Arthur Christmas in 3D Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' The answer: Santa's exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But this year, Santa's son Arthur has an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.
Arthur Christmas delivers a delightful display of holiday hurrah, a bundle of joyous Christmas spirit, and the gift of laughter, all wrapped up in
beautiful animation and world-class voice work. Sony Pictures Animation sometimes seems like the forgotten studio behind DreamWorks Animation
and Pixar, but their stock should rise with what may be the most entertaining and heartfelt Christmas movie of the past few years. Arthur
Christmas is a dazzling spectacle packed with nearly blinding eye candy, but it's also an honest film with touching core themes on persistence and
the importance of believing in something good, righteous, dependable, and personal. The film incorporates all sorts of new, even some
radical, ideas into the greater Santa Claus mythos, all of which are welcome additions, particularly as the film embraces traditional (nonreligious)
Christmas narratives with cutting-edge ideas. At its core, however, Arthur Christmas is simply a touching high tech movie affair that's
populated by memorable characters and that offers both a meaningful plot and top-notch animation. In other words, it's Christmas movie gold (and
red and green with a
twinkle of tinsel).
Artie Christmas.
Christmas sure has come a long way. What was once a jolly old fat man in a red suit with a sack full of presents, sliding down chimneys after
hopping off a magical sled pulled by eight (or nine) reindeer has given way to a high tech operation of startling efficiency that uses the newest of the
new gizmos and gadgets, including the formidable S-1, the North Pole's pride and joy aircraft capable of incredible propulsion and digital
camouflage
that
can adapt to any environment. It's also the mobile home base for an army of elves trained to deliver packages with the sort of stealth and exacting
precision that would
impress even Ethan Hunt. In the middle of it all is Santa (voiced by Jim Broadbent), a
veteran of several decades on the job and thought to soon be hanging up the suit -- maybe after this very Christmas -- and handing the now
figurative reigns over to his son Steve (voiced by Hugh Laurie), a dashing young charismatic man with a strong chin and a firm grasp on the
command operations on board the S-1. Christmas has turned into a high precision affair but one without that personal holiday touch; milk
is now lapped up
into a container, cookies are turned into biofuel, and the old sack and chimney routine has been replaced by more "efficient" means.
Only
Santa's bumbling son Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy) still gives the holiday the personal touch it deserves. He personally answers all of the letters
Santa
receives and makes it his mission to ensure that every child finds exactly what he or she wants under the tree. When a gift delivery goes bad and
the
entire operation on board the S-1 briefly shuts down in a panic, a single present becomes lost in the shuffle, leaving one English girl without
the pink bicycle she so desperately wants. With time running out until daybreak and Steve not wanting to spend so much effort to deliver one gift,
Arthur and his grandfather (voiced by Bill Nighy), a retired Santa, set out to deliver the gift in the old 1845-vintage sleigh with a few elderly reindeer
out front.
The sleigh may be an antique but its gears still turn, its knobs still work, and the creased leather bench seat is still comfortable. Nevertheless, it will
take a
real Santa to get the gift to its destination before Christmas is ruined for one young girl with high hopes and a willingness to believe.
Arthur Christmas tells a story that blends the old with the new and demonstrates how even cutting edge technology cannot replace a
personal
holiday touch, how gadgets and gizmos cannot make up for a lack of Christmas spirit, how even one miscalculation can have potentially disastrous
effects on holiday cheer. The movie finds a wealth of intimacy in what begins as a hugely impersonal Christmas Eve voyage, the tale of Santa's high
tech vessel performing incredible physics-defying feats and making use of radical technology while its crew carries out its duties with faultless
clockwork
precision. Yet all that wizardry, the film states, cannot substitute for heart or replace the soul on either side of the Christmas equation, those giving
gifts or those receiving gifts. And when all that technological marvel fails -- just by the tiniest insignificant fraction -- the human spirit
rises,
refusing to settle for "nearly perfect" and turning Christmas Eve into a personal mission to guarantee happiness for just a single child. The movie is
a
reflection of the modern world, using Christmas as a lens not to critique the place of technology in society but at least to comment on the ever
growing
impersonal nature of the world and, of course, on important occasions like Christmas. It's not so much about efficiency but rather the spirit of giving
and the joys of receiving. It's not about saving time but rather savoring time, cherishing those special moments that are most certainly worth the
effort, whether that means a trip to the corner store or a voyage around the world in a rickety old sleigh with a handful of retired reindeer cutting a
path through the Christmas Eve sky, all for the payoff that priceless Christmas morning smile.
Arthur Christmas also dazzles away from its plot. The movie is every bit an animation champion, assembling not only a top-notch story
packed with wholesome values, honest drama, lots of humor, and a readily evident tenderness but also superb animation and voice acting that make
the movie a complete experience to be cherished for many holiday seasons to come. Sony and Aardman Animations have left no digital stone
unturned, creating a wonderfully unique and visually arresting world, both at the icy North Pole and on board the S-1, Santa's massive high
speed gift delivery vessel, complete with nifty invisibility technology and a design that's a hybrid of Santa's old reindeer-powered sleigh and the
starship Enterprise. The movie offers razor-sharp and intricately detailed
elements, right down to the last background elf, the smallest computer monitor off in the corner, the tiniest little bit of fuzz on Arthur's
sweater. Animated movies simply cannot be more polished than this in 2012, and whatever technology that's to come won't be able to mask this
film's superb visuals or lessen its dramatic impact, even if it's one day viewed with nostalgia rather than awe. The voice acting is the exacting final
detail to
bring it all together. James McAvoy is superb as Arthur, finding the right cadence for every moment, from exuberant letter-writer to deflated second
fiddle, from frustrated traveler to satisfied gift-giver. Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, and Hugh Laurie are also strong as the family Santa hierarchy, but
McAvoy definitely shapes the movie above many others of its kind with a faultless representation of the newest, and one of the best, animated
holiday heroes.
Arthur Christmas features a solid, though not spectacular, Blu-ray 3D image. The picture offers good general depth but there's not a single
frame in the film that will truly leave viewers breathless with the scope of the 3D picture element. To be sure, that added depth benefits all of the big,
sprawling S-1 interiors, but not to any sort of revelatory, "holy smokes" sort of eye-popping moment. Instead, the depth is merely adequate,
fairly portraying the ship's mass but never truly placing the viewer in its midst. The 3D effect works best in several scenes depicting crowds of elves. In
such shots, the sense of space between them -- even as they are bunched together -- is clear, and each one down the line from front to back takes on a
very real, tangible shape. A few elements are also nice and shapely, such as the mailbox in which Gwen drops her letter to Santa at film's open.
Otherwise, there's not much more to the 3D visuals. Elves dropping down from the S-1 on a gift-giving mission look as if they're about to burst
through the screen, but such elements are rare and there's not much extra-screen material. On the other hand, the general picture attributes also
sparkle. The image carries over the same fantastic color from the 2D release, and there's no obvious drop in vibrancy from 2D to 3D. Details remain
sharp and very well defined, too. This is a good 3D image, but it's not a "WOW!" 3D image, and 3D owners will have to decide which reaction is
worth their extra cash.
Arthur Christmas features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's up to the challenge of complimenting the film's rich visuals.
The track excels
in presenting everything with just right sense of harmony and balance, creating a realistic atmosphere in every location. Whether the sense of
cavernous space and the various beeps and bloops aboard the S-1 or the sounds of the sea, the African desert, or the barely audible early
morning small town England effects, Sony's track offers a precision listening experience that shapes every single environmental dynamic with the
utmost accuracy. There's a nice sense of power and heftiness to the S-1 in exterior scenes, and some of the more action-oriented sound effects
play very well, with natural spacing, great clarity, and faultless balance. Music, likewise, features the same characteristics, playing with natural spacing
and fine clarity. Dialogue is crisp and faultlessly delivered, even finding just the right amount of space whether in intimate scenes or wider shots
featuring
the spoken word gently echoing through larger locales. This is a first-rate soundtrack that should please listeners of all ages.
Arthur Christmas is disappointingly short on extras. All of the extras may be found on both the 2D and 3D discs, but only some of the previews
are actually in 3D. Included is the following:
Un-Wrapping Arthur Christmas (1080p, 13:26): A fluffy overview that contains clips from the film and cast and crew interviews
that cover the plot details and characters. The piece also briefly looks at the voice acting and digital animation processes.
Progression Reels (1080p, 13:51): A brief look at the digital progression of various scenes along with discussions of the theories and styles
behind the work. Included are 'Arthur Christmas' Unwrapped, Arthur's Office, Grandsanta, Invasion, and Trelew.
Elf Recruitment Video (1080p, 1:03): A humorous mock commercial for Christmas elf work.
Arthur Christmas takes a stab at answering all of the usual Santa Claus questions -- does he exist, how does he deliver presents, how does he
keep it all organized, how many elves are there, what does he do when he retires, who takes over for him after all the years -- and approaches them all
with resounding joy, visual delights, and heartfelt honesty. This is easily one of the best Christmas films of the decade, if not the very best, and certainly
at the top amongst films of this magnitude, of such high quality animation and voice work. Only The Polar Express truly rivals it in every category, from animation to
heart, but there's a simple joy and pure honesty to Arthur Christmas that's unique to the film and also the embodiment of holiday cheer.
Sony's Blu-ray 3D release of Arthur Christmas features solid, but not spectacular, 3D visuals, a fine lossless soundtrack, and a few extras. The
3D transfer isn't must-see Blu-ray, but neither is it worth passing over. Budget-conscious 3D owners might want to skip this one over, but generally this
release comes recommended.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has detailed its upcoming 2D and 3D Blu-ray releases of directors Sarah Smith and Barry Cook's Arthur Christmas (2011). The two releases will be available for purchase online and in stores across the country on November 6th.
