92% Arthur Christmas

All Critics (121) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (111) | Rotten (10)

The action is swift and witty, and the 3-D effects are imaginative and not simply tacked on as with so many animated movies these days.

With a clever script that successfully updates many Christmas myths and dialogue that crackles with sophisticated wit, this movie offers the kind of pre-holiday experience that parents and children alike will appreciate.

Everything you see in Arthur Christmas is fashioned in the service of telling a story ... brilliantly

The results are not only funny and fresh, but represent a new way of tackling the whole yuletide paradigm: Santa as a high-tech hereditary monarchy.

For the kids, the action is always lively and, for the rest of us, the dialogue has a witty and even caustic edge.

The surprise gift of the season: a sharp, savvy holiday comedy that doesn't get its laughs at the expense of those who start to glow in the early days of December. It's a most entertaining package indeed.

The opening sequence, establishing the methodology of Santa and his army of elves, is a bit frantic, especially in 3-D, but once the story-proper begins the staging and timing are right on the money.

Arthur Christmas manages to deliver some holiday cheer.

What is most surprising about Arthur Christmas is not that it is beautifully animated... but that it is, legitimately, one of 2011's funniest comedies.

A very pleasant -- if hardly overwhelmingly great -- animated Christmas fantasy with at least two inspired choices for voice casting.

A charming and inventive exploration of the mysterious workings of Santa, his sons and his elves. This animated tale is sure to be popular for Christmases to come.

There's some great stuff here... What's missing is the delightful Britishness of Nick Park's films.

A fairly inventive Christmas movie that might get lost in the current glut of family movies

The film does have a nice ending. It just takes a little too long to get there.

The holiday season is an emotional rollercoaster for many reasons and Arthur Christmas does a neat job of exploring many of them while still being both heart-warming and wonderfully entertaining

The best Christmas movies have a kind of humility about them that's lacking here ...

A scene in which zebras, elephants and other African animals float like balloons in the air after an accidental dusting of Santa's flying-reindeer magic is close to surreal poetry.

'Arthur Christmas' gets off to a terrific start by letting inquisitive viewers know how the guy in the red suit manages to get all those toys to two billion kids on a single evening.

Arthur Christmas an early holiday gift.

The under-10 audience I saw it with were entranced, and, remarkably enough by itself, so were their parents. Huzzah, Aardman!

Here's hoping this becomes another family Christmas classic deserves. A veddy British take on the "monarchy" of Santa, this is an inventive, sweet-natured adventure about the importance of delivering a gift to the one child who was missed by Santa.

...a disappointing Christmas movie that never quite comes together. There just isn't enough Christmas cheer.

The idea of a Santa with a non-American accent will probably irk the same stateside folks who bristle at the thought of a non-Caucasian Jesus, but the mostly British cast has been carefully selected.

Not a bad little Christmas fable. The Aardman Animation wit is in full-effect anytime Bill Nighy's great Grandsanta is onscreen.

This is Aardman and they know better than to go cheap or easy. And by taking the smarter, sweeter route, they've created what should rightfully become a Christmas classic.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/arthur_christmas/

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