Christmas is a time for families, and one way that people spend their time together during the festive season is watching a movie. It is important to find something that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their age. This is why animations are a perfect choice, and an animated movie with a Christmas theme will get you into the spirit of the holiday season. There are some excellent Christmas-themed animations from which you can choose, but here are the five best Christmas animations of all-time.
5. Arthur Christmas
Released in 2011, Arthur Christmas is a British animation is both hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. It is about Santa’s good-hearted but clumsy son Arthur Christmas who realizes that one little girl has not received her presents because his dad’s high-tech ship has failed. Along with his reckless grandfather, he takes eight untrained reindeers to deliver the little girl’s Christmas gifts. Sarah Smith directed and co-wrote this film, which starred James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley Jenson. Despite being made in Britain, this film had international appeal. Arthur Christmas won the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film, while Bill Nighy won an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production.
4. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Conceived and produced by Tim Burton, ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ was released in 1993 and it remains a Christmas classic. The film was written by Caroline Thompson and directed by Henry Selick. It is a musical dark fantasy film that is based on a poem that Burton wrote in 1982. The movie is about a character called Jack Skellington who is the King of Halloween Town. He stumbles through a portal to Christmas Town and celebrates the holiday. Danny Elfman provided the singing voice of Jack, and also wrote the songs and score for the film. Others who provided voices include Chris Sarandon, William Hickey, Catherine O’Hara, Ken Page, Glenn Shadix, Paul Ruebens, and Ed Ivory. This film was not particularly commercially successful when it was first released. It was made on a low budget of $18 million and made $76.2 million at the worldwide box office. Despite this, it has stood the test of time and remains one of the most-watched family animations with a Christmas theme. This movie was nominated for multiple awards. It won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, and Danny Elfman won the Saturn Award for Best Music. It was reported in early 2019 that there is a sequel to this film in the works.
3. The Polar Express
This film is based on a book of the same name written by Chris Van Allsburg. It is about a train that pulls up in front of a young boy’s house on Christmas Eve to take him to the North Pole along with a group of other children. Robert Zemeckis directed this film, who also co-wrote the screenplay with William Boyles, Jr. Tom Hanks was the main star of this movie as he voiced six characters, including the train’s conductor. An interesting feature of this film is a performance by singer Tinashe, who was the CGI model for the female protagonist. She was nine when this film was released in 2004. The animation was made from a budget of $165 million. At that time, this was a record-breaking budget for an animated film. It grossed $311.3 million at the worldwide box office. This movie was nominated for multiple awards.
2. A Christmas Carol
This is a story that has a moral behind it that makes you truly appreciate your family and everything you have in life. This movie is widely considered one of the best Christmas animations, and tops the IMDb list. However, it has been surpassed in terms of commercial success by more recent films. Based on the Charles Dickens book of the same name, there have been many variations of this film, but it is the 2018 3D computer-animated version that has had the most success. Robert Zemeckis wrote, directed, and co-produced this film. Jim Carrey provided the voice for Scrooge along with several other characters, such as the three ghosts. Others who provided voices for this movie include Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, and Robin Wright Penn. This film made $325.3 million at the worldwide box office. Jim Carrey won the Kids’ Choice Award for the Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie The film was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Animated Feature.
1. The Grinch
There have been many variations of this Dr. Seuss stories released over the years, but the 2018 3D computer-animated version of The Grinch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grinch_(film)) is one of the best. This version was co-directed by Scott Mosier and Yarrow Cheney, and had a screenplay that was co-written by Michael LaSieur and Tommy Swerdlow. It tells the classic tale of a creature called the Grinch who lives with his dog Max in a mountain above Whoville. He hates Christmas and will do anything to destroy it, until Cindy Who changes his opinion about Christmas. He realizes that he did not hate Christmas, it was being alone that he hated. Like many of Dr. Suess’ stories, there is a moral behind the story. In this case, the moral is all about inclusion. The story is narrated by Pharrell Williams and voices were provided by Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Angela Lansbury, and Cameron Seeley. The movie had a relatively low budget of $75 million but made $511.6 million at the worldwide box office. It also received predominantly positive reviews. Composer Danny Elfman wrote the score for this film’s soundtrack.
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