That Christmas–A surprising, sweet instant classic on Netflix

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you’ve loved recent animated Christmas movies like The Flight Before Christmas, Klaus, and especially the superb modern classic Arthur Christmas, a new Christmas movie on Netflix is going to be gift-wrapped just for you. The very British That Christmas even looks a lot like Arthur Christmas. The “That” in the title is supposed to conjure vibes of a Christmas gone wrong, and that does happen here.

But it’s not as you’d expect–this isn’t a loud, goofy comedy, but a sweet story of a lonely boy named Danny, his overworked and underappreciated mom, the nice girl Danny has a crush on, that girl’s naughty twin sister, a very serious widowed teacher, and a mistake by Santa Claus, all as their lives collide in the days and hours before Christmas.

Despite the title, this movie is a relaxing, refreshing look at a modern community of good people trying to get by during the stressful holidays. It’s low on tension, low on angst, just a fun holiday movie.

Along with Danny’s relationship with his mom the two high points of the movie find the teacher coming to the rescue in different ways as others need her help, and a brief subplot finds Santa leaving the “good girl” present for the “wrong/naughty” twin, Charlie. Charlie is a fantastic supporting character–a strong girl who constantly finds herself doing wrong things for right reasons, to be recognized for her good acts by film’s end by none other than Santa himself.

Brian Cox voices Santa, Jodie Whittaker is Danny’s loving mom, Fiona Shaw is the sour-looking school teacher whose sad past explains her disposition, and Bill Nighy is a lighthouse keeper whose facility is instrumental when a little girl wanders out into the cold one night. Jack Wisniewski voices Danny. Guz Khan is Santa’s reindeer Dasher–the only reindeer left after a rough run. Zazie Hayhurst is the shy Sam, and Sienna Sayer is her outgoing sister Charlie. Katherine Parkinson, Sindhu Vee, and Rhys Darby play part of a group of partying adults who get stranded in the cold on Christmas Eve.

The movie comes from director Simon Otto (Love Death + Robots), based on the books by BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually). The animation looks great, giving a 3D feel to these characters and the charming town of Wellington-on-Sea.