Do the holidays have you down in the dumps? Arthur can fix that. “Arthur Christmas” is a movie that takes Christmas to a whole new level. Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy), the youngest son of the current Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent) and a hard-core Christmas fanatic  spends his time reading letters from children sent to Santa in the North Pole and makes sure their wishes are known to the big man himself. His older brother, Steve (Hugh Laurie), is the family strategist who is in charge of Christmas operations and relies on new, technological spy-gear to efficiently deliver presents.

A few hours after finishing their Christmas deliveries, an elf discovers a present leftover and realizes that a child, Gwen, had been missed and the North Pole goes into a panic meltdown. However, Steve doesn’t believe that the one child missed is a significant number compared to the other billions who did receive gifts and convinces Santa that it would be pointless to use their time and technology to deliver one present to one measly child.

With only hours before Christmas morning, it’s Arthur to the rescue as he, his great Grand-Santa (Bill Nighy), and a gift-wrapping elf named Bryony (Ashley Jenson) use his Grand-Santa’s old sleigh and twelve reindeer to deliver the present to Gwen in London.

This movie is really cute, emphasis on “really.” It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good animated Christmas movie. Arthur is the character equivalent of Buddy from “Elf”, except instead of green tights, he has a green Christmas sweater and obnoxious, light-up, Christmas-carol-singing reindeer slippers. He’s clumsy, clueless, charismatic, caring, and has a crazy obsession with Santa, which is what makes his character so incredibly awesome (like Buddy). AND, he’s voiced by James McAvoy. What more could you want out of a wacky Christmas character?

I was iffy on the idea of a high-tech Christmas, as the movie “Prep and Landing” already covered that (which wasn’t a good movie to begin with),  but it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought. In fact, I actually LIKED it. It incorporated today’s modern world and gave a contrast between technology’s influence and the traditional stories we know about Santa chanting out the names of his magical reindeer, pulling his sleigh and going down chimneys. Santa doesn’t even have a sleigh in this movie. He has a ship, called the S-1, that cloaks itself to look like the night sky. He also doesn’t have reindeer and all of his elves slip into houses and deliver presents (say whaaat?).

I forgave all those things because of the warm and fuzzy plot, though. I know spreading the spirit of Christmas and all that mumbo-jumbo is extremely cliche,  but the storyline just makes you want to root for Arthur as he crosses deserts and seas to reach this little girl and deliver her little pink bike.

I would recommend this movie to people of all ages who need a jump-start on holiday spirit. A few words of advice: do not bring Bieber-haters with you to see this movie. I couldn’t help but notice 10 year-olds shield their ears as Justin Bieber’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” music video played before the movie (and their loud complaining afterwards). I personally didn’t mind it, but haters will hate, so just don’t see it with them. If your holiday spirit is running low, the best way to recharge it is by seeing Arthur Christmas.