Sarah Smith is good at finding recognisable human failings inside elaborate animated adventures. Her warmth and dry comedy earn our affection, though the people can be more interesting than the action carrying them along.
Fi1m perspective
In Arthur Christmas (2011), the business of delivering presents becomes a family dispute about who deserves the credit. Sarah Smith takes the organisation seriously, then finds the comedy in people who think their part in it matters most. The result is a generous family film whose squabbles are more engaging than some of its adventures. She understands that children can follow adult vanity perfectly well without being handed jokes intended only for their parents.
The route to that film ran through British radio and television comedy, including work on The League of Gentlemen and Armando Iannucci's programmes. She moved into animation writing with I Am Not an Animal (2005), alongside Peter Baynham. Arthur Christmas was her feature directing debut, with Baynham again sharing the writing. The useful inheritance is a feel for people whose confidence in their own importance exceeds what the rest of the family is prepared to grant them.
The casting makes those grievances enjoyable. Jim Broadbent's Santa and Hugh Laurie's Steve give Smith and Baynham's dry humour distinct voices, while James McAvoy supplies Arthur's earnestness. We laughed at the family's competition because the wish to be appreciated kept turning a discussion about work into one about status. McAvoy gives the film enough sincerity for its sentiment to feel earned rather than imposed.
Arthur himself is less interesting than several of the people around him, and Smith does not entirely solve that problem by keeping him busy. The middle of Arthur Christmas has too much rushing about, leaving less space for the personalities that made us care. His sincerity keeps us involved, but not every diversion needs to be there.
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021), which Smith directed and co-wrote, takes her interest in complicated systems into technology and friendship. It was the first feature from Locksmith Animation, the studio she co-founded with producer Julie Lockhart in 2014. For a first encounter with her work, choose Arthur Christmas, with a little patience for its crowded middle.
Biography
Sarah Smith is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. She directed and co-wrote the animated features Arthur Christmas (2011) and Ron's Gone Wrong (2021).
She studied at the University of Oxford and began her career in radio and television, producing and writing for British comedy programmes. She joined Aardman Animations as creative director, where she was also co-executive producer on The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012). In 2014 she co-founded Locksmith Animation with Julie Lockhart and Elisabeth Murdoch, and served as its former CEO before leaving in 2021.
