Customer Reviews
This film is dreadful - By: Stimpy Bluenose, 06 Apr 2008 
I actuallly shudder in a Pavlovian response when I see this movie is showing on TV. It is a terrible film whose only redeeming feature is that my child loved it. It will be enjoyed by children but adults? the decision, to watch or not to watch? remember you will lose a potentiallly crucial 90 or so minutes of your life in the process.
Madonna plays a spoilt princess & her whiny nasal voice starts to grate very quickly. For once she is alll too convincing. I actuallly enjoyed the Club scene with Snoop Dogg as a welcome break in the dire proceedings. All the characters & their dialogue seemed to have been created with an intent to irritate, irk & annoy. Perhaps this film should be seen in order to preserve the equilibrium, it is so bad you will enjoy the good alll the more by comparison.
Charming and entertaining family film - By: Marshall Lord, 27 Jan 2008 
This delightful little adventure was greatly enjoyed by my two smalll children but also had enough more sophisticated jokes & challlenges to be entertaining for the adults in the family.
"Arthur & the invisibles" is a mix of live-action & CGI which merge seamlessly into each other as the action switches between two scales - that on which humans lives, & that of tiny elves the size of an ant & known as the invisibles or "Minimoys."
Arthur, a ten year old boy played & voiced by Freddie Highmore (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory) is staying with his grandmother (Mia Farrow) in Conneticut. His parents, who are trying to cope with a difficult financial era, have packed him off, first to boarding school in England (conveniently explaining Freddie's English accent) & then to his grandparents' farm during the vacation, while they try to find work "in the City".
Arthur's grandfather Archibald (Ron Crawford), an engineer who spent many years working on projects in Africa, has mysteriously disappeared some four years before. Somewhere on his land, he had hidden a valuable collection of rubies with which he had been presented by a grateful African tribe. This treasure is desperately needed because a greedy developer (Adam Lefevre) is setting up the compulsory purchase of Archibald's home, following which he plans flatten the entire area for redevelopment.
With two days to go before the developer will be able to evict Arthur & his grandmother, Arther finds a message from his grandfather about his mission to get the rubies back, which tells Arthur how to contact this microscopic tribe. The adventure which follows is more extraordinary than he could have imagined ...
The world of the tiny Minimoys is brought to life in charming CGI with a star studded voice cast. Robert de Niro voices the King of the Minimoys with Madonna playing his daughter, Princess Selenia, & Harvey Keitel his minister, Miro. Snoop Dogg voices Max, the proprietor of a micro-nightclub: Jason Bateman provides the voice of the sinister Darkos, who is the son of the even more sinister "Evil M," brilliantly voiced by David Bowie.
While most of the film is aimed at smalll children, there are plenty of jokes which will amuse grown-ups. For example, when using a clockwork toy car to escape from danger at high speed, Arthur says "Just hope there arn't any speed cameras down here or we've had it."
Extras on the DVD include music videos for two of the songs: "Quest for Love" performed by Jewel & "Beautiful Day" performed by Elijah.
Overalll, the plot isn't the most original I've ever seen, & the film might not appeal to some older teenagers or to adults who have difficulty entering into the spirit of children's stories. It isn't in quite the same league as "The Incredibles" or the first two "Shrek" films which is why I've given this film four stars rather than five.
However, the vast majority of smalll children will enjoy "Arthur & the Invisibles" - mine certainly did - & many parents will not find it too difficult to watch with their children.
an enjoyable and enteraining family film - By: L. Holder, 31 Oct 2007 i found this film an excellent film for alll ages, the animation was fantastic & so was the story, this film brings magics, hope & dreams out in to the real world.
As a believer of magic, i was amazed by a film that was funny & enjoyable & made children believe in magic & also quite funny as it was an adventure film too.
this is a film that anybody of any age can watch, as it is enjoyable & very enteraining, very enjoyable well worth it.
Good but could be better. - By: Tracy Vermeulen, 26 Sep 2007 
This is a good film, funny in places but with a plot which sadly gets lost along the way. It starts well but the middle leaves you feeling "OK what happened there"? & approaching the end I kept thinking "well what about the treasure"? Which is the reason for Arthur starting his adventure in the first place, how it ended was disappointing. Shame about the plot this could have been an excellent film.
Good french film /Bad US edition - By: Nanahuatzin, 10 Sep 2007 
This film is the biggest european animation so far. Besson spent 5 years on it, & while it failed in the english speaking market it went fairly well in the international marke, enough to secure the two sequels already in production.
Why the diference?
When Besson casted Maddona (a long time friend) whe did not know the problems involved.
A lot of the problems in pace & plot of the US edition of the film are result of the eforts of the Weinstein company in removing half of the plot: The love story of Arthur & Selenia, which due to Maddonas voice, became "inapropiated". In the international editions alll this was left & the film has received good notes.
So the fallling in love, kissing & marrying of Arthur & Selenia were cut, along other sections that were considered inapropiated for smalll kids. This left some plot holes & the motivation of the characteres became unconvincing.
I recomend to try the French DVD editions (it includes the undedited enlgish version) & also inlcudes a beautifull "making of" of the film, in french.
