He might be busy fighting evil and gathering the early incarnation of the X-Men: First Class for Matthew Vaughn, but James McAvoy has also been finding time to lend his voice to Aardman Animations’ latest stab at CG ‘toon glory, Arthur Christmas.
The story focuses on Santa’s ability to deliver presents to all the of the world’s children (those on the Nice list, at least) in a single night, peeling back the mythology to reveal a high-tech operation squatting beneath the snow at the North Pole.
McAvoy is playing Arthur, the sweet but clumsy younger son of Father Christmas (Jim Broadbent), who still loves the magic of the holiday and what it represents. But while Santa sees himself as the man in charge at the North Pole, the real brains and brawn behind the operation is Steve (Hugh Laurie), who runs the place with military efficiency. And off in the corner, complaining about how everything was better when he wore the suit and rode the sleigh, is Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), who can’t stand the modern world.
Imelda Staunton has signed on to play Mrs Claus, and Extras’ Ashley Jensen is on board to play Bryony, an elf with dreams of rising up the ranks.
Here’s hoping co-directors Sarah Smith and Barry Cook have more luck than Aardman’s last CG effort, Flushed Away, which while vastly underrated in terms of entertainment value, did badly enough at the box office to effectively end the company’s collaboration with DreamWorks. The script, which Smith co-wrote with Borat’s Peter Baynham, might help, but we’ll find out for sure when Sony releases the film on November 23, 2011…