Synopsis

It all began with a cryptic message left in an old book of magic spells. "To find the country of the Minimoys, trust in Shakespeare." Arthur knows that this is a sign from his Grandpa Archibald, who disappeared mysteriously four years ago. But where is he? Where is the treasure trove of rubies that it is said he brought back from Africa? Arthur's Grandma could really use it to pay off all the debts that have accumulated since her husband disappeared. Time is running out. If Grandma doesn't pay her creditors very soon, the house and garden will be demolished and replaced by austere concrete high-rises. Arthur learns that he must follow his grandfather’s ancient clues to a vast treasure and unlock the passageway to a spectacular new world filled with mysterious little people, so tiny they are considered invisible, and enlist their help. But once in the magical land, Arthur must join swords with the beautiful Princess Selenia and a reckless army of defenders to save the land from the evil wizard Maltazard. It seems like an impossible task, but as Arthur discovers along the way, sometimes the smallest heroes can make the biggest difference.

What The Critics Say

"Too eccentric for kids, too silly for everyone else, it floats in a Neverland of breathtaking visuals in service of a story that pilfers everything (and I mean everything) from the Arthur legends to last summer's The Ant Bully." John Monaghan DETOIT FREE PRESS "The routine story and lack of real warmth make this a movie to endure with one's children, not to share with them." Jim Hemphill REEL.COM "A movie with imaginative elements but little imagination." Mark Dujsik MARK REVIEWS MOVIES "Youngsters should have a fine time. Adults not easily persuaded that any children's film is automatically charming might bring a book." Daniel M Kimmel WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE "The story isn't terribly original, but Besson gives it a fuel-injected energy. he even gets a lively performance out of the usually low-key, diffident Highmore, which is more than Tim Burton was able to do." Jim Lane SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW "It might have been just another humdrum children's film if not for Highmore, who brings the same charm he did in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Finding Neverland" to this fun movie." Meg Jones MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

"Arthur And The Invisibles is a sweet, all-ages adventure for families who have exhausted the other - myriad - choices this summer holidays. But compared to rivals such as Happy Feet and Flushed Away, the animation seems rather crude." Vicky Roach DAILY TELEGRAPH "It's a pretty good picture, albeit a strange one. The movie, while it doesn't knock you out, doesn't self-destruct either. Besson may never rise to the level of his best American models here, but it's fun watching him try." Michael Wilmington CHICAGO TRIBUNE "Ultimately, Besson has made an interesting, if shaky in places, homage to childhood." Monica A Reyhani PREMIERE MAGAZINE "Somewhere between cute and weird, Arthur and the Invisibles tries to be too many things in a frantic bid to be uber-creative, young, hip and relevant, expecting its technological prowess to be heartwarming as well as impressive. The tone is badly misjudged." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE "Too eccentric for kids, too silly for everyone else, it floats in a Neverland of breathtaking visuals in service of a story that pilfers everything (and I mean everything) from the Arthur legends to last summer's The Ant Bully." John Monaghan DETOIT FREE PRESS "what was disconcerting to me was the attraction between Arthur and Princess Selenia, a Minimoy version of a woman warrior. She looks like an animated, slightly pixilated version of Xena Warrior Princess, and she comes on like one. When she's not hurling herself around she is either sighing or flouncing in the voice of someone with considerable sexual maturity. Maybe it won't worry your average five to eight year old. For me it was one element too many which failed to mesh in this try-hard fantasy film." Julie Rigg ABC MOVIETIME

The Inside Story A little boy who enters a world of elves; that was the initial idea on which the film was built. Born out of the long collaboration between Patrice and Céline Garcia, that idea immediately inspired writer, producer and director Luc Besson. Before writing the script, he wrote and published Arthur and the Minimoys, based on Céline Garcia’s original idea and illustrated by Patrice Garcia. Three other volumes followed: "Arthur and the Forbidden City", "Maltazard’s Revenge" and "Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds". Written in collaboration with Céline Garcia, the film script was based on the first two volumes of the saga, which has already been translated into thirty four languages and sold more than 1 million copies in France. "The idea for the book came out of a combination of my childhood memories, my father’s childhood memories and observing my eight y.o son. So, three generations of children are the basis for Arthur’s story, which also hinges on a grandfather I never knew. When I was a child, he seemed to me a very enigmatic character. I pictured him as a sort of Ernest Hemingway. He was a journalist and had a pretty eventful life, traveling far and wide. So, I used that image of an adventurer with a love of Africa for the character of Arthur’s grandfather," says Co-scriptwriter and Visual Artist, Céline Garcia. And where did the idea for an Invisible world evolve from? "The world of elves is a kind of secret garden that Patrice and I shared even before we met. When I was pregnant, we enjoyed walking in the forest and, although it sounds a little crazy, I remember one particular day when a sunbeam gave me the feeling, for about thirty seconds, that I had glimpsed a magical world,"Garcia recalls. "That image stayed with me and made me want to tell the story of a little boy who visits that world. I really like the idea of a place where children are as big as the adults, control their own destiny and are capable of doing everything they dream of." And how did that lead to the making of the film "Arthur And The Invisibles"? "After seeing Patrice’s photos and reading my texts, Luc Besson told us he wanted to make a film out of it! As amazing as it may seem, we weren’t sure and asked for some time to think. It all seemed too much. We weren’t ready for it. Then, we thought that it was a wonderful opportunity to share our world, especially as Luc proved to be a great listener when we were writing the script together. He added his own story to mine. It was a pretty unique experience," she notes. Overall it took five years before the first fruits of their labour appeared. Evidently it wasn't an easy process. "I have to confess that it was pretty frustrating because five years went by between writing the script and seeing the first images! I didn’t want to intrude while they were making the film, so I waited. When I finally saw it, I was awestruck and incredulous. To tell the truth," says Garcia, "I still wonder if it’s all true, if the film is really about to come out! I haven’t fully realized yet." In fact it would take seven years to bring "Arthur And The Invisibles" to the big screen. Besson recalls when Patrice Garcia and his wife Céline first came to see him with a proposal for a TV series. "They had written a short script based on a story about little elves. It was the first time I saw drawings of Arthur, although that wasn’t his name back then, and the Invisibles. I found their universe quite fascinating but I wasn’t inspired by the idea of a series, so I suggested giving it a shot as a feature film. That seemed too ambitious for them and they asked for some time to think, which was quite understandable because a feature film meant going from a small-scale project to an enterprise involving three hundred and fifty to four hundred people, with the risk of losing the treasured personal touch that it had in the beginning. In the end, they decided to go for it." To give you an idea of the enormity of the project here's some production facts. Two hundred and twenty five people worked on site in Pantin. All of them were working on their first ever animated feature and, for two hundred of them, this was their first ever job. It took twenty seven months to produce the film’s animated sequences. Twenty million images calculated. sixty thousand working days (or one hundred and sixty four years) to see the film to fruition. And that just the beginning. Here's how it looked from idea to finished product. 1999: Luc Besson and coproducer Emmanuel Prévost decide to make a film inspired by a photo sent to them by Patrice Garcia. Very early on, Emmanuel Prévost suggests bringing in BUF Cie, renowned for its expertise in photorealistic special effects, for the film’s 3D animation. 2001: A short pilot of the movie is shot to test the film’s production process. The first large-scale sets are built in studios at St. Ouen, just outside Paris. Patrice Garcia is responsible for directing the pilot and BUF Cie supervises the 3D animation. 2002: Pierre Buffin, a trained architect, finds the site at Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, which will house everybody working on the film (2D & 3D modelers) under one roof. The various crews move in two years later. 2002: For the next three years, designers develop the film’s stunning fantasy world. 2003: Patrice Garcia completes the film’s storyboard, a vital tool for BUF to establish a schedule and budget for the 3D part of the movie. 2003: 3D artists begin to design the characters, a process which continues in some cases through to the last few months of production. Using a motion video capture technique devised by BUF, Luc Besson is able to apply his experience as a “live-action” director to the animated sections of Arthur by filming the storyboard with a group of actors and recording a scratch soundtrack. All these references can then be used to generate 3D CGI. Most of the 3D sets are created by constant collaboration between set designers (who build maquettes) and 3D artists (who photograph them and interpret them in 3D). 2005: In spring the live action shoot starts. Luc Besson shoots the film’s live-action sequences with Freddie Highmore and Mia Farrow. Near the end of the year, the 3D animators deliver a rough version of the film. 2006: Voices and music are recorded. The film is mixed, rendered and delivered. Besson admits he never realized how big a project it would turn out to be or that it would be such a long journey. "Thankfully, I was totally unaware when I started out on this adventure. I thought it would take a couple of years, not five whole years of my life! Actually, I got pretty down after about two years when there was still nothing to show for all that work. Just imagine, not a single second of footage after two years! I guess Pierre Buffin must have sensed it because he showed me the first few seconds just about a week later," he said. Of course there was also that vital task of casting the live characters and the voices for the animated characters. "The casting was quite tortuous, flitting between France, the UK and the US. It’s very tricky casting a young lead; he has to have a child’s innocence and an actor’s professionalism because we’re asking him to perform constantly and nail his lines and mark every time. I was having a tough time deciding between three English kids and two Americans. Then, a casting director who wasn’t working on the project suggested I take a look at some photos of Freddie. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" had just been made. I went to see it and I knew immediately. When a child is above the rest, it sticks out a mile and you don’t think twice. I’ve been very lucky because it’s the second time this has happened to me. The first time was with Nathalie Portman, who was amazing even at age eleven, and now with Freddie, just a fraction older and just as impressive," Besson noted. Highmore it turns out was familiar with the 'Arthur' books. "I read the books before, even some parts in French, and I loved the world of the Invisibles; it is exactly what the children want to believe in: a small universe hidden underneath the grass, where you can speak to small animals, make friend with them." On working with Besson, Freddie notes" "He works extremely hard. All directors must have that thing of always working but when he finishes on set, Luc would go off and would try to do a bit more on the animation to make it out a little bit better. That is why I think this film is so great, probably because of Mia and me but mainly because of Luc." Also cast for the film was veteran actress Mia Farrow who was recently seen in the remake of "The Omen". Ms Farrow says he initial meeting with Besson was for lunch. "The day when he invited me for lunch to talk about the movie, I assumed he was meeting many actresses on that occasion. So when he asked me if I wanted something to eat, I refused, because I didn’t want him to lose too much of his time, assuming that all the candidates to the part could arrive anytime. I was therefore extremely surprised and excited when he chose me for the part at this very lunch," she said. "It’s rare to find an actress who, like her, has played young romantic leads, then mothers, and now in a very natural progression, grandmothers. She is so obviously sweet and kind. She loves kids and reading stories. I didn’t have to think about it very long." Ms Farrow also impressed the films star Highmore. "She’s the ideal nanny," he says. "She is just how you want your favourite granny to be, the one all the children dream of. She has so many stories to tell: she was married to Frank Sinatra and she was around when the Beatles were recording their songs!" The Verdict "The little kids will get a big kick out of "Arthur And The Invisibles" especially when Arthur finds his way into the world of the the Minimoys. Adults on the other hand may well find themselves grinding their teeth, nodding off or wishing to hell they were somewhere else. While "Arthur And The Invisibles" has a heck of a lot going for it, it is a little too cluttered and lacking in the 'heart' department. Older children will probably be very taken by Princess Selenia who certainly seems a little 'too mature', a little too sexually projected for the genre. Caring, loving parents will understand what I mean when I offer this piece of advice: "Come on, do it for the kids." Recommended for ankle biters and kids up to ten years of age max. Worth a family look at. 3 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES" stars .......
Freddie Highmore ["Finding Neverland", "Five Children and It", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "A Good Year"]; Madonna ["A League of Their Own", "Evita", "The Next Best Thing" and "Swept Away"]; Jimmy Fallon ["Almost Famous", "Taxi" and "The Perfect Catch"]; Robert De Niro ["City By The Sea","Shark Tale", "Meet The Fockers" and "Hide and Seek"]; Snoop Dog ["Training Day", "Starsky & Hutch", "Soul Plane" and "Racing Stripes"]; Harvey Keitel ["Cop Land", "Red Dragon", "National Treasure" and "Be Cool"] Anthony Anderson ["Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", "Hustle & Flow", "Hoodwinked!" and "The Departed"] and Mia Farrow ["Hannah and Her Sisters", "New York Stories", "Crimes and Misdemeanors", "Reckless" and "The Omen"] as Grandma.
"ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES" was .......
directed by Luc Besson ["Subway", "La Femme Nikita", "The Fifth Element" and "Joan of Arc"]; screenplay by Luc Besson ["La Femme Nikita", "Kiss Of The Dragon", "The Transporter" and "Unleashed"]; casting by Todd M Thaler ["The Dancer", "Pollock", "Maid in Manhattan" and "Little Children"]; cinematography by Thierry Arbogast ["Woman On Top", "Kiss of the Dragon", "Bon Voyage" and "Bandidas"]; original music by Eric Serra ["Goldeneye", "The Fifth Element", "Joan of Arc" and "Bulletproof Monk"] production design by Hugues Tissandier ["My Life Is Hell", "Family Express", "The Transporter" and "Bandidas"] and costume design by Olivier Bériot ["The Libertine", "Femme Fatale", "Unleashed" and "Bandidas"]. Run Time 99 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - MGM & The Weinstein Company - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2007 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved