This is the character sheet for the Sony Pictures Animation/Aardman film Arthur Christmas.
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The Claus Family
As a Whole
- Ambiguously Human: It's not entirely clear whether or not the Clauses are human. Despite having British accents, they treat England as a completely foreign country, and they seem to be very Long-Lived (Malcolm has been the current Santa for 70 years, and Grandsanta is 136 years old). On the other hand, it's shown that the figure of Santa Claus isn't immortal and it's an inheritable position that's been passed down from father to son over the centuries.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their obvious flaws and toxicities, it's clear this family means well and deep down they do love each other, which makes them much more believable and relatable.
- Dysfunctional Family: Malcolm is an out-of-touch and unintentional emotionally neglectful father, Grandsanta is a stubborn and traditional man who will shun his grandson Steve's new advanced way of running the North Pole and even emotionally manipulate his other grandson Arthur to get his picture just to prove his way is the right way. Steve has a serious Inferiority Superiority Complex due to his dad never treating him any different than the millions of children all around the world, and Arthur is good-natured but clumsy and ignorant of the flaws of his grandfather, father, and older brother. Mrs. Claus is the Only Sane Woman that keeps her family in tact.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Arthur is a Broken Pedestal who will easily let his overly idealistic view of Santa overshadow his way of understanding his family better.
- Grandsanta is a grouchy and stubborn old man who cannot accept that the old ways he lived on for so long aren't really needed any more. He wants to be seen as the person he use to be since he really struggles to accept that he is getting older while the rest of the world has to change in order to improve. This makes him shun his own son and grandson Steve and will even emotionally manipulate his other grandson Arthur just to prove his way is the right way.
- Steve has a serious Inferiority Superiority Complex which makes him come across as very stubborn and petty-minded.
- Santa himself has some real identity issues. He fears not knowing who he is and how useful he will be without his title as Santa. This can make him come across as inadvertently selfish, ignorant, and emotionally neglectful, despite the fact he does mean well and does care for his family and the children around the world.
Arthur
- Voiced by: James McAvoy
- All of the Other Reindeer: He may not be Rudolph, but he still tends to get this treatment. He's a bit clumsy and slightly buffoonish (especially as compared to Steve, whom they all admire), so the elves say things behind his back like "send him to the South Pole." His older brother Steve is somewhat cold towards him, and even his father isn't quite sure what to do with him. As shown during his Heroic BSoD, he's fully aware of it.
- Badass Santa: In his own way, especially since until recently he's lived a rather sheltered life at the North Pole. He's determined to make sure that Gwen gets her present despite everyone else telling him that he can't do it, even when it means attempting to row across the Atlantic Ocean in nothing but a tiny boat. He even learns to ride a bicycle without stabilizers during the climax, just to make sure that Gwen has her present before she wakes up on Christmas morning. And of course, he is appointed as the new Santa at the end of the film.
- Broken Pedestal: His brother, father and grandfather are all victims of this. When Grandsanta helps Arthur get the present Gwen, Arthur is ecstatic. However, he later becomes disappointed to learn that he was only helping them in order to make a point to Steve about how his old-fashioned ways are superior to his technology. As for Steve, at first he showed great admiration to him at the start of the movie, but when Steve dismisses the error of Gwen's gift, Arthur is taken aback. As for his dad, when Arthur says to Steve that Malcolm must be worried about the present and the girl, Steve plays a voicemail that implies otherwise, which is the final straw and makes Arthur really upset.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He seems to have inherited it from his father and grandfather.
- Determinator: Arthur lets no obstacle stand in his way of getting the bike to Gwen.
- Epiphany Therapy: Arthur snaps out of his Heroic BSoD by realizing that who delivers the gifts and how are not what's important; as long as the gift gets to the child on Christmas, the spirit of Santa Claus will come through.
- Friend to All Children: While he's never interacted with children in person, he cares a great deal about them and takes the time to answer each one of their letters to Santa personally. In his own words, he wants Christmas to be perfect for every kid. He's greatly concerned when it's discovered that one child's present wasn't delivered and goes to great lengths to deliver it himself. This puts him in contrast with Steve, who only views children as statistics and isn't very good at dealing with them on a personal level.
- Foil: He is this to his brother, father and grandfather:
- Steve: Arthur couldn't care less about having the position of Santa while Steve desperately wants it. Arthur loves Christmas for being a joyous holiday and cares about each individual child all over the world, while Steve only sees delivering presents as a job and views children as statistics, while also not being very good at dealing with children on a personal level. Arthur has appreciation for Christmas's old-fashioned values while Steve is more dismissive of them.
- Malcolm: Arthur has a more meaningful position at the North Pole as the person who handles the letters while Malcolm is only a figurehead for Christmas and doesn't really do anything anymore aside from delivering a few presents. Arthur is hard-working while Malcolm is rather lazy. Arthur isn't really interested in taking the Santa position and just wants to contribute to Christmas while Malcolm dreads losing his position as he fears he will lose his own sense of self-worth.
- Grandsanta: Arthur is more accepting of Steve's technology while Grandsanta despises it, believing that Older Is Better. Arthur doesn't want to be the next Santa and only cares about making people happy while Grandsanta is nostalgic for his time as Santa and wants to feed his own ego. Arthur is joyous while Grandsanta is cranky.
- Heroic BSoD: After he, Grandsanta and Bryony are marooned in Cuba after losing the sleigh, he begins to lose hope of ever getting Gwen's present to her.
- Humble Hero: He doesn't really care about getting to be Santa, he just wants to make the children of the world happy.
- The Klutz: He's rather on the clumsy side. Wearing oversized, fuzzy reindeer slippers for most of the film doesn't help.
- Nice Guy: Arthur is good-natured, and does have the heart, spirit, and the effort to keep Christmas alive in everyone.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: When he sees his father in Gwen’s house, Arthur is overjoyed to see his father really does care for children and gives him a huge hug.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He's this at first.
- Youngest Child Wins: In the end, it's Arthur who becomes the new Santa Claus instead of his older brother Steve, though the epilogue reveals that Steve has become Chief Operating Officer and is happy with his job.
Steve
- Voiced by: Hugh Laurie
- Aloof Big Brother: Takes his job very seriously and as a result can come across as very distant towards his family, including Arthur.
- Ambition Is Evil: Downplayed, as Steve's ambition to be recognized doesn't really do anything too bad except complicate the movie's conflict a little.
- Badass Santa: While Steve isn't actually Santa, he more or less fills this role. Doubles as Badass in a Nice Suit, since his version of the classic Santa Claus costume is a Versace.
- Character Development: He slowly loses his pettiness and need to be acknowledged by his father as the movie goes along, as he eventually learns that being Santa is more than just a job where quotas need to be met.
- Child Hater: Downplayed. He doesn't hate children, he just has a hard time relating to them on a personal level and mainly sees them as statistics as part of his job. Kind of makes his wish to become Santa Claus, a figure famed for his love of children, a tad ironic.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: He has a need to have his contributions to delivering presents be acknowledged.
- Fatal Flaw: His inferiority complex. Whenever he's faced with being second best, his ego gets the best of him.
- Freudian Excuse: When he was growing up, his father Malcolm didn't treat him any different from the countless other children in the world despite being his first-born son. Malcolm would even state that Steve should have written a letter to him about wanting a pool table when he was eight years old instead of talking to him. His nearly-flawless execution of Christmas and his desperate need to be the best is done as a means to impress him and finally be acknowledged as his son.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: His Fatal Flaw. He's very good at running Mission Control on Christmas Eve, but he desperately wants to be the next Santa so he can get the respect he feels he deserves (particularly from his father Malcolm). Whenever he's faced with the idea of being second best (such as the mere suggestion that Arthur and Grandsanta would be "the heroes of the night" if they successfully deliver Gwen's present), his ego gets the better of him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's the guy who wants to keep Christmas up and running but wants his family to acknowledge his accomplishments and respect him for it, understandably so. He also has the tendency to focus on the logistics of Christmas, overlooking the joy it brings to children. By the end of the movie he shows he really does love his family and gains the personal experience of seeing the delight that comes when a child opens their gift.
- Meaningful Appearance: His goatee is shaved into the shape of a Christmas tree, fitting for someone whose whole job revolves around Christmas.
- Mission Control: He essentially serves as this during the gift-delivering operation on Christmas Eve, though it's made clear that he and the elves are the ones doing all the real work while Malcolm, the current Santa, has become little more than a figurehead in his old age.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When the elves begin to feel worried about Arthur and his mission, he gets angered about it to the point where he leaves his father in charge of dealing with it. He soon comes around; though.
- Straw Vulcan: To him, Christmas is a business, and he runs that business like a champ. Unfortunately, his focus on the "big picture" gets in the way of the reason for the season and he fails to understand why everyone is making a big deal out of one child not getting a gift from Santa Claus on time.Steve: Arthur, Christmas is not a time for emotion.
- The Un-Favorite: It is implied Steve's need to be acknowledged by Malcolm is rooted in a belief that he's this to the children of the world.
- Villainy-Free Villain: He's the closest the movie has to an antagonist, but he's not bad at all; just petty-minded, stubborn, and insecure.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: All Steve wants is to have his contributions to helping his family acknowledged, especially from his father Malcolm.
- You Are Not Ready: Steve himself admits he's not the one to be the next Santa at the end of the film and allows Arthur to succeed their father, having been impressed by his determination in getting Gwen's present delivered in a timely fashion and learned a lesson in humility in the process.
Grandsanta
- Voiced by: Bill Nighy
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He becomes a begging mess to Arthur when they and Bryony are surrounded by lions in Africa.
- Badass Santa: In more of a Retired Badass sense. He was the previous Santa Claus from 1871 to 1941, and took twelve shots during World War II from both sides. That he performed his run with "six reindeer and a drunken elf" (in other words, he had none of the advanced technology that his grandchildren do, and he still pulled it off!) earns him extra points in the badass department.
- Character Development: He slowly comes to realize throughout the movie that his old-fashioned tendencies aren't really needed in the world and grows to accept change.
- Cloudcuckoolander: A trait he's passed on to his son and youngest grandson.
- Grumpy Old Man: Though a funny one at that.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He jumps ship when missiles are nearing his sleigh. He survives though, subverting the trope.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He appears grumpy and has a very self-centered ego, telling his grandson that he cares about Gwen getting her present while really just wanting to prove to Steve that his gift-delivering methods are better. He later proves to genuinely love and care about Arthur, and deep down, the rest of his family as well.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he sees that his selfish ambitions have derailed Arthur‘s mission, he apologizes and eventually admits Arthur is a better Santa than he is.
- No Name Given: While the rest of the family has their ordinary names like Margaret and Arthur, everyone just calls him Grandsanta.
- Older Is Better: Grandsanta believes that the traditional delivery methods are better than the newfangled technology that Steve is now using and this pretty much constitutes one of the major conflicts of the film. Arthur doesn't mind the new technology but is very much attached to the traditional ideals of the Santa mystique: that somewhere in the world, there's a wonderful man who knows and dearly loves each and every child, wanting nothing more than for them to be happy.
- Plucky Comic Relief: He provides some of the movie's more funny moments.
- Secretly Selfish: He offers to help Arthur deliver the bicycle to Gwen and claims he's worried about a child being missed, but it's later revealed that he was mainly doing it to show Steve how he thinks delivering presents should be done, not out of goodwill; though he changes his tune as the film progresses.
Malcolm/Santa the 20th
- Voiced by: Jim Broadbent
- Authority in Name Only: He's the current Santa, but he's clearly getting on in years and doesn't actually do much anymore aside from symbolically delivering the last Christmas present of the night. Lampshaded in the movie as he is called a "figurehead" while Steve and the elves do most of the hard work.
- Character Development: When he visits Arthur's mail office and reads some of Arthur's heartwarming responses to the letters children have written to Santa, Malcolm is motivated to try and finish the job and actually do something rather than just lay around. Later on, he also comes to terms with the fact that he's no longer fit to be Santa, and decides that Arthur is his most worthy successor.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He is a bit loopy and zones out on occasion. His father and youngest son share this trait.
- Happily Married: To Margaret. The two adore each other.
- Hidden Depths:
- Before being talked out of it by Steve, he is quite ready to go out and give Gwen her bike, showing he really does care for the children of the world despite his other flaws.
- Choosing Arthur over Steve as his successor shows he can be surprisingly wise.
- Innocently Insensitive: He means well, but can offend people, like when he announces that he plans on making another delivery the following year, much to the ire of Steve, his heir.
- Loss of Identity: His reluctance to retire stems from identity issues, since he's been Santa for so long that he doesn't know who he'd be if he gave up the position.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Malcolm doesn't mean any harm. He loves his family as well as his job of being Santa, and it's made clear that he doesn't want to lose either of them. He also seems to genuinely care for the children around the world. However, his increasingly out-of-touch incompetence due to his advanced age, unintentional emotional neglect towards his sons, blaming failure on others, and struggle to deal with his identity issues are heavy vices that can easily affect others. He also has a few selfish moments but it is clear it is more out of insecurity than malice.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he enters Arthur’s mail office and reads the responses Arthur has written to various children over the years, he realizes he has completely failed to live up to Arthur’s lofty view of him. He is then quickly motivated to get the job done.
- Parents as People: He may not have been an ideal family man but he does love his wife, father, and children very dearly.
- Parental Neglect: Unintentional but still apparent. Malcolm does love both of his sons but it's implied he was never a very attentive or self-aware father. He didn't treat his firstborn Steve any different than the millions of other children around the world when he was growing up. As a result, Steve spent his life wanting to impress him and be acknowledged as his son for a change. Malcolm loves Arthur too, but he pays less attention to him in favor of working with Steve who runs the operations. He even forgets what Arthur does at the North Pole at one point.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Downplayed; he has shades of this, since he tends to be forgetful and wants to keep being Santa despite obviously not being fit for the position anymore, having become little more than a figurehead while Steve and the elves do most of the work on Christmas Eve. It's later revealed that he's well aware he's getting too old to be Santa, but doesn't want to let go of the position since he doesn't know who he'd be if he retired.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In a way, he sort of instigated the movie's conflict when he accidentally activates an electronic present when delivering it to a kid at the start of the movie, which caused an elf who was watching this to accidentally have Gwen's present discarded.
Margaret
- Voiced by: Imelda Staunton
- The Ace: She's shown to be skilled at just about any task she does; implied to be because she takes online courses on basically everything in her spare time.
- Crazy-Prepared: She seems to have a knack for preparation.
- Happily Married: To Malcolm.
- Mrs. Claus: She's married to the current Santa, so it’s a given.
- Nice Girl: She is nothing but kind and supportive to everyone, and one of the few people who is kind to Arthur.
- Only Sane Woman: She's the most sensible out of her family, as she keeps a level head throughout the entire conflict.
- Women Are Wiser: The only woman in the dysfunctional Claus family is the most level-headed and sane member.
Elves
Bryony Shelfley
- Voiced by: Ashley Jensen
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's very eccentric, but man, can she wrap a present.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Much like Arthur, Malcolm and Grandsanta, she's a little on the nutty side, especially with her obsession with wrapping presents.
- Genki Girl: She's very enthusiastic, especially when it comes to gift wrapping.
- Motor Mouth: She's quite talkative, to say the least.
- Undying Loyalty: As with the other elves to the Clauses, though she develops some especially strong loyalty to Arthur specifically.
- Women Are Wiser: Downplayed. She is more level-headed than Arthur and Grandsanta at times, but her fixation on gift wrapping makes her more than a little eccentric.
Peter
- Voiced by: Marc Wootton
- Ambiguously Gay: The level of devotion he has to Steve tends to suggest a romantic interest, and he even gives Steve underwear as a Christmas present. The messages on Steve's HOHO appear to confirm this.
- Jerkass: Definitely the most unpleasant person in the movie; he even goes so far as to call children "stupid" out of a misguided belief that they aren't smart enough to notice an undelivered Christmas present.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: He's basically a yes-man to Steve, and when Arthur manages to deliver the present and is declared the new Santa, he makes it clear that he will try to win his favor.
Ernie Clicker
An extremely old elf who used to work with Grandsanta. An expert with a strange device that is the only way to communicate with anyone using Evie.
- Compromising Call: When he tries to contact Arthur, Grandsanta, and Bryony with his gadget, it makes several loud noises that wake up the lions they had just put to sleep.
- Cool Old Guy: Remarks that he and Grandsanta had been through a lot of adventures.
- Only Sane Man: Other than being a bit slow on the uptake, alongside Bryony he is probably the only level-headed elf in the movie. When all the other elves are panicking, he is perfectly calm.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's the elf who notices Arthur delivering the present, and lets the other elves know, thereby saving the North Pole from melting down.
