they will cut short the ads/trailers, so film will start and finish on time. At 4.20pm, he came back in and said, still problems, they need to completely reboot now so will be another 5 minutes! But if anyone wanted to go to a different screening, they could, but he would need to check which ones are starting at same time. No-one took up his offer. There were nothing really suitable for tiny kiddies. However, they were the most well behaved under 5's! The screening room was half full, mostly with families of these kiddies, sitting quietly while we waited, and they sounded like they enjoyed the film too.

Thought this was a lovely story, lively and fun, loved the elves. I also particularly liked Mother Christmas. But thought it a bit too shrill, and a lot of similarities to other animations. 7/10.

[McG]

I went to see Arthur this afternoon as this week has been pretty rubbish . . . . lost money, stressed, hospital appointment, etc.
I have to say I loved it!
Maybe I was in need of some light relief but it worked for me. The humour is definitely more aimed at adults as most of it would go over children's heads. There were a few pre 5 children in the audience who loved when Santa came on but I don't think they got as nuch from the film as we did. I loved the ice sculpture of Santa coming down (reminiscent of Saddam's statue!)
Yes, the animation is not that of Disney but the cost involved is also probably nowhere near it either!
I had an afternoon of escapism and needed it!

[raj101]

Great film. better than Despicable Me! This is more on par with Tangled at the beginning of the year/end of last.

[raj101]

Well, I think the biggest, most glaring plot hole is:

[spoiler]If they need to get to Cornwall by sun rise, why is the team still not working throughout the night? Let's be generous and say sun-rise is at 8am in Cornwall. That's midnight on the west coast of the US. No way would Santa be tucked away in bed and the operation be shut down already. And really this could have been avoided simply by having that one missed child reside somewhere on the west coast.[/spoiler]

lol true. not sure the target audience are expected to reason out Santa like that, but I can see this film bothering a wonderkid for its ignorance of time/space physics.

[Beate]

Finally saw this today - I say finally, it's not even Christmas yet! I thought the opening sequence was marvellous. Very exciting how the elves distributed all the presents in a precise military operation. It's also nice to see that the modern age has not bypassed Santa - there are computers, mobiles and other technical gadgets everywhere. I just don't like that we are led to believe that this means overlooked children don't matter anymore and that the "true meaning of Christmas" is to take an old sleigh named Eve and race some knackered old reindeer all across the world to deliver a pink bike before said child wakes up. In Cornwall. Not in Mexico, which is supposed to be hilarious.

Yes, it was funny. I did laugh quite a bit. Arthur in his garish jumper and hideous slippers is adorable, the dinner scene is very well observed, Elf Bryony deserves a special mention, and Grandsanta gets all the best lines. But I thought it was a bit boring in the middle and the ending was too sugary ("And she was happy." "And he was happy" - yes, we get it, everyone's happy!), and it was a bit strange to have so much writing on the screen in a kid's film - they can't read it that fast! The 3D added nothing and just made the colours duller. Wouldn't catch it again if it was on TV (well, maybe the opening scene).

Had a dream screening experience though. There was almost no one else watching, we got our favourite seats despite coming in during the trailers and no one talked or played with a mobile.

7/10

[Rainey]

I saw this today and I thought it was a nice but slow story, my hopes were high during the opening scene but we were all bored by half way through and my niece whose birthday it was and the reason why we went really wasn't impressed and fell asleep bless her.

A lot of the humour was aimed at adults and went over the children's heads and there wasn't a lot of laughs left for them really, they also didn't get why they didn't go back and 'save' the lost reindeers along the way and why they didn't care about them, it's a shame it could of been so much more but just didn't quite get there. Very sad to say it, but the kids even enjoyed the Chipmunks more than this and they would probably not choose to watch if it was on TV at home.

Also another film where the 3D was pointless.

[superhero]

wtf...Shan ross already has 52 likes already on the comp you just posted a_p.
I thought they stopped doing these popularity comps or I read somewhere it's not allowed on facebook or something...

[cheekyweelassie]

Left it until the very last day of validity for my Odeon vouchers to go and see this, and we ended up having a bit of a trek from home to a cinema that was still showing it, but I'm glad we went as it was fun and cheery.
There was a couple in front of us, each with a young child on their lap, and the kids were as good as gold and both seemed glued to the film.
I thought it was a clever way to answer all the questions that kids have about how Santa delivers on Christmas, and it was a nice bit of escapist magic for the adults. I laughed quite a lot, and I thought the animation was great. We deliberately sought out a 2D showing because 3D is usually so underwhelming and just gives me a headache for an extra cost.
I'd like to show this to my nephew when he's a couple of years older, and I'd be happy to watch it again.
The trailers included a forthcoming Aardman film about pirates which also looked good.
8/10