This teaser trailer for Arthur Christmas, a CGI-animated film voiced by the British cast of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jenson, is a clever introduction to a movie with a clever story.

How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night? The answer: Santa’s exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the heart of the film is a story with the ingredients of a Christmas classic – a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur, with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.

McAvoy is the voice actor for Arthur, the good-natured but clumsy younger son of Santa. Arthur loves everything to do with Christmas; indeed, he is the only one in his family still captivated by the magic of the holiday.

The movie opens December 2011.