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.

 

LIMITLESS

 

My official DVD of Limitless (© Neil Burger/Virgin Produced/Rogue Pictures/Many Rivers Productions/Boy of the Year/Intermedia Film/Relativity Media – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 3 October 2022, after having promised myself to do so for ages, I finally watched on DVD the suspenseful sci fi movie Limitless – and it was well worth the wait.

Directed by Neil Burger, based upon Alan Glynn's 2001-published novel The Dark Fields, and released in 2011 by Relativity Media, Limitless stars Bradley Cooper as failing NYC-based author Eddie Morra, who seems incapable of applying himself not only to writing his book but also to everything else, including his relationship with his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish), so she dumps him.

Then Eddie's ex-wife Melissa's drug-dealer brother Vernon Gant (Johnny Whitworth) gives him a single pill of a new drug, dubbed NZT-48, which in a matter of minutes increases his cognitive capability to an incredible extent by enabling him to access 100% of his brain's abilities.

To cut a long story short – as in RIP Vernon! – Eddie surreptitiously acquires his late brother-in-law's sizeable stash of NZT-48 (not found by Vernon's killers when they searched his apartment), as well as an avid interest in the stock market. Very soon, as in days, Eddie becomes the hottest financial mover & shaker in town – and NYC is a big town!

So naturally it's not long before his unparalleled investment successes attract the keen attention of the finance world's Mr Big, a certain immensely wealthy, highly influential tycoon named Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), who seeks to employ Eddie and profit from his extraordinary talents.

But thanks to some unpleasant and unexpected NZT-48 side-effects, not everything in Eddie's upward spiral is going to plan. Added to that is the inconvenience of being pursued by various ne'er-do-wells intent upon killing him (as they did Vernon) in order to nab this new narcotic for themselves, plus Eddie's subsequent disturbing discovery that everyone else who has been taking it for any length of time like himself is either falling seriously ill or dying – as harrowingly testified first-hand to him by none other than Melissa (Anna Friel).

All in all, quite a predicament to be in, with danger and death confronting him on every side – so just how exactly can Eddie possibly extricate himself from it? Might he actually be able to harness and subvert this ostensibly deadly drug's brain-enhancing effects to help him formulate a solution?

Limitless is gorgeously shot and, augmented by a veritable battery of cinematic special-effect techniques, lopes along at a fair old lick – as does Bradley Cooper as the ultra-fast-thinking but increasingly frenetic Eddie (Cooper, incidentally, replaced Shia LaBeouf in this role after LaBeouf badly injured his left hand in a car accident and had to drop out before filming began) – with enough twists and turns to keep what might otherwise have been a fairly predictable, even pedestrian plot both fresh and surprising, and the final twist is excellent.

Speaking of which: in among the DVD's extras is an alternate ending to this film, which I watched, and that too would have worked well, had it been used (though of the two, I prefer the one that was used).

In terms of its theme, Limitless is reminiscent of certain earlier movies that I've viewed down through the years, such as the two Lawnmower Man films (1992 and 1996), John Travolta's Phenomenon (1996), and Flowers For Algernon (2000), but it is also an entertaining and enjoyable sci fi thriller in its own right that I certainly recommend.

Limitless also inspired a 22-episode single-season CBS TV show of the same title, constituting a spin-off sequel to this film and first screened in 2015-2016. Eddie (again played by Cooper) appeared intermittently in it, but this time in only a subsidiary manner. Cooper also served as one of the show's ten executive producers.

If you'd like to experience for a mercifully brief minute or two what it's like to be trapped in Eddie's speeding but out-of-control NZT-48-fuelled fast-lane existence, please click here to view an official Limitless trailer on YouTube – and be thankful that you can take your foot off the throttle afterwards!

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.