The combo of state-of-the-art animation and 3-D make this seasonal tale well worth a trip to IMAX. Santa has been bought bang-up-to date, swapping his place by the fire for one in front of a PC.
Taking a break from his annual who's been good/bad data analysis, he recalls a tale of Christmas past about a lonely snowman who decides he wants to be Santa. Building himself an army of mini-me snowmen, he attempts to beat Santa at his own game, culminating in a cheeky recreation of The Empire Strikes Back's battle of Hoth, only with chocolate squirty guns, gingerbread infantry and igloo AT-AT's.
Short, snappy and to the point, this is refreshingly schmaltz-free and, while not perhaps in the same league as Pixar, it will break up a Christmas shopping trip nicely and rekindle all those Christmassy feelings that you just lost after queuing in Argos for four hours.