Written by Caballero Oscuro
What would happen if the high-octane director of violent action flicks like La Femme Nikita and The Professional decided to make a kiddie film? That’s about as crazy the director of the Mad Max trilogy making a movie about dancing penguins, right? Oh, wait…
With Arthur and the Invisibles, action auteur Luc Besson turns his attention to entertainment for the younger set with mostly favorable results. Although the film was largely ignored at the box office during its brief theatrical run early this year, it now has a chance to find its audience with its release on DVD. It’s mostly CG-animation, but also has some live-action interludes such as its prolonged introduction.
Young Arthur (Freddie Highmore) is staying with his grandmother (Mia Farrow) on her bucolic farm when he stumbles across his absent grandfather’s notes regarding a race of tiny creatures living in their backyard. Grandpa disappeared long ago, leaving Grandma all alone with a looming bank foreclosure. Arthur learns that Grandpa might have located a fortune in rubies that would save the farm, so he sets out to follow Grandpa’s directions to recover the treasure and possibly Grandpa as well.
Conveniently, the treasure is somewhere in the secret world of the Minimoys, the tiny critters populating the farmland, so Arthur manages to find the hidden entrance to their world, causing his transformation into his CGI Minimoy body. The film is mostly CG from this point on, launching Arthur into a fantastic world beyond his imagination. He meets the Minimoys and becomes their hero when he’s able to pull their mystical sword from its stone (hmm…). He also meets a tough and cute Minimoy lass (Madonna) who accompanies him on his quest to recover the treasure and concurrently save the rest of the Minimoys from destruction at the hands of the evil local overlord (David Bowie).
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