Arthur and the Invisibles
For the video game, see Arthur and the Invisibles (video 'Necropolis, after corruption by a weevil, by whom he
game). has a son named Darkos.
Arthur and the Invisibles (French: Arthur et les Mini-
moys) is a 2006 English-language French adventure com-
edy fantasy animated/live-action feature lm adaptation
of the 2002 childrens book Arthur and the Minimoys, and
the 2003 sequel Arthur and the Forbidden City, written
by lmmaker Luc Besson, who also directed the lm. It
premiered in limited release in France on November 29,
2006, and received wide releases in a number of countries
in the following weeks. In the United States, it opened
on December 29, 2006, for one week in Los Angeles,
California, with a wider release on January 12, 2007
and it was released in the United Kingdom on February
2, 2007.[2] With a budget of 60 million, Arthur and
the Invisibles was briey the most expensive French lm
production[3] until surpassed by Astrix at the Olympic
Games. The lm received negative reviews from critics,
and performed badly in the United States. It was never-
theless successful enough in France and in the rest of the
world to generate two sequels, Arthur and the Revenge of
Maltazard and Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds.[4]
The lm also received the Imagina Award in the category
Prix du Long-Mtrage. The movies soundtrack album
was released on January 9, 2007.
1 Plot
In the year 1960, protagonist Arthur lives with his grand-
mother Daisy in a quiet farm house on a dirt road, in
a small rural community in Northeastern Connecticut
(based on Sterling). His grandfather Archibald has re-
cently gone missing and he sees little of his parents (who
are away looking for work). Daisy entertains Arthur with
stories of his grandfathers adventures in Africa, featuring
the tall Bogo Matassalai and the minuscule Minimoys, of
whom the latter now live in Archibalds garden, protect-
ing a collection of rubies. Arthur becomes enamoured of
a picture of Selenia, the princess of the Minimoys. When
Daisy receives a two-day deadline to pay a large sum of
money to a building developer named Ernest Davido, who
plans to evict the two, Arthur looks for the rubies to pay
o the debt, and discovers various clues left by his grand-
father. He is met in the garden by the Bogo Matassala,
who reduce Arthur to Minimoy size. From the Mini-
moys, Arthur learns that they are in danger from Mal-
tazard, a Minimoy war hero who now rules the nearby
1
Arthur, reecting his legendary British namesake, draws
a sacred sword from its recess and uses it to protect the
Minimoys from Maltazards soldiers; whereupon Sifrat,
the ruler of the Minimoys, sends Arthur to Necropolis,
with the princess Selenia and her brother Betameche. En
route, they are attacked on two occasions by Maltazards
soldiers. In Necropolis, Selenia kisses Arthur, marking
him as her husband and potential successor, and confronts
Maltazard alone. When Maltazard learns that she has al-
ready kissed Arthur and thus can no longer give him her
powers and cure his corruption, he imprisons all three,
who discover a Minimoy form of Archibald. There-
after Arthur and his grandfather escape and return to hu-
man form, with little time to spare before Maltazards
ood reaches the Minimoys. With the help of Mino, a
royal advisors long-lost son, Arthur redirects the ood to
Necropolis; whereupon Maltazard abandons Necropolis
and his son, and the water ejects the rubies above ground.
Archibald pays Davido with one ruby; and when he tries
to take them all, the Bogo Matassalai capture him and
give him to the authorities (scene deleted in the U.S. edi-
tion). The lm ends with Arthur asking Selenia to wait
for his return, and her agreement to do so.
2 Cast
Freddie Highmore as Arthur.
Madonna as Princess Selenia, the daughter of Em-
peror Sifrat. The character was dubbed by French
singer Mylne Farmer in the French version 'Arthur
et les Minimoys, German singer Nena in the Ger-
man version 'Arthur und die Minimoys, Finnish
Pop singer Paula Vesala from PMMP in the Finnish
version and Greek Pop singer Tamta in the Greek
version.
Jimmy Fallon as Prince Betameche, Selenias
younger brother.
Mia Farrow as Daisy, Arthurs long-suering grand-
mother.
Ron Crawford as Archibald: Arthurs grandfather,
known to the Minimoys as Archibald the Benevo-
lent.
David Bowie as Emperor Maltazard (also known as
the Evil M, Maltazard the Evil, or Malthazar the
2 5 RECEPTION

Cursed), antagonist. Although the lm refers to him 5 Reception

as Malthazar, his name in the book was Malthazard
and some lm versions refer to him as Maltazard.
For the Japanese release, he is voiced by Gackt who 5.1 Box oce
is also a singer and actor.
Jason Bateman as Prince Darkos, Maltazards vi- The lm was budgeted at $85 million.[1] In its rst two
cious but dim-witted son. weeks in cinemas in France Arthur earned over US$20
[1]
Robert De Niro as Emperor Sifrat XVI, Betameche million.
and Selenias father.
Adam LeFevre as Ernest Davido, a greedy
landowner who presides over and founded the
multi-national Davido Corporation, which special-
izes in property development. 5.2 Critical response
Snoop Dogg as Max, the leader of the Koolamassai,
a race of beings similar to the Minimoys, who sup-
Arthur and the Invisibles received negative reviews from
ply Maltazards people with a 'candy fruit' and are
lm critics. In the United States, the movies Los Ange-
therefore left relatively free.
les run garnered 21% positive reviews at the critic review
Penny Balfour as Rosie Suchot, Arthurs mother. aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com. The critics cen-
sus reads, Arthur wastes its big-name voice talent on a
Doug Rand as Francis, Arthurs father.
predictable script and substandard CG animation.[6] Los
Chazz Palminteri as Travel Agent. Angeles Times reviewer Alex Chun wrote that, Direc-
tor Luc Besson admits he knew nothing about animation
Harvey Keitel as Miro, the royal advisor.
before he started this project, and it shows.[7] Variety's
Erik Per Sullivan as Mino, Miros son. Robert Koehler called it alienating and dislikable and
specically noted that, Having African-American thesps
Anthony Anderson as Koolamassai. Snoop Dogg and Anthony Anderson voice creatures that
Emilio Estevez as Ferryman. are basically humanoid monkeys shows poor taste.[8]
Many found it derivative of sources ranging from King
Arthur's sword-in-the-stone to the lms The Dark Crystal
3 Production and The Ant Bully, which itself was based on a childrens
book written three years before Bessons. It all simply
looks as if [conceptual artist Patrice] Garcia and Besson
The animation was done by the French company BUF
couldn't decide on any one thing to copy, said Frank
Compagnie, which hired approximately 100 animators,
Lovece of Film Journal International, so they copied
most of them from French animation schools and without
them all.[9] Lovece also noted that, the whole thing
any previous experience. Besson wanted a photorealistic
gets seriously creepy when [the animated versions of] the
environment, and BUF initially used microlenses to
grown-up, pinup-beauty princess and the 10-year-old boy
lm physical environments, but eventually instead used
fall for each other. Mary Kay Letourneau comes uncom-
photogrammetry, where a digitized photograph of a real
fortably to mind. Common Sense Media disliked the lm,
object is manipulated with a computer. Sets were built
giving it 2 stars out of 5 and saying, Uneven animation-
to 1:3 scale, which allowed the animators to use natural
live action combo may bore kids.[10] Josh Tyler of Cin-
elements, such as plants and grass. While the lm did
ema Blend greatly disliked the lm, giving it 1.5 stars out
not use motion capture, real actors were used as refer-
of 5 and saying, Sure it has sometimes loved French di-
ence, and recorded with 13 to 14 video cameras, but with-
rector Luc Bessons name on it, but the character designs
out the markers used in motion capture. Besson directed
look like they were stolen from those wispy haired troll
their performances. In terms of lip sync with actors dia-
dolls that were popular for about ve minutes fteen years
log, the French animators could not cope with the English
ago, and the plot sounded like it was written by a ten-year-
phonemes. For Madonna and David Bowie, a camera was
old kid underneath a heavy bedspread with a big chief
used to record their lips to help the animators. The ani-
tablet and a pencil the size of a horses leg.[11] Besson, in
mation was done with proprietary software.[5]
a May 2007 interview, blamed American distributor The
Weinstein Company for the lms failure in the U.S., say-
ing Why the critics didn't like Arthur was because [We-
4 Soundtrack instein] changed so much of the lm and tried to pretend
the lm was American. [...] America and the UK were
Main article: Arthur and the Invisibles (soundtrack) the only countries where the lms were changed. The rest
of the world has the same lm as France.[12]
7.1 Technology 3

5.3 Awards Malthazar confronting Selenia about her engage-

ment to Arthur.
On February 1, 2007, the lm received the Imagina
Award in the category Prix du Long-Mtrage.[13] On Oc- Selenia teasing Arthur while crawling into the toy
tober 1, 2007, Mylne Farmer was awarded the NRJ Cin car, causing Arthur to gasp at the distracting display.
Award for her dubbing of Slnias voice in Arthur and
the Minimoys.[14] The entire storyline involving the parents and their greed
for money was also deleted, cut short by a small cutscene
and a narrator explaining that worrying over their son was
6 Home media release all they needed to reform completely.
The British version of the lm, also distributed by the
The US edition DVD was released on May 15, 2007 with Weinstein Company, similarly lacked these scenes.
just the English-language version and cut down about
10 minutes from the original version. The international
DVD versions include the uncut English-language version 7.1 Technology
and the local-language version.
The Minimoys featured in the rst Augmented Reality
Nestle Chocopic cereal box with the help of Dassault Sys-
temes technology 3DVIA Virtools.[16]
7 Dierences between release ver-
sions
8 Sequels
After a screening test in the United States, the Weinstein
company edited the lm.[15] Approximately nine minutes Arthur and the Invisibles was followed by a 2009 sequel,
were cut. Most of the edits pertained to the love story Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard, based on a novel of
between Arthur and Selenia. The Scenes were: the same name, and another sequel in 2010 titled Arthur
and The War of the Two Worlds, based on the nal book
Arthurs arrival at the Minimoy world in the middle in the series. The two lms were edited together and re-
of a Ceremony centering on Selenias coming of age; leased in the UK and Ireland as a single lm titled Arthur
and the Great Adventure.
Arthur falling in love with Selenia at rst sight;
Studio 100 (whom did reboots of Maya The Bee,
Arthur removing a string from Selenias corset to Vicki The Viking and Heidi and did the criti-
use as a climbing-rope, and Selenia taking the string cal op Blinky Bill: The Movie) is planning to
back; make a TV series based on the Arthur and the
Minimoys franchise: http://kidscreen.com/2016/11/25/
Max referring to their drinks as 'Jack Fire' instead studio-100-bets-big-with-arthur-and-the-minimoys/
of Genie Soda. Also, when Arthur escapes the bar
during the blackout, Max smokes something that re-
sembles a blunt. 9 See also
Selenia kissing Arthur confronting Maltazard, and
Betameche congratulating them; Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard

Selenia kissing Arthur before he returns to his own Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds
world;
Arthur series (Besson)
Arthur learning of the custom that a princess must
wait ten lunar months before kissing her chosen hus- Arthur and the Invisibles (soundtrack)
band for the second time;

Davido attempting to steal the treasure from 10 References

Archibald, before being captured by the Bogo
Matassalai; [1] Arthur and the Invisibles. Box Oce Mojo.
Arthurs Grandmother in the antique dealership [2] Arthur et les Minimoys (2006)". Internet Movie
prior to them arriving at her home; Database. Retrieved 2009-04-28.

Max telling Selenia about his 7 wives while they are [3] French Director Visits China for Film Release. Peoples
dancing; Daily. January 12, 2007.
4 11 EXTERNAL LINKS

[4] Luc Besson et ses Minimoys plombent EuropaCorp,

Libration, 30 juin 2011

[5] Alain Bielik (January 12, 2007). "Arthur and the Invisi-
bles: Luc Bessons Animated World. Animation World
Magazine.

[6] Arthur and the Invisibles. Rotten Tomatoes.

[7] "Arthur and the Invisibles: A lm with no shortage of well-

known talent makes an awkward transition from live action
to animation. Los Angeles Times. December 29, 2006.

[8] Robert Koehler (December 21, 2006). "Arthur and the

Invisibles review. Variety.

[9] Frank Lovece (December 29, 2006). "Arthur and the In-
visibles review. Film Journal International.

[10] Arthur and the Invisibles. Common Sense Media.

[11] MOVIE REVIEW: Arthur and the Invisibles. Cinema

Blend.

[12] Daniel Robert Epstein (May 18, 2007). Luc Besson and
Rie Rasmussen. SuicideGirls. Archived from the origi-
nal on 21 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-27.

[13] DeMott, Rick (February 7, 2007). Gorillaz, X-Men,

Over the Hedge, Arthur Take Imagina Awards. Anima-
tion World Network. Retrieved 2009-11-08.

[14] Nrj Cin Awards 2007.

[15] http://www.nysun.com/arts/
off-to-the-garden-to-save-grandmas-house/46591/

[16] 3DS Minimoys. Retrieved 2011-09-26.

11 External links
Arthur and the Invisibles at the Internet Movie
Database
Arthur and the Invisibles at AllMovie

Arthur and the Invisibles at Box Oce Mojo

Arthur and the Minimoys at Keyframe

Arthur and the Minimoys at CanMag

Mylne Farmer et son rle pour les 3 lms
 5

12 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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