James McAvoy: Children’s films are special

(Cover) - EN Movies - James McAvoy believes that children are the “best audience around”.

The Scottish actor lends his voice to the title character in the new animation Arthur Christmas.

In the family movie, Santa’s youngest son Arthur decides to use his father’s high-tech operation for an urgent mission on Christmas Eve.

James has a young son called Brendan with his wife Anne-Marie Duff and he wanted to make a film which would entertain his child.

“As I get older, I want to do more films for kids because they’re the best audience around,” he told Collider. “Just putting a smile on a kid’s face is the best thing. Also, I just thought the script was so funny and so strong. It had a big spine going through it that had integrity and it was about something.”

James insists Arthur Christmas also reminds people about the true meaning of the holiday season. He believes Christmas has become overly commercial and he hopes the film will help cinemagoers to recapture the Yuletide spirit.

“Yeah, it’s a piece of entertainment and has Christmas love, but it’s actually got a little bit of topicality about it as well,” he explained. “It’s riffing off that feeling that Christmas has become too financially incentivised, and is all just about the marketing and the big machine that you can’t get in the way of. It’s somehow lost its integrity and the true spirit of what it is to take part in Christmas, which is generosity, really.”

Arthur Christmas is released in cinemas worldwide this month.

It also features the voices of Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent and Ashley Jensen.

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