The husband/dad was going out, so I was left to figure out what to do with the kids. I had a Redbox code, so I told them we could get a movie. Before venturing out, we looked online but didn't see anything. Our next plan of attack was to view the available movies on demand on Directv. Jacob saw Arthur Christmas and asked if we could watch that. I mistakenly thought Arthur was Ernest from the "Ernest Goes To..." movies. There was no way I was going to waste my time watching one of those movies. When I explained to Jacob that I didn't like Arthur, he helped me to realize that it was Ernest I didn't like and should hold nothing against Arthur. I told him that I did see that movie online at Redbox, so we went to pick it up.
I didn't hold out much hope for it beyond a goofy kid movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is an animated film whose main character is Arthur Christmas. He comes from a long line of Santa Clauses, though he was not in line himself since he was the younger brother. After delivering all the packages on Christmas Eve and going to bed, the elves cleaned up the wrapping from their own Christmas party and found a toy that had not been delivered. Since it didn't seem important to anybody that one child would be left without a toy, Arthur took it upon himself to enlist the aid of his GrandSanta to deliver the toy before sunrise Christmas morning.
I laughed throughout this movie. It was very cute and had some very funny lines in it. I was not bored once and did not feel it was a goofy kids' movie. I even told my kids that we should buy it and watch it every Christmas. I didn't watch it for any deep meaning, just the entertainment value. It has a lot.
Perhaps there was an underlying message somewhere about how technology does or doesn't make things better as Santa is seen traveling in the S-1 at 45,000 miles per hour, but GrandSanta was able to save Christmas by traveling in his good old-fashioned sleigh with only one metal reindeer left at the end. If there was, I missed it. Perhaps there was some bizarre twist with aliens like in every movie Hollywood seems to ruin these days, but it was funny (there weren't really any aliens in this movie). Perhaps there was some anti-aging sentiment since GrandSanta was seen as a relic like his sleigh, but I missed it. There really wasn't. It was all just funny.
I highly recommend this movie. It is fun, and it is lighthearted. Come on, if you can watch Elf over and over again every year at Christmas, there is no reason why Arthur Christmas can't be enjoyed in the same way.
