Arthur Christmas gives cheer to the wrong brother

Our children don't need to be told that success depends on the warmth of their hearts. Tech-savvy Steve is the one to laud here
Pointing the way … Steve, voiced by Hugh Laurie, in Aardman's Arthur Christmas.
Pointing the way … Steve, voiced by Hugh Laurie, in Arthur Christmas. Photograph: Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures

Yuletide family films are prone to preaching, but they tend to opt for an uncontroversial text. Not Arthur Christmas: intergenerational conflict is one of the hotter issues of our day. Aardman's engrossing take on this theme will surely mark impressionable young minds. Will they be the better for it? Spoilers ahead.

For our increasingly beleaguered old folk, there are crumbs of comfort. In the face of crisis here, Grandsanta is readier than the rest of his family to take risks, because he no longer has much to lose. He's better equipped to think outside the box, since he's able to draw on a deeper bank of experience. Familiarity with low-tech machinery enables him to improvise when hi-tech systems fail. The physical constraints imposed by ageing prove surmountable when needs must. Time has entrenched a commitment to core values. Without Grandad's intervention, all would have been lost.

Good news then for Age UK and Dame Joan Bakewell? Not very. Grandsanta's old-fashioned methods fail, and his senescent feistiness proves no substitute for the proficiency of youth. Worse, his claim to moral superiority turns out to mask mere vanity. After a moment of abortive glory, he's dumped back out to grass.

Fair enough, you may think. We've had enough of sanctimonious seniors moaning about today's youth, harking back to supposedly better times and priding themselves on their inability to master modern methods. Yet it's the next generation down that really gets it in the neck.

In this film, Santa is a leader in late middle age, but his maturity proves worthless. His belief in his own value is delusional and his success depends wholly on the efforts of those beneath him. Though he clings to office, he's become a useless figurehead. His values are as spurious as his father's. The message is blunt: he's past it and should make way for the next generation. In the end he's put out to pasture alongside his dad.

This is a more subversive message. We're now supposed to revere greying workers. In April compulsory retirement was abolished, and age can no longer be used as grounds for dismissal. Broadcasters who used to dump wrinkly presenters have been shamed into mending their wicked ways.

Still, maybe it's time that the current doctrine was challenged. As the years pass, people do get slower and more set in their ways. Sometimes they ought to pass the baton well before they want to. This film highlights not just the energy of the young pretender but also his acuity. What keeps Santa's show on the road is his elder son Steve's mastery of cutting-edge technology. The drive and competence of the young Turk eclipse the pretensions of his clapped-out chief. Nonetheless, they're not deemed sufficient.

Steve's head is clear but his heart is flawed. In the course of growing up and getting smart, he's lost touch with his feelings. Emotional correctness can only be found in an even more junior quarter. Steve has a little brother, Arthur, who boasts neither skill nor acumen. He's always leaving the door open, at the North Pole, for God's sake. Yet unlike the rest of his kinfolk, Arthur is able to feel the pain of others.

Doubtless both brothers have something to offer the world. Yet their endowments aren't accorded equal value. Arthur's sensitivity qualifies him to snatch the crown that Steve believed he was entitled to inherit. Childish innocence trumps the claims of all the other ages of man.

Well, this is a Christmas kid's flick. If it wants to flatter its target audience, it can proffer an excuse: the infant whose birth the season is supposed to celebrate could be said to share its priorities. Still, it's one thing to esteem the soft-hearted. It's another to imply they'll inherit the earth. Even Jesus didn't quite say that.

The film insists that Santa's gifts must reach every child in the world. Nonetheless, deliveries seem to be concentrated on Europe and North America – Asia goes mysteriously ignored. In China, 25 December is just an ordinary day. By all accounts, children waking there will not be told that success depends solely upon compassion.

As life promises to get tougher, getting rid of Arthur's dad seems a good idea. We certainly don't want his grandad back. His brother can't match him in the empathy stakes. Nonetheless, if we want our children's children to get their presents, it may be Steve, not Arthur, that we need to encourage, reward and promote.