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When a legendary filmmaker like Luc Besson states that after ‘Arthur and the Invisibles,’ he plans to retire from directing, the world listens. A man who gifted us masterpieces like Subway, Leon and Nikita is remarkable without a doubt. In today’s cookie cutter Hollywood, idolizing films that break the so called ‘rules’ of the industry is rare. So, naturally, seeing Luc Besson’s name in the credits of my comfort movie, The Fifth Element, needs no explanation on my interest towards the director. Unfortunately, Arthur and the Invisibles happens to be a viewer’s worst nightmare. But to be fair, the fact that it is a children’s movie does not automatically disqualify it. What bothers me is the baffling cast that was chosen for the film – Madonna, David Bowie, Snoop Dogg, Mia Farrow, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel. This so-called cult-classic could very well be another lifeless creation from CGI Hollywood and with that cast, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Arthur is a young boy who resides in the countryside with his grandparents while both of his parents are stuck in the city looking for a job.
He tells tales about his time in Africa, even though he hasn’t been around for 3 years now. On the other hand, there are problems looming like an angry storm – the heartless landlord is on the verge of executing their mortgage and planning to move in. With only 3 days to go, Arthur makes the decision to search for the treasure that was meant to be hidden in the yard. But, Arthur learns that his grandfather’s stories have a lot more practicality than he would have believed. With the house containing a miniature village of Afrikans living in the garden. In just being shrunk, Arthur is tangled in some problems of the Manos. Along with Princess Slenia, he sets off on a quest to get rid of the vicious Maltazard in hopes of retrieving the rubies, even though Selenia doesn’t make it easy for him to help.
Year after year, we get new animated films with a rich CG sequence and strong characters, such as Arthur and the Invisibles. Being merely a year old, Arthur and the Invisibles gets a pristine 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. On a DVD’s side, there does not appear to be any layer damage as the image is produced with brilliant sharpness and everything is clean. With a capture of the film serving as its cover, the disc does the movie justice. The quality of the film does sound quite period accurate to the sixties rural setting in Connecticut, and the liv e-action sequence serve its purpose nicely. The animation is fluid and vibrant, and with a completion process never being of reminder, the CG sequence is just as good as modern expectation. Detailed sets are skilled in character designs and with the film placed on one layer with extras on the other, complimentary sequences are never an issue.
The magic-like soundtrack of Eric Serra certainly does set the mood; however, it seems to lack in the area of memorability. Along with subtitles being of English HOH type, the film does an okay job conveying its music. A rather splendid DD 5.1 English track sets things off on the right foot, with the immediate booming tone of David Suchet narrating the movie. The speakers serve their purpose for capturing the more lively moments of the film.
Features
The DVD features the option to watch the trailers of Hoodwinked and Miss Potter right off the bat. As with many features these can also be skipped. The disc has a few extras like the two music videos Quest For Love by Jewel and Beautiful Day by Elijah. There is also a two minute behind the scenes footage of Jewels recording studio.
Of great interest are the short interviews in the featurette talking about ‘The Voices of Arthur and the Invisibles’ and it’s 7 minutes long. Some of the cast members discuss what it is like to voice a character. It’s the standard EPK fare, which is basically redundant.
It is all topped off with the inclusion of the film’s trailer, and once again, none of the extras have subtitles.
Arthur and the Invisibles exists in two forms: one made by Luc Besson, and the other made for the US. Whether the MPAA panicked at the mildly inappropriate aspects and censored it out of “protecting the children,” or the Weinstein company, displeased with the initial box office, slashed the film in order to sell the DVD to toddlers and not tweens. Guess which version we received…
As I gather, Arthur and the Invisibles is meant to be a story described as a romantic adventure. Arthur gets sent to a fantastical world where he becomes a Minimoy, sort of a troll figurine from the 90s that would stick onto the end of pencils, and joins the Minimoys in their quest against an evil antagonist who wishes to eliminate them. By pure luck, he manages to extract the King Arthur sword from the stone, the very sword a future Minimoy Queen is supposed to retrieve. So together with Princess Selenia, the newly turned hero Arthur goes on a journey to help Arthur redeem his grandmother’s farm and Selenia defeat her enemies.
During the journey, and even though they did not initially like each other, the two end up falling for one another.
But this is not the case in this film version. The romance is not there but the adventure still is. The problem is how the two threads were so married together that the resulting film is full of continuity errors, gaping plot holes, and story gaps. And all this with 12 minutes missing from it. The dialogue does not add up when the events being talked about are not played out on screen. The characters speak of kissing, of some kind of magic, yet we see none of this. The heart has been taken out of the film and what is left are pieces. Pieces that are poorly edited together. When Janet Jackson and nipple gate happened, it is likely that conservative America passed out at the idea of a child character being played by a woman of younger age, being wooed her by an older woman voice actor, and vice versa.
Since much of the perception of the animation seems focused on the Hollywood-style approach of the animation, in which there are a lot of cameos, references, and game like characters, it loses the beauty of a simple narrative. A mix of different comical styles is used to amuse the audience, but the absence of any solid story only results in a feast for the eyes, which is not a good thing. Good parts of the movie, like the characters themselves, are pretty fun to look at, especially Arthur, who is lively and wholesome. This might be Madonna’s best movie over the years as Selenia is charming and silly. The cast includes a good number of stars, which in themselves are cool to spot, like David Bowie’s not very exciting take on Maltazard. Miley does come off as a decent actor, even in an animated movie.
Overall, I’d have to say that even if we were given the whole film, Arthur and the invisibles is boring. The plot a little too typical and is based on heroes getting miniaturized and going on themed escapades in their backyard, which for very some reason is surprisingly common. With films such as A Bugs Life and Ants being set in the digital underbelly, the Minimoy setting is unimaginative to say the least, no matter how good the visuals are on the screen.
After removing the spirit of the cutout, what is left is rather base and tired and fails to leave any lasting impression post the end credits. A film that looks good and has some nice attractive set piece but still gives the sentiment that the best bits have been left on the cutting room floor has no reason to be taken seriously. Only get this version if you’re trying to impress a target audience that doesn’t understand the concept of ‘story’ and is mesmerized with colors. Otherwise I’d look into importing, although not from the US, maybe the French version will have an English soundtrack.
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