Arthur and the Invisibles

There's a very cute family film hidden somewhere here. Unfortunately, it's surrounded by the overly loud and chaotic movie that is Arthur and the Invisibles. In adapting his own series of children stories to the big screen, French filmmaker Luc Besson (Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element) initially entices us with a story of magic and discovery, only to pull the rug out from under us, and reveal that his true intentions are to make a thrill-packed video game of a movie that will only appeal to very hyperactive children under the age of 10. Here is a movie that promises magic and wonder, and ends up only giving us a lot of excessive and pointless flash, and some horribly miscast celebrity voices.

Arthur, the film's title hero, is a 10-year-old boy portrayed in this film by Freddie Highmore from Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Arthur lives alone with his grandmother (Mia Farrow) while his parents are away in "the city" looking for jobs, as apparently times are tough for the small boy's family. The kid has a grandfather too (Ron Crawford), who was a great explorer and adventurer until he mysteriously disappeared a couple years ago. Arthur is fascinated by the stories of discovery his grandfather left behind in his personal journal, particularly the stories of a civilization of microscopic elf-like creatures he discovered during his travels called the Minimoys. Supposedly, there are numerous riddles and clues hidden within the writings of the journal that can help Arthur discover the way to the world of the Minimoys. The lad is determined to find this world, as it is rumored they are holding some priceless rubies that his grandfather hid and left behind years ago. With grandmother's house about to be foreclosed in just a couple days, those rubies could help pay off the greedy and evil people who are bullying poor grandma.

Being the resourceful and bright boy he is, Arthur cracks all of grandfather's riddles in the course of one night, and eventurally finds the gateway to the world of the Minimoys. It seems that these creatures make their home in the backyard of his grandmother's house, so if the evil developers have their way, the yard surrounding the house will be covered with concrete and the creatures will die. When Arthur transports himself into Minimoy world, he is shrunk and turned into one of the tiny creatures. He meets up with the wise King of the Minimoy people (voice by Robert De Niro), along with his spirited and headstrong daughter Princess Selenia (voice by Madonna, of all people), and her cowardly younger brother Prince Betameche (voice by Jimmy Fallon). The tiny creatures agree to help Arthur, but the problem is that his grandfather's rubies are being held by an evil creature who is trying to destroy their kingdom named Maltazard (voice by David Bowie). Arthur will have to come along on the Princess' quest to venture into Maltazard's domain in order to defeat the tyrant if he wants to get his hands on the rubies and have a chance to save his grandmother's home.

If the movie itself were as simple and easy to follow as the above synopsis, then Arthur and the Invisibles could have been a fun little family film. Unfortunately, the chaotic screenplay by director Luc Besson and co-writer Celine Garcia makes it all but impossible as very little in this movie makes sense, not even the title. The Minimoy people are very tiny, not invisible, so why they are referred to as "the Invisibles" in the title makes no sense at all, especially provided that the film's original title when it was released in France last year was "Arthur and the Minimoys". Did that title just make too much sense to MGM and The Weinstein Company when they bought the US rights to the film? If the title were the only thing not to make any sense, I could look past it, but there's so much here that the movie doesn't bother to explain. Where did those large African natives who suddenly pop up to guide Arthur to the gateway to the Minimoys come from? What is up with the sword stuck in the stone that Arthur and the Princess try to remove mere seconds after meeting each other? What was the point of the scene concerning those supposedly drugged up Rastafarian Minimoy creatures whose voices are provided by rapper Snoop Dogg and comic Anthony Anderson? Arthur moves at such a frantic pace that it has very no time at all to slow down and tell us just what we're supposed to be looking at. We eventurally start to feel like we're stuck in an endless video game with CG cartoon characters running around in every direction, fighting with each other, and we're stuck in the middle of it all with no idea how we got there or what anything has to do with what we're seeing.

If the movie were to slow down and let us admire the visuals, we might find something to like here. The world of the Minimoys is quite an attractive place, and it is brought to wonderous life by some richly detailed artwork created by an animation studio that Luc Besson built from the ground up for this film. While the Minimoys themselves kind of look like the distant relatives of those horrid Troll Dolls that were so popular years ago, the movie itself has an attractive fantasy vibe that appealed to me. The visual splendor of the animated world of the Minimoys is cheapened considerably however by some terrible voice casting choices for the English dub of the movie. You know your cast is bad when Madonna, a name not exactly associated with fine performances, comes across the best. Did I mention that Madonna does the voice of a teenage Princess who happens to get a crush on a 10-year-old boy? That's not exactly the kind of image I want going through my head while watching a family film. Regardless, the bizarre casting doesn't stop there. How about Emilio Estevez in a cameo as the voice of a grumpy old man who controls the gateways between Arthur's world and the Minimoys? Or how about Harvey Keitel in a thankless role as the voice of the King's assistant? Most of the big names listed in the cast seem to be simply cashing a paycheck, and are limited to bit parts that barely register. Why bother casting an actor like Robert De Niro if you're not even going to use him? Anyone could have done the voice of the King of the Minimoys, and it wouldn't have changed a thing. The only performance that registers as actually being fun is David Bowie as the main villain, and that's only because his performance brings back memories of his villain performance in the 80s fantasy film, Labyrinth.
I admit, I started out liking this film when it was set in Arthur's real world. There was a certain charm and a sense of mystery and adventure that only the best family films have. I smiled quite a lot during the film's opening moments. Then Arthur enters the animated world of the Minimoys, and the movie gradually lost me to the point that I just wanted the thing to be over with. Arthur and the Invisibles starts out with so much promise, only to betray every bit of promise it may have once held. Very young children may like it, but the movie is just too silly and lacking sense to appeal to anyone else. The only impression this movie will leave on adults are mental images of Madonna hitting on little boys.

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