Its also Aardmans first movie in half a decade, and marks the directorial debut of Sarah Smith.
There were very few shifts that we were asked to consider for cultural reasons.
There were ideas and story notes, but not really culturally.
They asked us to make the elves a multi-national force, which we thought was a good idea.
Pete and I spent actually a year conceiving it, a year writing.
Then I had another year and a half with storyboarding and design before we moved to the States.
So what changed in that first year?
Sarah:In that first two or three years!
Albeit in black and white drawings.
I think that for us as writers, thats a huge privilege.
Usually your script gets shot, and when you see it edited, you think, hmmm.
You actually pre-edit your movie here before you even make it.
And you could make those revisions during the storyboard process.
We were still making revisions all the way through, until the last shot was finished.
If Santa can do it, how can he do it.
That created all those insane elf gadgets, the mile-wide sleigh with a million elves on it.
Its all come from that place where its true, so how is it possible.
So we became more familiar with that, and all the rules of the world.
And at the same time, we wanted this lovely, funny, family at the heart of it.
This family grappling with all this stuff.
And so we became more and more familiar with all of these characters.
Its a global road movie in a way.
Sarah:Limiting yourselves is hard.
And we always knew all of that, and that never changed.
You had to dig deeper for the family relationships.
From a narrative standpoint, you talk about the family relationship.
Was the board game sequence that you put in the film your eureka moment?
Which is basically the way that my family argue over.
Mixing the two things up suddenly brought it all to life.
Like all families, stuck playing a game.
I hate that point: I dont like board games!
Sarah:Suddenly, you find the equipment which all your dialogue is trying to do.
And youre going, ta-dah!
Christmas movies have a really horrible habit of being twee and sugar coated.
How hard do you have to balance that?
You get away with it here, through humour mainly.
We didnt think, lets write a Christmas film!
You have this idea, and you go, thats going to be fun!
Have you thought about that?
It was like, oh.
We wanted it to feel big-hearted, and funny, and to have a bit of edge.
But to have that feeling of it running right through the middle of it.
It wasnt just have your cake and eat it.
We just wanted to make a fun movie.
You dont do twee and sentimental, and you dont add on a bit of Christmas feeling.
Your antagonist here is a clock, if anything…!
Sarah:Maybe a clock!
But also, Steve in a way is the antagonist.
But its the badness of not quite getting it.
I think its the root of all evil.
Its not really bad evil.
There are very few really evil people in the world.
I liked Steves bookshelf.
The book on Thatcher, on reindeer hunting.
Sarah:[Laughs] Yeah!Managing People You Dont Like,too.
Hes part of the family.
The speed and scale of the opening ten to 20 minutes was incredible.
Its a laymans question, but how do you arrive at that?
What was your thinking behind that level of pace?
Sarah:It was fantastically ambitious, and hard, and difficult.
I dont know how hard any of this it.
My aspiration was to make in animation a movie that was cool for kids.
I think kids kind of decide that theyve grown out of animation sadly young these days.
And I wanted to do that.
That is crazy hard in animation.
The whole thing about animation is that you have not a frame to waste.
Its like a million dollars a minute.
Some of the best action sequences of the year have come in animated films.
TheresTintin, which I think theyve half-decided is animation now,Rango, and theres yours.
Does the freedom of the camera help you there, and being able to slightly cheat with gravity?
Sarah:I tried to make the camera very real world, and very live action.
I only allowed there to be about four or five CG camera moves in the whole movie.
Because even in live action movies, people use CG cameras now for special shots.
I had about four or five shots in the film that deliberately couldnt be done by a real camera.
Everything else, I tried to go, wheres the camera, how its being operated?
To try and make it feel like you were operating in a real world.
Do you find that the Aardman name works a double edged sword?
How did that work for you?
How much Aardman cultural pressure did you feel?
Sarah:Pete and I love Aardman, and we come from a very British comedy heritage.
So to some extent it travels with us, its our baggage.
I dont want to criticiseFlushed Away,because it was a great achievement in itself.
It started with me and Pete, and it came all the way through like that.
Im at Aardman, just be sensible.
So firstly she said if its live action, its going to be a famous actor in a beard.
And it might be a very expensive star that you recognise.
Whereas we have is what we feel is Santa, and Santas family.
I think this could only ever have been the style that it is.
I dont think it could have been stop frame.
It would have been delightful, but I dont think it would have worked.
Its exactly the medium it should be in.
Sarah:I hope that the world feels glad that it was Aardman that did the Santa family.
Its like, the Santas are safe in that warm British family!
You have an enormous spaceship as well.
Its as good a spacecraft as Ive seen on the big screen in some time.
I was surrounded by a brilliant team of boy sci-fi geeks.
Sarah:[Laughs] I was like, boys, over to you!
You are so much better at this stuff than me!
We want to make that film!
There was an early piece of concept art done when it was basically that.
I didnt want it to be sci-fi.
You got a Star Trek noise in there…
Sarah:And do you know what?
It doesnt look alien, even though its huge.
Youre a sci-fi nerd really.
Sarah:[Laughs] Exactly!
It shouldnt be sci-fi.
What would that ship need to be?
We looked at designed of stealth and cloaking bombers, and we tried to reference that.
Inside the S-1, there were all sorts of details.
There were cup holders for mugs of cocoa.
My personal favourite is that beside each hatch, there are hand sanitisers for the elves.
So between each present they drop, they can sanitise their hands!
Are you going to resist the urge to do more cinematic adventures forArthur Christmas?
Sarah:Well, Pete and I are quite purist.
We wouldnt do it unless weve got as good a story idea for the second one.
Not just to roll out the character again.
I dont know that were convinced we do have the perfect story yet.
We have talked about the prequel, the Grand-Santa story.
A whole movie with one team lost in the world.
Unless we have a similar idea, I wouldnt want to go back.
We talk aboutThe Muppet Christmas Carol,and that works because its a one-off, three-act contained story.
That would be okay!
Peter:It could always be a spin-off!
But then you look at the film, and its effectively a family comedy.
Do you have the thirst for more animation?
I could just come in and go, thats too big!
Sarah:I only finished this movie two weeks ago, and Ive been on it for five years!
You have at your disposal the artistry of unbelievable numbers of genius people.
That is a fantastic thing.
And Ive learned so much that it would feel a bit crazy not to do it again.
On the other hand, it is the most gigantic marathon, run at the rate of a sprint.
I think Pete and I will write another movie.
Probably in live action, maybe in animation, Im not sure.
Id certainly like to do more dark, adult comedy again at some point.
Weve always shared that.
And thats why weve ended up doing this one.
Sarah and Peter, thank you very much!
Arthur Christmasis on general release in the UK now.
