Arthur and the Invisibles [2007]

Amazon.co.uk Review

First released in France, Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles is a touching computer animated adventure that makes up in look and in character for what it lacks in narrative originality. As a direct hybrid of Excalibur and A Bug's Life, Arthur stars a heroic ten year-old, Arthur (Freddie Highmore), who draws a sword from a stone to fight a miniature battle in the garden before finding treasure valuable enough to save his grandfather's farm from purchase by developers. Arthur's grandfather, Archibald, having long ago discovered the miniscule world of Minimoys, garden gnome-like elves that lived in his yard, shrunk himself in order to hunt elusive rubies that were hidden in their evil Mecropolis, headed by Maltazard (David Bowie). Now Arthur must assist the benevolent Minimoy clan, ruled by The King (Robert De Niro) and Princess Selenia (Madonna), in challenging Maltazard for possession of the jewels. Shots taking the viewer down through grass blades into the microscopic, yet gigantic yard world readjust one's sense of size, as do scenes, for example, in which a small, elven Arthur fights mosquitoes with catapulted tomatoes. Meanwhile, live action scenes of Arthur's worried grandmother (Mia Farrow) provide respite from a completely computerized world. Bowie, as he did in Legend, steals the show, bringing to life his Darth Vader-like character who chose evil over good in a past adventure. Corny one-liners sometimes spoil the mood, but overall the film's thematic blend of fantasy and environmentalism, like Princess Mononoke, will delight children with its positive message. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews:

Charming and entertaining family film.......2008-01-27

This delightful little adventure was greatly enjoyed by my two small children but also had enough more sophisticated jokes and challenges to be entertaining for the adults in the family.

"Arthur and the invisibles" is a mix of live-action and CGI which merge seamlessly into each other as the action switches between two scales - that on which humans lives, and that of tiny elves the size of an ant and known as the invisibles or "Minimoys."

Arthur, a ten year old boy played and voiced by Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is staying with his grandmother (Mia Farrow) in Conneticut. His parents, who are trying to cope with a difficult financial era, have packed him off, first to boarding school in England (conveniently explaining Freddie's English accent) and then to his grandparents' farm during the vacation, while they try to find work "in the City".

Arthur's grandfather Archibald (Ron Crawford), an engineer who spent many years working on projects in Africa, has mysteriously disappeared some four years before. Somewhere on his land, he had hidden a valuable collection of rubies with which he had been presented by a grateful African tribe. This treasure is desperately needed because a greedy developer (Adam Lefevre) is setting up the compulsory purchase of Archibald's home, following which he plans flatten the entire area for redevelopment.

With two days to go before the developer will be able to evict Arthur and his grandmother, Arther finds a message from his grandfather about his mission to get the rubies back, which tells Arthur how to contact this microscopic tribe. The adventure which follows is more extraordinary than he could have imagined ...

The world of the tiny Minimoys is brought to life in charming CGI with a star studded voice cast. Robert de Niro voices the King of the Minimoys with Madonna playing his daughter, Princess Selenia, and Harvey Keitel his minister, Miro. Snoop Dogg voices Max, the proprietor of a micro-nightclub: Jason Bateman provides the voice of the sinister Darkos, who is the son of the even more sinister "Evil M," brilliantly voiced by David Bowie.

While most of the film is aimed at small children, there are plenty of jokes which will amuse grown-ups. For example, when using a clockwork toy car to escape from danger at high speed, Arthur says "Just hope there arn't any speed cameras down here or we've had it."

Extras on the DVD include music videos for two of the songs: "Quest for Love" performed by Jewel and "Beautiful Day" performed by Elijah.

Overall, the plot isn't the most original I've ever seen, and the film might not appeal to some older teenagers or to adults who have difficulty entering into the spirit of children's stories. It isn't in quite the same league as "The Incredibles" or the first two "Shrek" films which is why I've given this film four stars rather than five.

However, the vast majority of small children will enjoy "Arthur and the Invisibles" - mine certainly did - and many parents will not find it too difficult to watch with their children.

an enjoyable and enteraining family film .......2007-10-31

i found this film an excellent film for all ages, the animation was fantastic and so was the story, this film brings magics, hope and dreams out in to the real world.
As a believer of magic, i was amazed by a film that was funny and enjoyable and made children believe in magic and also quite funny as it was an adventure film too.
this is a film that anybody of any age can watch, as it is enjoyable and very enteraining, very enjoyable well worth it.

Good but could be better........2007-09-26

This is a good film, funny in places but with a plot which sadly gets lost along the way. It starts well but the middle leaves you feeling "OK what happened there"? and approaching the end I kept thinking "well what about the treasure"? Which is the reason for Arthur starting his adventure in the first place, how it ended was disappointing. Shame about the plot this could have been an excellent film.

Good french film /Bad US edition.......2007-09-10

This film is the biggest european animation so far. Besson spent 5 years on it, and while it failed in the english speaking market it went fairly well in the international marke, enough to secure the two sequels already in production.

Why the diference?

When Besson casted Maddona (a long time friend) whe did not know the problems involved.

A lot of the problems in pace and plot of the US edition of the film are result of the eforts of the Weinstein company in removing half of the plot: The love story of Arthur and Selenia, which due to Maddonas voice, became "inapropiated". In the international editions all this was left and the film has received good notes.

So the falling in love, kissing and marrying of Arthur and Selenia were cut, along other sections that were considered inapropiated for small kids. This left some plot holes and the motivation of the characteres became unconvincing.

I recomend to try the French DVD editions (it includes the undedited enlgish version) and also inlcudes a beautifull "making of" of the film, in french.

I only bought this film for the Princess.......2007-07-22

Absolutely brilliant imagery and a Princess to die for, my only complaint about her being that she always chose to wear trousers; that said, it would have probably been difficult otherwise to prevent her showing her underwear considering how much action there is in the film. Overall I found this flick to be more suitable for children than it is for adults, and too sentimental for my taste, the non-cartoon parts a complete waste of a camera, and the cartoon part a lot shorter than I expected although so fast-moving that I find it hard to follow much of the dialogue -were the makers running out of allocated time or something? It is ludicrous to pretend Mia Farrow could be a grandmother as she looks only fractionally less sexy than the Princess. I would have liked Arthur to be a more fallible kind of character -he never, ever, puts his foot wrong; Very well done that he never manages to kiss Selenia -who wants to be jealous? I got enough of that when they go to sleep inside the flower, Arthur and Selenia seemingly millimeters apart if not actually touching; doesn't she take any of her clothes off when she goes to sleep? And how about the shower she says she is gonna take that morning? It never happens! Who cut that scene out? I look forward to her next adventure.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful.......2008-01-06

A great film - beautifully shot and put together. And very moving. This will be a great present for my pa who loves excellent docs. Brilliant. I saw this film-maker's Mozart film and this is almost as good.

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