Arthur and the Minimoys

Arthur and the Minimoys which brought in more than 80 million euros on the box-office in France is allegedly Luc Bessons’ last movie as a director. I can’t help but wonder whether if made that much money because everybody knew it was Bessons last and wanted to give him a silver screen salute or because of the huge marketing campaign (Sorry! call that Brain-washing) that started in August 2006 in France (for a release in December 2006)

But beyond the brilliant marketing campaign performed by Luc Bessons’ team – what about this animation movie which is “for children and parents alike” as Besson mentioned in virtually all the movie magazines in France.

Movies such as the Big Blue (Directors cut – not the American version where girl gets boy) la femme Nikita, Leon the Professional (Directors cut because that movie is just sooo cool) the 5th element came from this director who gaves us some of the best visual shots movie history has seen. I must admit, when I go to see a Besson movie I have a certain level of expectation – and that level is high : the music scores by Eric Serra are brilliant – the visual shots are breath taking the action is full of energy and well paced, the humor is dry or sarcastic and the script is original.

Apparently – for this final movie – all those values took a sabbatical! Well – the only thing we can say which is positive about this movie is that it a fair attempt to try 3d movie animation on the European continent. Other than that it is an artistic disaster and this movie genre should be left to those who know how to do it be – i.e. Pixar / Dreamworks / Sony pictures.

The whole script of Arthur and the Minimoys is basically the story of a boy who, after his grandfather disappears, sets out to save his family home from emerging real estate developers. Arthur learns that he must follow his grandfather’s ancient clues to a vast treasure – and unlock the passageway to a spectacular new world filled with mysterious little people, so tiny they are considered invisible, and enlist their help. But once in the magical land, Arthur must join swords with a beautiful princess and a reckless army of defenders to save the land from the evil wizard. It seems like an impossible task, but as he discovers along the way, sometimes the smallest heroes can make the biggest difference.

That sounds like a C.S. Lewis novel … yes it does – which makes the fact that Besson wrote, produced, and directed this final movie even more disappointing because there is nothing original in there.

Reviewers Note: yes that’s the pitch is a carbon copy of the movie profile on www.Movieseer.com – I honestly tried to find something else in there but no avail. There are some spoofs to other movies such as Star wars (the magic dagger does sound like a light saber at one time) Saturday night fever or Pulp fiction – but how do you want 7 year old to recognize such spoofs? Adding to the pain, having the voices of Madonna or de Niro or David Bowie or Snoop Dogg just makes you wonder why on earth did they accept to do this?

Not only does the whole movie turn around this pitch – but it also indulges in the in-your-face display of a naive goody-two shoes attitude that even Disney stopped doing that more than 4 years ago and a meaningless emphasis over a particular bad event that can perhaps be found today an Bollywood B-Movies where the allies take forever to die but still manage to give a last speech which is more than 4 pages of script long … and he has 5 bullets in his chest!

The Europacorp which sound like thugs that came out of a ghetto which is in complete incoherence with the rest of the animation environment. And even if their one-liners are amusing and some times second-degree it doesn’t really fit in a fantasy animation as smoothly as it would in say any Shrek movie.