Product Description

(Family) Ten-year-old Arthur, in a bid to save his grandfather's house from being demolished, goes looking for some much fabled hidden treasure in the land of the Minimoys, a tiny people living in harmony with nature

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8230 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2007-05-15
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
First released in France, Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles is a touching computer animated adventure that makes up in look and in character for what it lacks in narrative originality. As a direct hybrid of Excalibur and A Bug's Life, Arthur stars a heroic ten year-old, Arthur (Freddie Highmore), who draws a sword from a stone to fight a miniature battle in the garden before finding treasure valuable enough to save his grandfather's farm from purchase by developers. Arthur's grandfather, Archibald, having long ago discovered the miniscule world of Minimoys, garden gnome-like elves that lived in his yard, shrunk himself in order to hunt elusive rubies that were hidden in their evil Mecropolis, headed by Maltazard (David Bowie). Now Arthur must assist the benevolent Minimoy clan, ruled by The King (Robert De Niro) and Princess Selenia (Madonna), in challenging Maltazard for possession of the jewels. Shots taking the viewer down through grass blades into the microscopic, yet gigantic yard world readjust one's sense of size, as do scenes, for example, in which a small, elven Arthur fights mosquitoes with catapulted tomatoes. Meanwhile, live action scenes of Arthur's worried grandmother (Mia Farrow) provide respite from a completely computerized world. Bowie, as he did in Legend, steals the show, bringing to life his Darth Vader-like character who chose evil over good in a past adventure. Corny one-liners sometimes spoil the mood, but overall the film's thematic blend of fantasy and environmentalism, like Princess Mononoke, will delight children with its positive message. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

Great Film, Bad DVD
When I origionally saw this film in the cinema, it was great! full of action and the jokes where quite witty.
Unfortunatly this dvd version has been censored to a point where quite a few of the action sequences have been cut out and the film just dosn't flow.
The film cuts from diferent scenes, missing out sections that leave the viewer quite puzzled about how the characters got to the point they are at.
I don't understand why they would censor an animated film that is rated PG anyway.
All in All if you can get your hands on the origional version its a must!
but for the time beeing I'd stay away from it, it kind of ruins the real fun the story has.

Adorable Film
In this great little flick, "Author," we quickly are drawn into the mode as Author's grandmother is about to lose her farm to developers and sees no help in sight since Grandpa has been missing for a long time.
Author listens to the stories that his grandmother reads to him, stories of adventures and little people that his grandfather discovered and helped. Fantacy or truth? Author feels they are true and goes on a search to find clues as to where his grandfather has gone knowing he certainly must have left to find the treasure of jewels that he knew his family would need.
It seems there is a land of tiny people living in Author's garden, a people called the Minimoys and Arthur must allow himself to be shrunk to enter this world, save his grandpa and bring the treasure home to save the farm. The adventure begins as we meet a quite charming and fiesty Princess, a kindly King and a nation of adorable little bitty people. As in any good movie there is always the 'evil one,' as is the case here and we meet Maltazard who has been holding Grandpa captive and is planning to destroy the little people. Can Arthur save the day?
This movie is cute a a button, going back and forth from normal to animated. It held all of our attention from the 8 year old to the 60 year old. It is fun, adventerous and has a happy ending. I think you will like this one.

Kid safe, with surprising star power
"Arthur" is cute bit of fluffy adventure, not at all what I expected from the director of The Fifth Element (Remastered) [Blu-ray] and Angel-A. The plot is simple enough: Arthur has an amazing adventure in an enchanted place - he becomes a hero there, then returns to the everyday world and becomes a hero again. That much is great escapist fantasy.

The format is a little surprising, though. The movie starts with live actors, switches to some very good animation through the largest part of the movie, then ends with the live actors - but even there, Besson adds some fun fantasy elements.

There are lots of familiar pieces here: the curvy-but-chaste princess (this is a kids' movie after all) with an attitude, geeky sidekick, quest for treasure, a little safe romance, and even a sword in a stone. Despite that checklist of standard features, this avoids being completely formulaic. Most adults wouldn't sit through it on their own, but kids need movies too.

-- wiredweird