Arthur, Selenia and cohort Betameche (Jimmy Fallon) venture into the lair of evil lord Maltazard (David Bowie), who has control of the rubies.Īction takes shape as a predictable string of adventures and near-misses through a forest of grass, and the final confrontation with Maltazard can’t come too soon. One can only imagine the odd effect in other languages in which the film is dubbed.įailing to warn the court - and oh-so-cool Princess Selenia (Madonna) - that their realm is in danger of being bulldozed, Arthur ends up helping his new allies in a fight against insectoid invaders. Spock ears) is flat and rigid, with extremely uneven synching of English voices to mouths. Animation of the slightly feline Minimoys (featuring small, pointy noses and Mr. First, dialogue (already plentiful) goes into overdrive, and is encumbered by hip sarcasm - suggesting that while the humans above are living in 1960, the folks below are in post-2006. Transition is grating and annoying on multiple levels. Arthur himself must pass through a metallic iris that transforms him into a minuscule kid with punkish hair, and then is brought to the court of the king (Robert De Niro). Via grandpa’s tiresomely detailed instructions, and with the aid of African tribesmen who suddenly appear on the night of a new moon, Arthur is able to descend into the “seven kingdoms” of the Minimoys. Arthur realizes that if he’s able to retrieve a cluster of rubies his grandfather’s diary claims is somewhere in the land of the tiny Minimoys (who actually live underground just outside the house), his granny can buy back her home. Reality knocks on the door when a ruthless developer (Adam LeFevre) presents deep-in-debt granny with papers making him the property owner. Similarly unexplained is why Arthur and his folks are Brits, while his grandfolks are Yanks. Also absent, for reasons never made clear, are Arthur’s parents (Penny Balfour, Doug Rand), who phone their son from a distant city on his birthday. Arthur is obsessed with the illustrated diary of African travels penned by his grandfather Archibald (Ron Crawford), who vanished without a trace four years earlier. Opening, set in 1960, thrusts auds rudely into the rambling Connecticut home of young Arthur’s (Freddie Highmore) kindly grandmother (Mia Farrow). In a weird coincidence, story elements sometimes match the recent “The Ant Bully,” while live-action lensing (by Thierry Arbogast, favoring wide-angle focal lengths) echoes the same technique in Terry Gilliam’s “Tideland,” also dwelling on a kid, a big house and the outdoors. What should be a breezy thrill-ride turns into a frenzied rush to cram it all in, causing a number of the films seminal moments to become anti-climatic.The sources and ideas that are borrowed, copied or stolen here include the tales of King Arthur to “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The African Queen,” “Star Wars” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Script, based on Besson’s French tome “Arthur et les Minimoys” (which spawned three sequels), apes the Joseph Campbell hero myth template that’s become a bible for Hollywood’s current generation - and offers proof the template is exhausted. There is simply too much exposition and backstory to effectively accommodate the running time. This goes doubly so for Highmore, who does awesome turns in both live action and cartoon form. Better yet, the winning characters responsible for voicing these gems are piped by celebrities who-although overly marketable (Madonna, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie)-perfectly fade into the beautifully-animated elfin landscape. Though not wholly original (think The Secret of Nimh meets TVs The Littles), Bessons Minimoy world is buoyed by the writer/directors laudable infusion of his signature smart-alecky humor. Fantastically inventive, Arthur and the Invisibles certainly demonstrates a richness of these impressive trappings, meaning it has the potential to delight even the brattiest of children but it ultimately proves to be an over-abundance of riches, a wealth that could potentially make the audience a bit bratty.īased on Bessons childrens book ∺rthur et les Minimoys, this PG-rated story follows a ten year boy (Highmore) who, in an effort to secure a treasure that will save his grandmothers (Marrow) house from being demolished, ventures to a world where the inhabitants are a tenth of an inch high. Served well by his inspired lunacy in crafting the deliciously intoxicating sci-fi/fantasy guilty pleasure The Fifth Element, director Luc Besson has smartly honed his obvious gift for designing trippy alien landscapes and their unique backstories on a family franchise.
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