Arthur And The Invisibles

Based on his book ARTHUR ET LES MINIMOYS, Luc Besson tries his hand at directing a kids’ film for the first time. The result is as vibrant and enchanting as one might expect from the man who gave us THE FIFTH ELEMENT. The adventure gets underway when 10-year-old Arthur (Freddie Highmore) discovers a set of notebooks belonging to his grandfather who went missing four years ago. In them, he wrote of an ‘invisible’ people no taller than half an inch - a people so small that they are dwarfed by insects! Are these just the fanciful stories of an eccentric old man, or is the truth stranger than fiction? Arthur finds the answer hidden in one of his grandfather’s clues and is magically transported to the Invisibles’ realm. It’s at this point that the film shifts gear from live-action to beautifully rendered computer animation. Joining forces with Madonna’s feisty Princess Selenia, Arthur attempts to outwit the dastardly wizard Maltazard (voiced to villainous perfection by David Bowie), and foil his plans to destroy their tiny kingdom. The film boats an impressive array of talent including Mia Farrow--as Arthur’s concerned grandmother--and a trio of musicians-turned-actors (Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and Bowie). Other standouts include Robert De Niro, Jimmy Fallon, Harvey Keitel, and Jason Bateman, while Highmore brings the same wide-eyed wonder to the screen as he did in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. In fact, ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES shares a similar imaginative spirit with the works of Tim Burton and Roald Dahl. Though Besson’s previous films have been grown-up fare like LA FEMME NIKITA, he brings a sense of childlike awe to this project.