Richard Curtis’s New Animated Film Draws Inspiration from Imperfect Christmases

With the holiday season approaching, households across the UK often watch Christmas movies like “Love Actually” to embrace the festive mood. Released in 2003, this film was among several successful productions by writer-director Richard Curtis, which were box office successes around the year 2000, including “Notting Hill,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Curtis is revisiting the Christmas genre for his newest film, but he has departed from his usual romantic comedy style to undertake his inaugural animated venture. He informed BBC News, “The thing for me is, it’s been a long time since I was, as it were, on the dating market,” adding, “But I’ve been a dad for the last 25 years, so it was a real joy for me to be able to write about kids.” The filmmaker characterized his experience with animation as “a huge treat and revelation for me,” noting that the “whole process is so different from the other movies I’ve worked on.” “That Christmas,” which will be available on Netflix starting 4 December, is an adaptation of a collection of short stories Curtis released in 2021. The movie is set in the imagined seaside community of Wellington-on-Sea and depicts several families preparing for Christmas Day. A blizzard strikes the town, separating parents from their children, which disrupts their meticulously arranged festivities. Swiss director Simon Otto, known for his animation work on “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Enchanted,” found the concept of a Christmas gone awry particularly resonant. He shared with BBC News, “I know from my own family growing up, we had such a clear idea of the timeline of how Christmas or any tradition will unfold,” continuing, “And I can count more times where it didn’t happen the way you expect and somehow something got messed up.” Otto further stated, “We all have a Christmas memory where something goes wrong, those are the Christmases you remember the most, and at the end of that experience you always feel like, ‘My god, we were able to be together for this time, and the realisation that that’s what it’s really all about.” He concluded, “I thought there was a beautiful poetry in that which we really wanted to bring out in the film, and make it as familiar to people as we can, but also contemporary and real.” The 90-minute movie includes voice performances from actors frequently collaborating with Curtis, such as Bill Nighy, in addition to Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Lolly Adefope, and Brian Cox, who voices Santa Claus. “That Christmas” debuted at the London Film Festival in October and garnered generally favorable critical reception. Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter observed, “It can be easy to sneer at the arrival of a new Christmas movie.” She added, “Genuine holiday cheer is tough to conjure and, if you’re not the intended audience for Hallmark-type saccharinity, the festive fare likely inspires more exasperation than joy. “But this one slyly avoids the usual mawkishness by grounding its whimsical story in the real and prickly emotions of life.” Philip Bagnall from Next Best Picture proposed that the film is “engineered to keep the kids busy around 4pm on Christmas Day while mum and dad sip their third Irish coffee in peace.” Wendy Ide of Screen Daily warned, “This is unlikely to become a festive classic.” However, she continued, “But the message is a persuasive one: that Christmas comes in many shapes and forms and, ultimately, the only holiday tradition that is non-negotiable is goodwill to all.” The movie depicts the town’s children left to manage on their own, allowing them to create the Christmas Day they envisioned, distinct from the one their parents had arranged with its various family traditions. During one sequence, the children try to watch a Christmas film as their parents recommended, but they quickly become bored and switch it off. In a humorous turn, the film they reject is Curtis’s “Love Actually.” Otto revealed he included this jest in the movie without Curtis’s awareness. Upon seeing it, the writer lightheartedly remarked that he found it “very hurtful.” “No, not really,” he laughed. “It reminded me of course that, when you say ‘boring old Christmas movie’, I think of Miracle on 34th Street or whatever, but when you say it to a young person, they say Love Actually. It was 20 years ago!” A core theme explored in the film is the dilemma of whether families should adhere to established traditions or embrace novel experiences. Otto mused, “The truth is that it shouldn’t be all traditions nor a complete reinvention,” explaining, “because some traditions are there for a reason, and we love them. We talk about Santa to our kids for a reason, because there’s something magical.” A notable aspect of the film is its contemporary and diverse portrayal. Curtis’s previous works were produced in a different period, and he has recently stated that his casting methods would be altered now. However, “That Christmas” endeavors to address this by presenting a modern perspective. As Ide remarked in her critique, the film “unfolds in a fictional Suffolk seaside town… but the wide mix of accents and ethnicities suggests that the filmmakers have tried to cram the whole of Great Britain into this single tiny village.” Beyond the mixed-race family central to the narrative, other elements contribute to its contemporary feel. The children in the movie express concerns about climate change, and one character experiences chronic anxiety. The film also incorporates lighter modern touches, such as a father naming his van Beyoncé, smartphones being integral to the storyline, and a soundtrack featuring Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran. Curtis recognized the deliberate intention to give the film a current sensibility. He recounted, “I started my career on a show called Not The Nine O’Clock News,” which involved “contemporary sketches, and I think always in my films I’ve tried to write jokes that make me laugh now, rather than traditional jokes.” He added, “And the thing about being a parent is you spend most of your life in the real world of your kids, so I love the fact that it does feel modern, because life as it comes at you these days just is modern.” Otto further elaborated, “It felt true to me. If you take a snapshot of who lives [in the UK], it varies from region to region of course, but it’s such a diverse, interesting, eclectic mix of people.” He continued, “It feels to me like that’s the world we live in, and certainly we didn’t want to create a world we lived in 10 years ago. If anything, we wanted to create a world we might live in 10 years from now, so more forward looking.” The movie’s release coincides with a strong year for animated features, as “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” and “Flow” are also contenders in this year’s awards season. Despite this, animated films still face some disdain, with only three—”Beauty and the Beast,” “Toy Story 3,” and “Up”—ever having been nominated for Best Picture. Director Guillermo del Toro has previously advocated for animation as a distinct art form, stating, “Animation is not a genre for kids. It’s a medium for art.” Curtis concurs, saying, “I feel quite strongly about that at this moment, because for me, the two Spider-Verse movies are the most remarkable movies of the last 10 years.” He elaborated, “I watch them and I think, ‘they must have taken 300 years to make, they’re so extraordinary’. In the same way it’s turned out that much pop music, which used to be looked down on, is really great, I think every genre can be great, and there are some amazing works of art in the world of animation.” Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content found on external websites. Details on their external linking policy are available.