Arthur and the Invisibles
Steve Kinsey shrinks Russ Greeno with his magical ray gun and sends him off to review Arthur and The Invisibles.
While I'm waiting for some more decent Wii games
to be released (get off your asses Nintendo!) I thought I'd enter into the
spirit of things and do some DVD reviews for the site.
Arthur and the Invisibles is a cute family adventure tale set in the 1960's, it
is both live action and computer generated.
The story goes a little something like this:
Arthur (Freddie Highmore) has been sent to live with his grandparents, as you'd
expect they're both lovely and he is really happy with them and his pet
dog. He wishes his parents would visit him more often but sadly they are
more interested in their careers only phoning him when they feel like it
(bastards).
For some time now Arthur's Grandfather has been missing, no one has seen him
since he went looking for the special treasure of the Minimoys.
When some nasty repo men coming demanding money from Grandma (Mia Farrow), who
else but Arthur can try to carry on his Grandfather's quest to find the
treasure and pay off the mortgage once and for all.
Arthur is successful in unraveling the clues left by his Grandfather and it's
not long before he is met by a group of Indians in his back yard, with the help
of a telescope and the full moon they help Shrink him down to size so he can
enter the world of the Minimoys (The Invisibles). But what's this?
He hasn't just been shrunk, Arthur also has taken the form of a Minimoy, and
pretty funky he looks too!
After quickly getting to know the locals and falling head over heels for
Princess Selenia (Madonna) he sets off to find the treasure, defeat the bad guy
played by David Bowie (The Evil M), find his grandfather and then get home in
to pay off the repo men.
Can Arthur do all of this in just 89 minutes (including the credits)? The
only way you'll know is by watching the movie.
Should you watch the movie? Well that depends on the rest of this review
doesn't it?
Arthur and the Invisibles is a fun but flawed movie.
There have been so many computer generated movies lately that I've literally
lost count, but my rough calculations tell me that there have been too
many. The market has been saturated with them, they're obviously popular
with the kids so naturally, (or should I say typically) that's what's gonna be
made. These guys aren't making movies for the love of it you know folks,
a successful movie will make millions of dollars in profit and the sales of the
accompanying toys will make even more millions. No wonder so many
(including me...check out my website; russgreeno.com) want to get into the
movie industry!
I would say around 40 percent of the movie is live action (non CG), it is this
portion of the film that I was really impressed with. It looked great,
the story unfolded well and the acting was superb.
You may remember Freddie Highmore from Charlie and the Chocolate factory, if
not, then you probably didn't see it. Regardless, Freddie is a stunning
little actor and quite frankly pisses all over some of the star names in this
film, such as Robert Di Nero and Harvey Keitel (voices). With their
combined acting experience they should not be upstaged by a small child, or
even his animal co star (a dog), but they are.
It was the other 60 percent of the film that I was not so happy with.
Once Arthur is in the land of the Minimoys it all turns CG. Of course the
world looks fantastic with loads of details, the characters are nicely modeled
and everything is superbly animated. Even though I can't draw for toffee
(or any sugary substance for that matter) I can really appreciate when time has
been spent creating something like this. For me though, a computer
generated movie has to be more than skin deep, I want personality. It's
all very well having a pretty movie to hang around with, but if it has no
brains and no substance then quite frankly, I don't want to get married to it,
ok?
My main gripe with the movie, and it's computer generated segments, is the
pace. For some unknown reason, everything happens so fast. The
story, jokes and script are all rushed and feels very unnatural to watch.
It really is as if they are trying to squeeze a full 90 minute CG film, into
the 45 or so minutes that is actually set in the CG world. Quite absurd!
Luckily David Bowie's strong performance as Malthazar helped save the dignity
of the CG sequences and stop it from being quite so awful, but only just mind!
Apart from some awful voice acting in the CG scenes, the film was
very impressive sound wise. A good score which didn't distract me from the film,
don't you just hate it when the music gets in the way of what's happening
onscreen?
Visually this film is really nice and doesn't disappoint here. Perhaps Princess Selenia could've been better looking, but then she was based on Madonna...
There are a couple of extras on the disc, but not much of any real
interest. No in-depth making of feature or behind the scenes stuff to be
found.
A theatrical trailer, music video and small recording session are all that exist, but hey, better than nothing right?
Overall then, a fun film, let down by some bad voice acting and an over rushed
pace. The kids will no doubt love it, and you'll have a little chuckle
whilst you watch it with them, but afterwards you'll feel a bit let down, and
the kids badgering for some crappy lead painted plastic toys which they found
at the back of the Argos catalogue (which hardly actually resemble the
characters) will make you want to commit suicide, apart from that though, it's
all ok here from me.
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