Arthur Christmas: Difference between revisions

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The film is set on Christmas Eve, and at last reveals the answer to every child's question: "So how does [[Santa Claus]] deliver all those presents in one night?" It is thanks to Santa's ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. It also turns out that being Santa Claus is an inheritable position, passed from father to son. Except this time, there are ''two'' sons who are prospective Santas: the titular Arthur, whose heart is in the right place but is a bumbler, and his brother Steve, who is extremely efficient but more serious. When one out of the 2 billion presents is missed, it's up to Arthur to complete the mission - with a little help from the his grandfather (the previous Santa Claus) and a plucky female elf named Bryony - before Christmas morning dawns and a child's heart breaks. This must be done, of course, without being discovered by the rest of the world. Naturally, [[Hilarity Ensues|this turns out to be much harder than it sounds]].

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* [[3D Movie]]

* [[Adorkable]]: Arthur, the title character.

* [[All CGI Cartoon]]

* [[Disney Death]]: {{spoiler|Grandsanta.}} In an extremely touching moment, he sacrifices himself to protect Arthur - but it turns out he {{spoiler|outfell the explosion and shows up a couple minutes later in a wheely bin.}}

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The high-tech actions of the elves at each landing site are a bit like ''[[Prep and Landing]]'' turned [[Up to Eleven]].

* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: The Clauses; they're even described that way in one of the official synopses of the film. Steve and Grandsanta are constantly battling over the way to handle the operation, Malcolm is relatively out of touch with everything, Margaret is the [[Only Sane Man]] who tries to maintain order, and Arthur...just wants everyone to be happy. {{spoiler|By the end of the film, they are.}}

* [[Everyone Is Christian At Christmas]]: According to the statistics, averted. They deliver two billion presents, but only to six hundred million children out of the world's 1.9 billion.

* [[Genki Girl]]: Bryony.

* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Grandsanta. He's 136 years old, and doesn't hesitate to act like it.

* [[Happily Ever After]]: Everyone, in the epilogue. Even Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|B-Bambi, John, You With The White Ear, You, and You.]]

* [[Happily Married]]: Malcolm and Margaret - Santa and Mrs. Claus, that is.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Exactly what happened on Grandsanta's last trip. {{spoiler|He almost caused World War Three during the Cuban Missile Crisis.}}

* [[Older Is Better]]: What Grandsanta believes. Steve, however, is all about newer is better and (he even says during the movie) [[Bigger Is Better]]. This pretty much constitutes one of the major conflicts of the film. Arthur, in contrast, has no problem with the new technologies {{spoiler|and finds himself rather dubious and terrified when introduced to the pitfalls of the traditional methods}}, but ''is'' very much attached to the traditional ideals of the Santa mystique: That somewhere in the world, there's a wonderful man who knows and dearly loves each and every child, wanting nothing more than for them to be happy. {{spoiler|When he realizes his father Malcolm doesn't truly embody these ideals, he's absolutely shattered, suffering a temporary [[Heroic BSOD]]}}.

* [[Red Herring]]: With so many animated films these days having a twist villain, you'd expect there to be a real villain in the film. {{spoiler|There isn't (unless you count Old Doom-laden Scottish Elf because of what he almost did in a panicked overreaction).}}

** In one scene, {{spoiler|Grandsanta tells Steve that the only way that he'll get to be Santa is if he bumps his father off}}. Neither one is really a villain either (though {{spoiler|Grandsanta}} is admittedly off his rocker and {{spoiler|Steve}} winds up having to go through a lesson in humility throughout the film).

* [[We All Live in America]]: In Denmark, we see that people have a turkey in the oven come Christmastime, and Christmas stockings hanging by the fireplace. There's no reason why they should. That's not how a Danish Christmas works. To be fair, there are a lot of things the film did get right, such as the German custom of leaving shoes out instead of stockings, and even a quick reference to the Finnish myth that Santa lives in Laapland.

** Also, the movie shows the Centre in Toronto as being spelled as "Center," the American spelling of centre.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Arthur, at first.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: [[Michael Giacchino]] wrote a score that ended up being rejected. Harry Gregson-Williams replaced him.

[[Category:The Millennium Age of Animation]]

[[Category:All CGI Cartoon]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]