Arthur Christmas(2011)

PG
Rated PG for some mild rude humor
1h 37m

Release Date: Nov 23, 2011 | Wide

92%
77%
A-
7.1

Santa's clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a misplaced present to a young girl in less than two hours on Christmas Day.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Nov 23, 2011

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$12,068,931
Total US & Canada:
$46,462,469
Total International
$104,671,185
Total Worldwide:
$151,133,654

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Sarah Smith
Director

Barry Cook
Director

James McAvoy
Arthur

Jim Broadbent
Santa

Bill Nighy
Grandsanta

Hugh Laurie
Steve

Imelda Staunton

Mrs Santa

Ashley Jensen

Bryony

Marc Wootton

Peter

Laura Linney

North Pole Computer

Eva Longoria

Chief De Silva

Ramona Marquez

Gwen

Michael Palin

Ernie Clicker

Sanjeev Bhaskar

Lead Elf

Robbie Coltrane

Lead Elf

Joan Cusack

Lead Elf

Rhys Darby

Lead Elf

Jane Horrocks

Lead Elf

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: SDDS,Datasat,Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United Kingdom,United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Arthur Christmas reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: 'So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?' The answer: Santa's exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation (with a spaceship for delivery of gifts) hidden beneath the North Pole. Arthur (James McAvoy) is the clumsy son of Santa / Malcolm Claus (Jim Broadbent), who has a good heart & cares for the wish of each & every kid in the world. Margaret (Imelda Staunton) is his mother.Santa Claus is a title belonging to gift-givers that has been carried on for 20 generations. The twentieth Santa Claus named Malcolm Claus is heading his 70th mission, but his role has been reduced to that of a figurehead. The traditional sleigh and reindeer have been replaced by a high-tech vessel called the S-1 that is operated by hundreds of elves who use advanced equipment and military precision to deliver presents.While Steve (Hugh Laurie), Arthur's older brother, is the military disciplinarian who keeps the whole operation going. Arthur answers letters from kids. During a delivery operation, a child wakes up and almost sees Malcolm. An elf in the S-1 inadvertently presses a button, causing a present to fall off of a conveyor. Steve expects Santa to hand over the reins to him as Santa's dad, grandpa Santa (Bill Nighy), did to him years ago. But after the 70th successful mission, Santa does not announce the transition, disappointing Steve.Grandpa Santa is the 136-year-old free-spirited and reckless grandfather of Steve and Arthur. He's a staunchly traditional former Santa who dislikes the modern world.During the Clauses' Christmas dinner, Arthur's suggestion to play a board game degenerates into a petty argument while Malcolm's father, Grandsanta, criticizes the modernization of the present delivering. Distraught, the family members leave the dinner table.An elf named Bryony (Ashley Jensen) finds the missed present and alerts Steve. Arthur is horrified when he recognizes the present is a bicycle for a little girl named Gwen Hines (Ramona Marquez) who lives in Trelew, Cornwall, England. Arthur alerts his father who is at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Steve argues that one missed present is an acceptable error.Arthur is dejected, when Grandpa Santa tells him there is a way & unveils the family sleigh called Eve (mispronounced as Evie) and the great-great-grandchildren of Saint Nicholas' reindeer, forcefully whisking away Arthur and a stowaway Bryony. He asks Arthur to accompany him as he tries to deliver the gift before sunrise to the girl in England.Grandpa Santa is no longer familiar with the maps & reaches Toronto & then across the Atlantic, but reaches Africa, & thinks he is in France. They are attacked by lions & barely escape, but the sleigh is damaged including grandpa's camera. Grandpa is angry because he wanted his picture taken when he went down the chimney as proof that he did it his way. For him it was not about the wishes of a little girl.Arthur is disappointed and still heads towards Cornwall, but the GPS navigator had the wrong address typed in & they reach Mexico instead. That address already had all gifts delivered. Arthur & Grandpa again head to England with literally less than an hour to sunrise. Steve call them & asks them to return home. He convinces Arthur that Santa doesn't care about 1 little kid.In the meantime, all the elves get a whiff of 1 child being missed & wake up Santa. He tries to explain but can't. They all head to Steve who again says that Santa doesn't care about 1 kid. The elves are horrified & Santa disagrees with him but without having a clue on how to rectify the situation. He is further mortified to know that Grandpa Santa & Arthur are out there trying to reach the kid (they have fallen out of the sleigh & now lying on the coast of Cuba).After losing the sleigh and the remaining reindeer, Grandsanta tells Arthur that the night that he last took the sleigh out, Malcolm and Steve decided to have the sleigh scrapped. Arthur realizes that it all comes down to having presents delivered, regardless of how it is done and who did it. With Grandsanta's and Bryony's help, he manages to recover the sleigh.Meanwhile Santa has decided to go to the kid himself & commanders the spaceship. He doesn't know how to fly it & Steve comes into the cockpit to help him out. They both take off. The elves think that the Santa are deserting & that the kid doesn't matter. They press the auto destruct button on the North Pole. Meanwhile NORAD is tracking grandpa's sleigh as an alien invasion & sends in drones. As they near Cornwall England, Grandpa releases Arthur & the Reindeers & allows the missiles to destroy the sleigh. While Steve makes the same mistake & lands in Cornwall, Mexico. He is terrible with kids. Meanwhile Arthur races towards to house in Cornwall, but sunrise happens just as he reaches the outside door. Just then Santa reaches there with the spaceship & uses the camouflage option to again make it night over Cornwall.The elves see Arthur trying to make the kid happy & suspend the auto destruct countdown. All of the male Clauses arrive at Gwen's house before she wakes up only for all of them except Arthur to argue about who gets to place the present. Noticing that only Arthur truly cares about Gwen, they let him place the present.They hide in the closet to see the kid's reaction & her happiness that Santa delivered the gift she wanted. Santa admits to Steve that he deserves to be Santa but wonders if the girl is right. Steve agrees & Arthur is the new Santa.Malcolm retires and becomes Grand-Santa's new companion, Steve finds contentment as Chief Operating Officer, Bryony is promoted to Vice-President of Packing, Pacific Division, and the S-1 is renamed EVIE in honor of Grandsanta's sleigh and refitted to be pulled by five thousand reindeer led by the original eight who have managed to return safely.

Storyline

This movie reveals the incredible, never-before seen answer to every child's question: "So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?" The answer: Santa's (Jim Broadbent's) exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the center of this movie is a story about a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur (James McAvoy), with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns. — Sony Pictures Animation It is Christmas Eve. The big hi-tech sleigh, the S-1 is to deliver two billion presents on Santa's (Jim Broadbent's) seventieth mission. Meanwhile, Arthur gets a letter from a girl from 23 Mimosa Avenue, Trelew, Cornwall, England, saying that she wants a Pink Twinkle Bike for Christmas. The S-1, which is the answer to every child's question: How does Santa deliver all those presents in just one night, travels seven million miles around the world delivering the gifts. However, during a delivery operation, when one child wakes up and almost sees Santa, an elf inadvertently presses a button, causing a present to fall off a conveyor and go unnoticed. A crazy wrapping elf called Bryony (Ashley Jensen) discovers the gift, and Arthur is alarmed to discover that it was the present for Gwen Hines (Ramona Marquez), the Twinkle bike. Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) proposes delivering the gift using Evie, his old wooden sleigh, and the descendants of the original eight reindeer, forcefully whisking away a reluctant Arthur and a stowaway Bryony. They get lost, lose reindeer, and land in danger several times, ultimately being mistaken for aliens and causing an international military incident. Can Arthur, with the help of Grandsanta and Bryony really be the heroes of the night and deliver the missing present before Gwen wakes up, thus saving Christmas? — Nicky Mitchell Take a trip to the North Pole and discover exactly how Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent) makes Christmas magic happen every year in this imaginative comedy for the entire family. Produced by Aardman Features in association with Sony Pictures Animation, this fun-filled holiday movie introduces viewers to Santa's mischievous son Arthur (James McAvoy), who races to complete an important mission in time to ensure that this year's Christmas celebrations will go off without a hitch.