Sony Pictures just released the trailer for the upcoming holiday animation flick Arthur Christmas and I gotta say, it looks oddly hilarious. The film stars James McAvoy (known for kickin’ toosh in Wanted), Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, and Imelda Staunton and is directed by Barry Cook (Mulan). Arthur Christmas is the next animated movie from Aardman Animation, the hilariously witty team behind Wallace and Gromit. Yet while Wallace was shot using clay-mation, Arthur will be in CGI. But this movie has another interesting behind-the-scenes factoid…one of the writers, Peter Baynham, helped write the stories for both Borat and Bruno. This is probably one of the last films I would expect someone like that to work on, but now I am particularly excited. Animated films usually shine most when there is witty adult humor thrown into the kiddy shenanigans, and I can only expect all that and more from one of the minds responsible for getting Sacha Baron Cohen to seduce Ron Paul.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the synopsis.  Click here to check out the teaser poster.

Click over to Yahoo! Movies to see the trailer in HD.

Here's the synopsis:

“This Christmas movie highlights the technological advances of operations at the North Pole, revealing how Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in one night. However, every operation has a margin of error… When one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed “acceptable” to all but one, Arthur. Arthur Claus is Santa’s misfit son who executes an unauthorized rookie mission to get the last present half way around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.”

There are a few things I particularly love about this trailer. Beyond the relatively repetitive sarcastic humor that overlays the whole trailer, I got a huge kick out of the Morgan Freeman-esque narrator (not sure if it really is Morgan Freeman or not, but whichever the case, it’s great how everyone has completely caught on that Morgan Freeman narrates at least every other documentary made on Earth) and dug the modern take of Santa’s sleigh. I’m thrilled, and eager to check it out when it hits theaters on November 23, 2011.

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