When it comes to mythical creatures and folklore, we usually take the fantastic stories at face value and never question how the things came about or how any supernatural powers might work. This isn't the case with Santa Claus. No other is scrutinized the way that this entity is. How did he originate? Does he really live at the North Pole? Where do you get elves? And the big one -- how can he deliver presents to everyone in the world in just one night? Even in the most benign Santa Claus story, at least one of these issues is tackled, and we've heard many different theories and takes on the story over the years. The animated film Arthur Christmas opens with an exploration of the "how does he do it?" question and runs from there, showing how Santa is just part of a bigger team.

Arthur Christmas opens with Santa Claus (voiced by Jim Broadbent) and his team of elves delivering presents on Christmas night. We see how they travel the globe in the "S1", a super-sonic space-ship-like vehicle. The team of elves infiltrate the houses and lay the groundwork, while Santa puts the final gifts into place. Back at the North Pole, Santa's son, Steve (voiced by Hugh Laurie), who is good at technology and organization, oversees the operation. His brother, Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy), is relegated to answering Santa's mail and generally makes a nuisance of himself, mostly due to the fact that he's overcome with Christmas spirit. In fact, Arthur is relegated to watching the festivities with Grandsanta (voiced by Bill Nighy). When Santa returns to the North Pole, everyone celebrates a job well done. However, an elf named Bryony (voiced by Ashley Jensen) discovers that one gift went undelivered. Santa and Steve don't seem very bothered by this, but Arthur is, so enlists Grandsanta to help him get the present to the little girl who asked for it so that her belief in Santa won't be destroyed. But, Arthur soon learns that the outside world is a scary place and a lot has changed since the last time Grandsanta went out.

Arthur Christmas comes form Aardman Animation, a company which has historically worked in claymation with projects like Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep. Arthur Christmas marks a new direction for the company, as they strike out into computer generated animation. The animation is well-done, and the characters, though computer rendered, do bear a resemblance to those found in the claymation shows, given the bulbous noses and round eyes. The animation may not rival Pixar, but there's a nice amount of detail to it, colors are used well, and the animators don't shy away having many different environments in the movie.

The movie also gets kudos in the story department. As noted above, many movies have questioned the science of Santa Claus and some have explored Santa's family-life, but Arthur Christmas goes beyond that. Sure, we've seen Mrs. Claus and Santa's brother in movies before, but introducing us to the whole Claus clan is an interesting move, as it allows the movie to show how there can be various approaches to the same problem. (At first glance, Steve appears to be the villain of the piece, but he isn't. He's simply stern and disciplined, unlike the goofy Arthur.) The inclusion of the family unit allows the movie to have a spirited "listen to your elders" storyline. When you get down to it, there are a lot of familiar parts in Arthur Christmas -- the movie has simply found an interesting way to put them all together.

Arthur Christmas is a solid, well-made movie with just enough of a unique flavor to set it apart from the other CG movies out there. Having said that, the movie never finds fifth gear. The movie falls between mediocre and great in an almost frustrating manner. It's funny, but never hilarious. It's sweet, but never truly touching. It's exciting, but never "edge of your seat" exciting. The characters are engaging, but you'll be hard-pressed to find one whom you'll call your favorite. The movie also makes the mistakes which plagues so many modern animated films -- it runs too long. At 97 minutes, it's not Pixar too long, but it does feel like the story runs out of gas about 10 minutes before the finale. (And the epilogue is a bit odd.)

As a child, it seemed like there was no shortage of great Christmas specials, but it's rare to see anything new and fun today, and other than Elf, I can't name another enjoyable Christmas project in recent memory. Arthur Christmas helps to fill that void. It may not be perfect, but it's charming and it contains plenty of Christmas spirit.

Arthur Christmas puts novelty slippers center-stage like no other movie on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 24 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing on grain and no defects from the source material. This is presumably a digital-to-digital transfer, as it looks great. The colors practically leap off of the screen and the movie makes great use of the red and green tones featured here. The image is never overly dark or bright. The image has a great amount of detail and even this 2D version shows good depth. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The surround sound and stereo effects are nicely done and really shine through in key scenes. The control room scene features nice effects as we can hear the elves in both the front and rear channels. When the sleigh is flying, the rear speakers contribute well-placed individual sounds. The subwoofer joins in, most notably in the finale.

The Arthur Christmas Blu-ray Disc contains only a few extras. "Un-Wrapping Arthur Christmas" (13 minutes) is a making-of featurette which offers interviews with the filmmakers and cast. This is made up mostly of clips from the movie. Those being interviewed describe the story and the characters, but don't offer a lot of insight. This is one of those extras which is no fun watching if you've just watched the movie, as it seems to assume that we haven't seen the movie. There is some brief footage of the actors recording their lines. There's only a small glimpse at the work which went into animating the film. "Progression Reels' (14 minutes) shows us the various layers which went into creating the characters and the backgrounds of five scenes. "Elf Recruitment Video" (1 minute) is a fake commercial which shows off the attributes of the elves.