"Arthur Christmas" is not a perfect gift, but it does feature enough holiday cheer and silly fun to make it more entertaining than 10 lords a-leaping. It helps that the film also has a warm message about how tradition should never be sacrificed for efficiency's sake.

Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy) and Steve (Hugh Laurie) are Santa's sons. The bungling but good-hearted Arthur embraces holiday traditions while the ambitious Steve has turned the annual toy delivery into a military operation.

When one gift isn't delivered on Christmas night, Steve chalks it up to an acceptable margin of error. Arthur believes no child's gift should be left behind and enlists the aid of Grandsanta (Bill Nighy) to deliver the present the old-fashioned way.

First-time film director Sarah Smith creates an up tempo -- at times frantic -- pace for most of the movie. The story occasionally gets bogged down by the script from Peter Baynham and Smith. Arthur's long trip to deliver the last gift could have used fewer pit stops. But, the script does have a nice blend of jokes aimed at kids and adults, and it is filled with so many visual gags it'll be hard to see them all until the film is released as a DVD.

At times, the film feels like the week before Christmas: when you know something good is coming but it seems to take an eternity to get here.

The voice casting throws the movie off kilter a bit. The majority of animated holiday movies and TV shows dealing with Santa feature American voices. That's probably because no one has been able to properly master a North Pole accent.

"Arthur Christmas" features some very familiar British actors -- James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy -- as the voice talents. While probably more accurate, it takes a little adjustment.

Although beautifully and grandly animated, the film joins the growing list of movies in 3-D in which the optical effect is not impressive enough to recommend paying the extra fee.

Despite a few flaws, "Arthur Christmas" certainly belongs on the positive side of the holiday naughty/nice movie list.

Note: Justin Bieber's music video for "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" is shown with this film. Bieber is beginning to look and sound so much like Justin Timberlake, he should change his name to Justin Bieberlake.