In a clear-cut case of arrested development, the film that crowns Luc Besson's career is a magical phantasmagoria for the kids, and a derivative mess for their parents.
Comment
06/13/07
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007)
20 %
Reviews Counted: 84 Fresh: 17 Rotten:67 Average Rating: 4.5/10
Consensus:
Arthur wastes its big-name voice talent on a predictable script and substandard CG animation.
Rated: U
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Theatrical Release: 02-02-2007
Synopsis: Director Luc Besson (THE FIFTH ELEMENT) tries his hand at a children's film with ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES. Based on a book, this adventure follows Arthur (Freddie Highmore) as he journeys in his own backyard to save his home from greedy land developers. When his grandfather disappears,... [More]
Genre: Childrens, Animated, Family Film, Fantasy Worlds, Animated Characters, Animated Worlds
Starring: Robert De Niro, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Freddie Highmore, Mia Farrow
Reviews
Top Critic
Here is an overproduced, oversugared semi-animated children's fantasy adventure from Luc Besson that made me want to cringe into my plush seat, never to re-emerge.
02/03/07
Top Critic
Brightly coloured fantasy adventure with a decent premise, but the animated sections don't really work, despite the efforts of a talented cast.
02/01/07
Besson's labour of love is a feast for the eyes but leaves the imagination distinctly undernourished.
01/30/07
Top Critic
Looks like European animation is still light years behind the US and Japan. Thank goodness for Highmore and Farrow — if only the whole film had been live-action.
01/29/07
Top Critic
Luc Besson’s half-baked live-action/animated fantasy looks like it was invented on the hoof: it’s erratically plotted, poorly animated, overly derivative and too insufferably cute to interest anyone above undemanding toddler age.
01/25/07
Top Critic
Several parts of the narrative don't gel, feeling designed simply to look cool or sound funny.
01/04/07
Uma fábula divertida e inocente que conta com uma eficiente animação digital e traz Besson em um bom momento, o que é algo cada vez mais raro.
04/13/07
In a year when a lot of big-screen animation felt like it came rolling off the video game assembly line, a little originality goes a long way.
03/24/07
Things unfold in rote fashion, with nature-based gadgetry no more clever than those of The Flintstones.
03/01/07
The Minimoys are teeny-weeny kind folk with a keen fashion sense and a wicked-cool lair. They're just like what the Borrowers would have been like if they had lived in the field behind the Urban Outfitters production factory.
02/03/07
A lazy fairy-tale pastiche reveling in mite-size cherubs, which cribs from gnomic mythology, elvish lore, Harry Potter, Arthurian legend and can’t-pay-the-rent melodrama.
02/03/07
I'm not sure what creeped me out most in Luc Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles," the awful animation or Madonna lending her voice to a "child" princess.
01/30/07
The story is just incoherent, and the faster it moves, the more frantic it seems.
01/27/07
Luc Besson has made a fair share of artfully bad movies. Arthur and the Invisibles -- half-live-action, half-CG kid's adventure -- is (by a hair) more bad-bad, like The Fifth Element, than good-bad, like The Big Blue.
01/17/07
With its Day-Glo colors and fast pace, this $80 million live action/animated film may be the first acid trip for kids.
01/17/07
Whatever its flaws, Arthur and the Invisibles has a handmade, personal feel that finally affords it a cockeyed endearing quality.
01/17/07
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Around the Network
• Arthur and the Invisibles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Arthur and the Invisibles at IGN
• Arthur and the Invisibles at AskMen
• Arthur and the Invisibles at IGN
• Arthur and the Invisibles at AskMen
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