‘That Christmas’: London Review

Dir: Simon Otto. UK. 2024. 91mins

The second feature film from the UK’s Locksmith Animation studio takes a generic Christmas-under-duress premise and peps it up with hot-button themes of childhood anxiety and climate uncertainty, plus a healthy dose of resilience, multiculturalism, community and karaoke. The screenplay by Richard Curtis (the film is based on his illustrated children’s book of the same title) is broad and determinedly feel-good; this is unlikely to become a festive classic. 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.

Broad and determinedly feel-good

Directed by Simon Otto (head of character animation on How To Train Your Dragon), That Christmas shares with Locksmith’s previous feature Ron’s Gone Wrong a distinctive, richly-detailed animation style and an instinct for of-the-moment thematic details. Technology is present in both films, with social media central to Ron and smartphones playing a key supporting role in this picture. Where the films differ is in location and setting: That Christmas, unlike its predecessor, takes place in the UK.

Specifically, it unfolds in a fictional Suffolk seaside town called Wellington-on Sea, 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. This is not the only instance of the film trying to cover too much territory: characters have to deal with loneliness, grief, family break-up, climate stress, chronic anxiety, animal cruelty and terminal disease. Inevitably, it can feel a little cursory in its treatment of some of its themes. Still, there’s also plenty of boisterous action and humour to please family viewers when the film is launched globally on Netflix on December 6th.

The picture opens with one such action sequence, with Santa (voiced by Brian Cox) down to a single reindeer (Guz Khan) and a blizzard wreaking havoc on his navigation systems. But fortunately, Bill (Bill Nighy) the Christmas-obsessed local lighthouse keeper, has his back, and guides the sleigh to a bumpy landing on the roofs of Wellington-on-Sea. But that, as Santa’s voiceover tells us, is the easy part. Multiple crises are unfolding in this sleepy seaside community. And there’s only so much a portly stocking-stuffer can do to solve them.

Danny (Jack Wisniewski) and his mum (Jodie Whittaker) are new to the area and Danny is struggling to fit in. It doesn’t help that his dad walked out on the family to be with a dental technician and that his frazzled mum, a nurse at the local hospital, works long hours and communicates mainly in sleep-deprived Post-It notes. Danny is nursing a crush on fellow student Sam (Zazie Hayhurst), but she’s too consumed by worry to notice him: she frets about everything but top of the list is her identical twin Charlie (Sienna Sayer), whose misbehaviour, Sam fears, will put her on Santa’s naughty list.

Then there’s a bunch of kids left alone on Christmas Eve when their parents go to a wedding. The combination of several feet of treacherous snow and country roads leads to inevitable consequences. Elsewhere, Ms Trapper (Fiona Shaw), the formidable headteacher of the village school, is suffering from her own festive malaise.

The film looks terrific, with Locksmith’s meticulously observed house animation style coming into its own when capturing the specific soul of each family home. And while the story itself might not hold any surprises, it’s big-hearted and generous with its happy endings. Plus, with both Coldplay and Ed Sheeran on the soundtrack, fans of MOR Dad-rock will think all their Christmases have come at once.