The 99-percenters don’t need to start an Occupy North Pole movement over “Arthur Christmas,” the animated comedy that shows how Santa Claus manages to deliver all those presents in a modern global market.
* * * animated comedy
This pleasant holiday treat from Aardman, the British animation outfit behind “Chicken Run” and “Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” has the old-fashioned spirit of Christmas at heart.
The title character is a classic holiday misfit, a cousin to Rudolph or Hermey the Elf. The younger son of Santa Claus, Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy) desperately wants to contribute to the family business.
The glory goes to his dad (Jim Broadbent), who has become a dotty figurehead as older, bolder son Steve (Hugh Laurie) mechanizes the sleigh-and-reindeer operation.
Yet after a single present goes awry, leaving one little girl in Britain just hours away from awaking to a joyless Christmas, Steve shrugs it off as an acceptable rate of error.
Arthur can’t stand the thought of a child missing out. So he and loopy Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), set off in the original reindeer-pulled sleigh, accompanied by eager gift-wrapping elf Bryony (Ashley Jensen, copping a hilariously rippling Scottish accent).
A Chatty Cathy of a cartoon, “Arthur Christmas” crams in more manic banter than viewers, particularly young children, can digest. Still, the visual gags will carry youngsters along, while there are plenty of clever wisecracks to keep their parents occupied.
PG, 1 hour 37 minutes. At area theaters.
