Oscarless Animated Films Part 10

Oscarless Animated Films Part 10: Arthur Christmas (2011)

Aardman's first movie since Flushed Away, and their second CGI movie after Flushed Away, tells the story of Santa's youngest son, Arthur, who noticed that Santa forgot to deliver one present: a bicycle for a young girl in England! Now it's up to Arthur, Grandsanta, and a stowaway elf, to deliver the present to her by Christmas morning.

After disbanding from DreamWorks in 2007, Aardman hired Sarah Smith, who worked on the TV series I Am Not An Animal, to help reinvent what Aardman already knew. Her goal was to help make a film that would keep up with the times.

The idea for the film came from Smith's friend Peter Baynham. He asked himself 'How exactly does Santa pull off the delivery of nearly 2 billion presents around the world in just twelve hours?' That's where the inspiration for the film's story came from.

During production of Arthur Christmas, Sarah Smith was pregnant with her first daughter. This caused Smith to be bedridden for two months, but that didn't slow down production. The Aardman crew brought Sarah Smith in on an Ikea bed into the editing room where Smith would point to storyboards and continue directing.

When Smith gave birth, a healthy baby girl was born; Her name was Grace, and she was two when Arthur Christmas premiered. Grace's first word was affectionately 'Arthur'.

While Arthur Christmas may not look like an Aardman film, it still has the heart, wit, humor, and storytelling we have been grown attached to from the studio that gave us Chicken Run.

Also like previous Aardman films, there's a slew of likable characters. My favorite is Grandsanta because both of us (me and Grandsanta) prefer old-school techniques over modern technology.

That's Grandsanta on the left.

Also, like previous Aardman films, Arthur Christmas has quite a few good jokes. My personal favorite is this scene.

I honestly think it's unfair that Arthur Christmas got snubbed for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. I would choose this movie over the rather sub-par and confusing Rango. Instead, Arthur Christmas won the Annie Award for Best Voice Acting, the Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film.
Well, I guess that covers Oscarless Animated Features. However, I'm not done yet! On July 7th, I will start a new series talking about ten animated short films that did not get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Subject! Instead of being in random order, however, these cartoons will be talked about in chronological order.