Saturday 2 July 2016

Arthur and the Invisibles (2006)



Ten-year old Arthur lives with his grandmother.  His parents are busy working and his grandfather - an explorer who once encountered a race of miniature people called "Minimoys" - has recently gone missing.  Arthur's grandmother tells him that some of the minimoys now live in the garden, where they protect a collection of rubies.

When an unscrupulous developer threatens to foreclose on the house, Arthur naturally thinks of the rubies.  Plot contrivance allows him to be shrunk down to the size of a Minimoy himself - a few inches tall at most - and he enters their fantastical world.  His minimoy form also looks quite like one of those "Troll" dolls, to be honest, which is perhaps not the best of decisions.

Anyway, Arthur will find himself battling an evil warlord, rescuing his (also-minimoyed) grandfather, and romancing a princess.  Which, given that she appears to be a grown woman (voiced by Madonna, at that), and he is a ten year old boy ... is kind of icky, really.  Apparently a lot of this last subplot was actually cut out of the film for the US and UK release, so I can only imagine how uncomfortable it would be to watch the original French release.

The unfortunate romantic subplot aside, I guess this is tolerable enough animated fare, but there are frankly many better films to keep the small ones happy.  It may also be a little dark at times for very young kids.

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