Customer Reviews

Arthur: Arthur's Perfect Christmas

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We have watched this Arthur movie countless times. We celebrate Chanukah and enjoy watching Francine celebrate with her family...it is always a beautiful moment when the menorah is lit for everyone to see. You can be of any religious faith to enjoy this movie...the kids and I love it(and I'm 40!) We highly recommend it.

My kids love this movie. It's the perfect length, only an hour. The movie includes all the main Arthur characters, with the typical doses of lessons learned, just like the PBS cartoon. Arthur hopes for the perfect Christmas. But will it snow? Will DW get the over-advertised toy she wants? Will Mom like Arthur's present? Best of all, Hannukah and Kwanza are celebrated along with Christmas. This movie is a joy through and through.

We watch this movie all year long. My 4 year old refers to it as boogie woogie christmas due to the theme song which he sings along with the video, while in the bath tub, just about any place. I wish Marc Brown would provide us with another full length feature Arthur movie. I have sat through this movie dozens of times with my son, and haven't gotten bored with yet, I'm almost 40! Buy it!! I love it and your children will too.

What a warm and cozy Arthur show!!
Nice songs and great drama.
My kids love to watch it on the Christmas day.
I love this specially episode when I first saw it on TV 2 years ago. I purchased a VHS so I can watch it whenever I want!

"What a wonderful kind of day when we can learn to work & play & get along with each other!"
Arthur is a rare kind of cartoon that is made for everyone; it is about a community of very different characters that live together peacefully and are accepting of one another. No matter how different they are from each other, they "get together and make things better by working together," with open eyes, ears, and minds, knowing that "every day when you're walking down the street, everybody that you meet has an original point of view." The Arthur Christmas special does exactly what is expected of it: it applies the cartoon's main theme to the holiday season & places it in a story told from the point of view of a little boy who always tries to understand others' points of view. It may not be everyone's perfect Christmas, but it is "ARTHUR'S Perfect Christmas."

On this page we have another case of people reviewing their religion instead of the DVD. Don't be turned off by the reviews that say Arthur is anti-Christian; all of my family and friends, both Christian and non-Christian, love watching the Arthur special with their kids every year. (Contrary to the popular misunderstanding, the holiday now known as Christmas was not invented as a Christian holiday; it was only adopted by Christians in the 1800s, so there is no reason that all Christmas specials have to be Christian Christmas specials.) Also, consider the source of a critique before letting it affect your decision to see the movie. For example, puremorals4ever over-criticized Arthur in his review in the name of his religion, though he gave 5 stars to SpongeBob SquarePants, which had a Christmas special that was very much less catering to the reviewer's fundamentalist Christianity than the Arthur special was.

After reading all of the reviews, I STILL don't know if it this DVD is good enough in quality to replace my old VHS copy. Reviewers, tell me about the special features; tell me about the sound and picture quality; tell me if it doesn't work in some DVD players. Each shopper has a different idea of what a "puremoral" is; shoppers don't care if the storywriters' values are different from those of one individual buyer. What shoppers want to know about is the quality of the DVD, not whether or not you agree with the Arthur writers' message that a community works best when each person works together and realizes that others have views that are different from their own.

A great holiday favorite with lots of music, and different holiday traditions to learn about!! Highly recommened!!

If you're familiar with the Arthur program airing on PBS, you already know just how clever this show can be. Created by Marc Brown and based on his books, Arthur Read is an aardvark who shares adventures (and misadventures!) with friends like Buster Baxter (a rabbit), Francine Frensky (a monkey), Binky Barnes (a bulldog), Muffy Crosswire (a very RICH monkey), and others. Arthur is often at odds with his little sister D.W. (Dora Winifred) which makes for much of the shows comedic moments.

In Arthur's Perfect Christmas, the scene begins with Arthur sitting at the piano, softly playing Pachebel's Canon. This movie, like the TV show, uses day-dream sequences--and Arthur plunges into a snazzy song called "Perfect Christmas". You see, this holiday, Aruthur wants it to be absolutely PERFECT...but things go wrong in the town of Elwood City, for both Arthur AND his friends!

For example, Muffy expects Francine to attend her big Christmas party, but Francine has told Muffy REPEATEDLY that her family is having a Hannukah gathering the same night. What happens when Francine doesn't show up for the party to receive her present?

Buster Baxter worries about his Mom who seems to obsess over having a perfect Christmas for her son, especially since the divorce. Buster comes up with "Baxter Day" which takes the pressure of his Mom and displays the true meaning of the holidays--love and kindness.

Arthur searches the mall for presents for his parents, D.W. is desperate for a Tina the Talking Tabby (whose theme song haunts Arthur everywhere he goes!), Uncle Fred makes an unexpected visit on his way to a Floridian Christmas, and Arthur's Dad insists on making an "authentic" dinner that was likely served in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.

Holidays such as Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are also highlighted making this a fun and informative DVD.

I bought the Arthur's Perfect Christmas DVD for my son several years ago and it's STILL his favorite. I just brought out the Christmas DVD's and VHS's and he plays this one several times a day. It's filled with fun songs (24 of them!), witty banter, and clever wordplay. Not only that, there's a great message that expectations often disappoint and that a wonderful experience can arise out of mishaps and situations not going as planned.

This 60 minute DVD doesn't have any extras (except for previews of other Arthur DVD's), but this excellent movie is well worth the price in my opinion. My husband and I get a kick out of the cleverness shown in Arthur TV series and this movie is no exception. And as I said, it's my son's favorite holiday movie.

Highly recommended for kids and parents alike!

This movie is excellent! I'm older and have watched it 15 times. You learn about Kwanza, Hanukah, and Christmas. At first Arthur thinks he will have a Christmas with everything going his way. Then win his mothers present brakes he's heart broken. Everything then works out, it wasn't the way he thought but it was great. Each character has a side story like when Muffy and Francine get into an argument. This movie is great and I hope you share it with your kids.

This video is not only about Arthur's Christmas but about all different celebrations happening at the same time. It is done in a way that says just because Christmas is everwhere doesn't mean it is more important than Chanukah or Kwanzaa. It is very cute and I even like to sit down with my daughter and watch it. We love Arthur and I definitely give this one 2 thumbs up!!!

first i shood warn you, for any true arthur fans [[as am i]], it might be a little bit hard to adjust to the new voices of arthur, DW, and others, when the DVD first arrived, i was shut to the idea of changing my all-time fave kids show!!! but i gave it a second chance...and found i loved the musical numbers. Tina the Talking Tabby, arthurs Piano Piece, Muffys Christmas Madness and more!!! its an enjoyable DVD with all of your favorite elements. It never gets old, and is even fun to watch for hundreds of days in a row!!! =o]