Animation of the slightly feline Minimoys (featuring small, pointy noses and Mr. First, dialogue (already plentiful) goes into overdrive, and is encumbered by hip sarcasm - suggesting that while the humans above are living in 1960, the folks below are in post-2006. Transition is grating and annoying on multiple levels. Arthur himself must pass through a metallic iris that transforms him into a minuscule kid with punkish hair, and then is brought to the court of the king (Robert De Niro).
Via grandpa’s tiresomely detailed instructions, and with the aid of African tribesmen who suddenly appear on the night of a new moon, Arthur is able to descend into the “seven kingdoms” of the Minimoys. Arthur realizes that if he’s able to retrieve a cluster of rubies his grandfather’s diary claims is somewhere in the land of the tiny Minimoys (who actually live underground just outside the house), his granny can buy back her home. Reality knocks on the door when a ruthless developer (Adam LeFevre) presents deep-in-debt granny with papers making him the property owner. Similarly unexplained is why Arthur and his folks are Brits, while his grandfolks are Yanks. Also absent, for reasons never made clear, are Arthur’s parents (Penny Balfour, Doug Rand), who phone their son from a distant city on his birthday. Arthur is obsessed with the illustrated diary of African travels penned by his grandfather Archibald (Ron Crawford), who vanished without a trace four years earlier. Opening, set in 1960, thrusts auds rudely into the rambling Connecticut home of young Arthur’s (Freddie Highmore) kindly grandmother (Mia Farrow). In a weird coincidence, story elements sometimes match the recent “The Ant Bully,” while live-action lensing (by Thierry Arbogast, favoring wide-angle focal lengths) echoes the same technique in Terry Gilliam’s “Tideland,” also dwelling on a kid, a big house and the outdoors. Can Arthur be of stout heart and save the day? Romance beckons as well, and a villain lurks.The sources and ideas that are borrowed, copied or stolen here include the tales of King Arthur to “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The African Queen,” “Star Wars” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Script, based on Besson’s French tome “Arthur et les Minimoys” (which spawned three sequels), apes the Joseph Campbell hero myth template that’s become a bible for Hollywood’s current generation - and offers proof the template is exhausted. Somewhere among them is hidden a pile of rubies, too. Arthur discovers that the key to success lies in his own descent into the land of the Minimoys, creatures no larger than a tooth, whom his grandfather helped relocate to their garden.
"Adventure awaits in your own backyard.".Īrthur is a spirited ten-year old whose parents are away looking for work, whose eccentric grandfather has been missing for several years, and who lives with his grandmother in a country house that, in two days, will be repossessed, torn down, and turned into a block of flats unless Arthur's grandfather returns to sign some papers and pay off the family debt.
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