Nonureva Really Surprised!

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

fichindarktower Enjoyed the movie, good acting in both versions(french and English) but the 2nd one is still better. Tried to watch the English cut version, and it was HORRIBLE! They deleted 10 minutes of the movie, dubbed it differently, and dubbed over some parts of the movie where it was not dubbed. Oh yeah and they added some horrible voice acting which was unnecessary and just BAD. The list goes on... ON the other hand, the uncut version(English and french language) is really better. Watched the french version cause the animated parts where done(recorded and filmed(guys in suits on a green screen)) by french people and as a result, when watched in English it may seem out of sync and a bit fast cause french films have really fast dialouge. Oh yeah and there gestures and stuff seem weird as well. When watched in french, you don't really notice it(if you ever watched a french movie, if not watch Taxi and Taxi 2, also by Luc Beson) Fun movie, good humor,good acting, for kids and older people. Someone will surely find something they like in this movie. I avoided for 3 years cause it looked really lame and finally watched it and was pretty nicely surprised. The 2nd movie is also on par, but the 3rd one went too much into the kiddy zone and anyone above 10 probably won't like it. Good and nicely made movie, I recommend it to all ages Enjoy :)

johnnyboyz Luc Besson's first ever foray into animation, and only second foray into film-making as a whole for six years, provides us with a curious little piece called Aruthr et les Minimoys. The film is not without its flaws nor annoyances, but overall I found it to be quite an enjoyable little romp through a number of subjects, issues and themes playing out under one of those umbrellas of live action mingling in with cartoon animation. The film offers wonderful entertainment for kids as it shoots along its fantastical route of warm, family infused environments; some threat in the form of an outside force attempting to put pay to the set up; an escape into an alternate universe in which a colourful array of characters and rules govern that particular space; as well as a series of animated scenes acting as sheer spectacle once the narrative has got rolling.The film is primarily concerned with a young boy and his escape from one world, or 'reality', into another. The case here is Freddie Highmore's titular role Arthur, a young and curiously English boy living in early 1960s rural America with his Grandmother, on a farm. In terms of friends and contact with those outside of his domain, his parents are nowhere and his Grandfather has been missing for a good while. As far as openings go, the child friendly setting of Arthur's farm is colourful, peaceful and set away from most other dangers creating a wide open space for Arthur to enjoy all by himself. He enjoys reading of his grandfather's exploits in foreign territory and is at a curious age in which the world around him is beginning to become more and more noticeable. This somewhat ideal setting is disrupted when some of those typically nasty suit-clad men arrive with the goal to shut the whole thing down. It turns out, the family have a few days to pay rather-a large sum of cash or face eviction.Armed with a developing brain; some might say a sprawling imagination and knowledge there is priceless treasure buried somewhere on the grounds that would pay off the debt, Arthur goes on a quest to uncover the truth and save the day. Arthur's transformation into a creature known as a 'Minimoy' as he burrows below the grounds of the farm and into an alternate world could quite easily be read into as a psychological 'escape' from one horrid situation into a dream-like Utopian setting. Only, both the transformation and study that worked so extraordinarily in the previous year's Pan's Labyrinth, isn't rendered quite as ambiguous this time round as the young lead attempts to escape from their predicament, and into a fabricated world which is further distilled by the horrors they're already living with. Besson even renders the villain of the piece here, Emperor Malthazar, voiced by David Bowie, as a sort of imitation of the Pale Man himself.Within this new world, Arthur is somewhat of a superhero; so much so that when the fatal and extremely dangerous quest is undertaken, it's deemed he's able to go it alone without the aid of any sort of backup nor guards of any description – just he and two select others. One of these is Princess Selenia (Madonna), the daughter of the leader of the Minimoys – a character that Arthur, up on surface level whilst in human form, took to somewhat in that innocent and young manner only he could, when he found her in cartoon form drawn on some paper and kissed it. Again, the lines between maddening reality and what would act perfectly fine as a out-and-out fantasy is toyed with when we assume the character of the princess and her appeal to him might be a fabrication of his own imagination.At worst, Arthur and the Invisibles a reasonably good child's fare that cracks along at a healthy pace. The trend of updating fairy stories and incorporating other texts and popular culture references, thus rendering the text of a post-modern kind is close to vacant, offering a refreshing change to a lot of other, recent animation films attempting to branch out to the widest possible audience. It's additionally refreshing to have a female character as strong as the lead, as she works with the lead, in their attempt to thwart evil; while I think there's a knowing element to the protagonist's task of having to rescue another character locked away in a dungeon - not a maiden but someone else this time. It's good to see a lead female in this type of film, not as a prize to be rescued and won, but as an action infused side-kick.Along the way, very basic but necessary ideas linked to team-work will sprout up with the aim to target any kids watching, I'm sure. There is also time for Besson to stamp an authoritarian and somewhat personal mark on the piece when a large-scale fight scene plays out at a disco. A recent reading of Susan Hayward's 1998 book on Besson sees her write about 'violence as performance' in Besson's films; acts that are often carefully choreographed within the film and thus resemble some sort of dance or performance: think the opening hit in Léon; the SWAT team assault during the finale of Léon as well as a certain fight scene in The Fifth Element involving Milla Jovovich's character, inter-cut with an operatic performance. Written before this film was made, similar sorts of ideas and aesthetics are played out once again by the Frenchman. But the film is no disaster on the whole. I'm don't think whatever rumoured or planned sequels are entirely necessary, as the tale; the ideas and messages have been explored here to the point of satisfaction. This is one for parents and kids alike looking for a break from the strenuous glut of Shrek films and others that feature talking animals.

brokensilent We rented this movie as one that we could watch with my three year old and I can't tell you how many times she's requested to watch it again in the few days that we've had the movie. It's very cute, the animated parts quite entertaining. I found the script to be very bizarrely written. The kid doesn't talk like any other kid I've met of that age, it's as if some thirty year old is speaking through him but that happens when an adult tries to write a child's perspective. There are a few plot holes that made me arch my eyebrow but besides that, it was very enjoyable. It's one of those fungus movies where my initial reaction was "it's okay but not one I would care to own". Now, after being conned into watching it multiple times, I wouldn't the least bit annoyed if it joined our collection.

dwpollar 1st watched 1/25/2008, 7 out of 10(Dir-Luc Besson): Fun and entertaining live-action/animated movie based on a beloved book. The movie begins as live action explaining that a boy's grandfather is missing and the grandmother, played by Mia Farrow, tells the boy stories that the grandfather had told her about miniature people living in their backyard. Mia's character thinks that she is just telling "stories" but Freddie Highmore's character believes her and pursues how to enter that world to find grandfather and to save the farm that's about to be taken away. After magically being put into the underground miniature world, the story is animated and has a wide variety of memorable and funny characters to keep children and adults interested. What I liked about this movie is that the boy was very confident and understood his purpose from the beginning to the end. His purpose is also very noble and helped the entire family. Besides this, the movie was fun and had some danceable tunes and had a formidable enemy who represented all evil in the movie. The character's voices were not so recognizable except for "Snoop Dogg" playing one of the comic relief characters. Another area that was nice about the movie was the relationship between the main character and the princess, voiced by Madonna. He obviously liked her but they didn't go into an all-out romance(which is more realistic for people that age) and didn't fall into the silliness that could have happened with that. All in all, this was a wonderful fantasy with good morals and a good feeling in the end, and I did say it was also "fun."