WONDERWELL

 

Publicity photograph for Wonderwell (© Vlad Marsavin/Vertical Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 15 September 2023, I watched a truly weird movie finally released earlier this year after a 7-year delay (due to ongoing sfx issues) since its original filming in 2016 and initial planned release date of 2017. The last movie to feature Carrie Fisher, who never lived to see it screened (she passed away in 2016), it is entitled Wonderwell (no, not a mistyping of an Oasis song title!).

Directed by Vlad Marsavin (in his directorial debut) and written by William Brookfield, Wonderwell is a sort of Alice In Wonderland/Wizard of Oz mash-up, set (and filmed) in modern-day Italy. It focuses upon a somewhat precocious 12-year-old girl named Violet (played by Kiera Millward), who falls down a gigantic well-like plug hole (complete with plug and chain!) in the midst of a gorgeously-rendered verdant, flower-filled forest shortly after meeting a good witch named Hazel (Fisher) there.

Following her plummet down the plug hole, Violet finds herself on 'The Other Side', a fantastical wonderland of sorts, yet where everyone she knows in her own world is present too. These include her parents, teenage sister Savannah (Nell Tiger Free), and a youth named Daniele (Sebastian Croft) with whom she has lately become friends.

However, there are also terrors on The Other Side, like colossal Venus flytraps, plus an enormous hovering tentacle-encircled head that speaks and apparently eats naughty children – and where the model-turned-fashionista diva Yana (a statuesquely sinister Rita Ora), who was training Savannah to be a model back in our world, now is not only still all of that but here on The Other Side is also an evil witch, sister of Hazel, and from whom she is trying to extract a magical key with which she can then conquer the world…or something.

 

Publicity poster for Wonderwell (© Vlad Marsavin/Vertical Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

For although it is unquestionably visually sumptuous, Wonderwell makes no sense whatsoever, at least as far as I could tell (and reading a fair few reviews of it elsewhere, I am certainly not the only one who thinks this). The plot, whatever it is supposed to be, as nothing is ever explained fully (or even adequately in most cases), is all over the place – sporadically seeking to portray itself as a deep, meaningful, metaphorical coming-of-age journey from childhood into adolescence, but it could equally be just an overwrought, underdeveloped fantasy potboiler with no underlying meaning or significance at all (I personally lean toward this latter interpretation). Even its central character, Violet, is mercurial in the extreme – one minute she's a delightful ingénue, the next a shrewish brat.

Had more (much more!) attention been given to the storyline and script, to suffuse them with consistency and (above all else) comprehensibility, Wonderwell could have been a thoroughly enchanting, modern-day classic fantasy movie, because its visuals are extraordinarily beautiful (cinematography is by Kenji Katori), and so too is its haunting music score. Sadly, however, the lack of plot cohesion (extending even to this movie's baffling happy ending that comes out of nowhere and yet again makes no sense) is a fatal flaw. Shame.

Even so, and as noted already, Wonderwell is a magical delight for the eyes, with excellent production values – so if you'd like to watch an official trailer for it on YouTube and see for yourself, please click here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Another publicity poster for Wonderwell (© Vlad Marsavin/Vertical Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

 

 

ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES (aka ARTHUR AND THE MINIMOYS)

 

Publicity poster for Arthur and the Invisibles (aka Arthur and the Minimoys) (© Luc Besson/Avalanche Productions/Apipoula Prod/Canal+/EuropaCorp/Weinstein Company/MGM – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After watching and greatly enjoying Luc Besson's sci fi movie The Fifth Element on 20 August 2023 (reviewed by me here), and his fantasy movie Angel-A on 21 August 2023 (reviewed by me here), both of which I'd read a lot about beforehand, I decided on 22 August 2023 to watch an English version of one of his French animated movies, Arthur and the Invisibles (aka Arthur and the Minimoys – the direct English translation of its original French title).

In contrast to the previous two, however, this was a Besson film that I knew nothing about beforehand, so I watched it with no preconceptions or expectations at all, and yet again I very much enjoyed it. Judging, moreover, from the numerous comments on IMDb and other movie websites praising it as a charming, delightful, original, classic children's fantasy movie, so too have many other viewers.

Not only directed and co-produced by Besson but also based upon the first two books (Arthur and the Minimoys and Arthur and the Forbidden City) in his self-penned Arthur series of children's books, Arthur and the Invisibles was originally released in 2006 as a 103-minute-long version in France. Here it was reviewed positively, performed well at the box office, and was re-released there a year later containing an extra 19 minutes of footage).

Conversely, in 2007 it was released as an edited 91-minute-long English-dubbed version by the Weinstein Company and MGM in the USA. Here it was reviewed negatively, underperformed at the box office, and contained numerous changes in order to Anglicize it, including retitling it as Arthur and the Invisibles. The British release of this latter version is the one that I watched on DVD and therefore describe from here onwards.

Intersecting live-action scenes with animated scenes (these latter constituting the major portion of this movie) and set in 1960, Arthur and the Invisibles tells how a 10-year-old boy named Arthur Montgomery is transported to an invisible realm of elf-like, benevolent mini-people, the Minimoys, located beneath the rural Connecticut house and gardens of his grandmother, Daisy Suchot, to seek and retrieve the priceless horde of rubies that his currently-missing grandfather Archibald Suchot hid there many years ago, in order to save his grandmother's house from being repossessed by a villainous land-grabbing Real Estate Agent.

However, Arthur finds himself also striving to assist the Minimoys themselves, who face a major plight of their own – saving their realm from the Evil M, a rogue and exceedingly malevolent Minimoy who plans to enslave all of them.

The animated scenes are packed to the rafters with eye-popping action, certainly there's never a dull moment amid the Minimoys, and these scenes are also rendered in dazzling multicoloured hues, yielding a vibrant vista throughout. But what is perhaps most amazing of all is the truly stellar calibre of stars featuring in the Weinstein Company's English version of this movie.

Yet with the exception of Mia Farrow who plays the grandmother and appears exclusively in the live-action sequences, none of the megastars in question are actually seen, providing voices for the main animated characters instead.

They include the likes of Madonna (voicing the Minimoys' feisty Princess Selenia, who reluctantly partners Arthur in their jointly-conducted respective quests), David Bowie (voicing the Evil M), Robert De Niro (the Minimoys' Emperor, and therefore Selenia's father), Snoop Dogg, Harvey Keitel, Jason Bateman, and Emilio Estevez, plus David Suchet as the Narrator and Luc Besson himself making a cameo appearance as a Minimoy. Arthur is played in the live-action scenes by Freddie Highmore, who also voices his character in the animated ones.

Arthur and the Minimoys is the first movie in a trilogy of Arthur-themed French animated films. There is also a version that combines the second and third movies into a single English-dubbed movie, entitled Arthur and the Great Adventure, released in 2010.

If you'd like to join Arthur and pay a brief but thrilling visit to the world of the Minimoys, please click here to watch an official trailer for Arthur and the Invisibles on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

DEATH NOTE

 

My official 2-disc Limited Edition UK DVD of Death Note, depicting Light on the left, and L on the right (© Shusuka Kaneko/Chükyo Television Broadcasting/Fukuoka Broadcasting Corporation/Horipro/Hiroshima Telecasting/Konami Digital Entertainment/Miyagi Television Broadcasting/Nikkatsu/Nippon TV/Shochiku/Shueisha/Sapporo Television Broadcasting/VAP/Warner Bros. Pictures/Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation/4Digital Asia – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 20 September 2023 was the Japanese live-action fantasy movie Death Note, based upon the eponymous manga comic book series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

Directed by Shusuka Kaneko, and released by Warner Bros. Pictures (in 2006, Japan, and 2008, USA), Death Note stars Tatsuya Fujiwara as Light Yagami – an exceptionally intelligent Tokyo-based law student who secretly hacks into police computers and becomes very disillusioned when he discovers how many criminals are evading justice despite their crimes being known to the law.

Walking home one evening, Light is surprised to find a strange black notebook entitled Death Note lying on the ground, and is even more surprised to read on its opening page that anyone whose name is handwritten inside this notebook (and whose face is known) by whoever owns it will die less than a minute later. When he then watches a TV news report about a major criminal who is shown smirking after having escaped justice, Light decides to put the notebook's seemingly preposterous claim to the test, by writing inside it the name of this criminal, and whose face is visible to him in the TV report.

A few moments later, the news report abruptly announces that the criminal has suddenly suffered a fatal heart attack! The Death Note really does work!

Light duly decides to use it to secretly bring justice to the many miscreants worldwide who deserve to die for their crimes in his view, but without revealing himself as their vanquisher. Soon, the unknown vigilante assassin becomes the subject of immense public speculation, with the media dubbing him Kira (Killer), whereas law enforcement agencies worldwide, including Interpol and the FBI, pool their resources in a desperate attempt to identify and capture Kira, but all to no avail.

Finally, Japan's National Police Agency (led, ironically, by Light's very own but wholly unsuspecting father, Detective Superintendent Soichiro Yagami, played by Takeshi Kaga) concede that their only hope is to call in the world's leading private detective, a veritable Japanese Sherlock Holmes, but whose identity has always remained totally concealed, being known only as L and communicating with the outside world solely via computer and a trusted elderly right-hand man named Watari (Shunji Fujimura). Yet even L seems incapable of tracking down Kira (i.e. Light).

Consequently, in order to maintain official support to continue his investigations, L has to reveal himself to the Japanese police – and to everyone's great surprise he proves to be a somewhat scruffy, teenage social misfit (played by Kenichi Matsuyama). However, his brilliant analytical brain is unequalled, and refuses to rest until it has unmasked and captured Kira, thereby bringing to an end his increasingly cold-blooded murders of not just criminals but also anyone else who interferes with his callous, judgmental actions.

The remainder of Death Note presents a compelling series of intricate, tantalising cat and mouse interplays between Light/Kira and L, each seeking to out-manoeuvre the other. There is also a romantic sub-plot involving Light's girlfriend Shiori Akino (Yuu Kashii) that seems relatively lightweight and insignificant within the storyline – until it suddenly assumes a dramatic centre-stage role within the movie's shocking, wholly unexpected climax.

 

Ryuk, the terrifying God of Death in Death Note, whose deadly notebook falls, almost literally, into the hands of Light (© Shusuka Kaneko/Chükyo Television Broadcasting/Fukuoka Broadcasting Corporation/Horipro/Hiroshima Telecasting/Konami Digital Entertainment/Miyagi Television Broadcasting/Nikkatsu/Nippon TV/Shochiku/Shueisha/Sapporo Television Broadcasting/VAP/Warner Bros. Pictures/Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation/4Digital Asia – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Oh, and did I forget to mention Ryuk (CGI-rendered, but voiced by Nakamura Shidō II), the huge and thoroughly terrifying, bat-winged, phantom-like God of Death who dropped the Death Note book onto the ground in the first place? Shortly after Light finds it, Ryuk pays him a visit, tells him that he can keep it, and then stays around to observe how he uses it and how humanity in general functions, while conveniently remaining invisible to everyone but Light, whom he taunts incessantly, and exhibiting a near-insatiable craving for apples! (Hence the apple prominently illustrated on the front cover of my DVD.)

Roughly 2 hours long (and with my above summary of its extremely detailed plot being a necessarily profound simplification for reasons of limited space here), Death Note is a thoroughly fascinating, engrossing watch, especially for a lifelong Sherlockian aficionado like me, who revelled in looking out for any subtle clues that might reveal in advance the ever more devious and dastardly plans devised by each of the two lead characters, Light and L.

Their respective actors play their roles brilliantly throughout the movie, Fujiwara in particular, as we watch how Light is gradually but irreversibly, irredeemably corrupted by the god-like power that he now possesses to wield death remotely yet seemingly unstoppably, courtesy of the Death Note book.

My one issue was that the DVD of Death Note that I viewed was subtitled, rather than dubbed, into English. This meant that I was having to spend a fair amount of time with my eyes away from the on-screen action while reading the subtitles. This resulted in my missing certain brief but key occurrences that needed to be perceived in order to stay abreast of the complex plot's finer points.

I subsequently discovered, however, that an English-dubbed version of this movie also exists, and was both delighted and very grateful when longstanding Facebook friend Jerry Taylor kindly informed me that this version could be watched for free on the totally legal website Internet Archive. So too can its sequel, Death Note 2: The Last Name, also dubbed into English and again released in 2006. Consequently, I intend to watch both of these very soon – thanks very much for the heads-up, Jerry!

Also waiting to be watched by me is the first season of the animated TV version of Death Note, which I own on DVD, after which I may purchase Death Note 2 in DVD format to add to my collection, plus a third, spin-off movie, entitled L: Change The World (released in 2008), and a fourth, Death Note: Light Up The New World (released in 2016). In 2018, moreover, Netflix produced a live-action Death Note TV series. So, if I should choose to do so, there is plenty of viewing options in the Death Note universe to keep me occupied for some considerable time ahead – and not forgetting of course all of the original Death Note manga comics to read!

If you'd like to access an official English-subtitled trailer for Death Note, be sure to click here to watch one on YouTube – or click here to watch the entire movie free of charge and dubbed into English on Internet Archive. And click here to watch for free on Internet Archive the English-dubbed version of Death Note 2: The Last Name.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Ryuk seeking apples in a supermarket, from Death Note, whose deadly notebook falls, almost literally, into the hands of Light (© Shusuka Kaneko/Chükyo Television Broadcasting/Fukuoka Broadcasting Corporation/Horipro/Hiroshima Telecasting/Konami Digital Entertainment/Miyagi Television Broadcasting/Nikkatsu/Nippon TV/Shochiku/Shueisha/Sapporo Television Broadcasting/VAP/Warner Bros. Pictures/Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation/4Digital Asia – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)