Arthur and the Invisibles (
Arthur and the Minimoys in non-
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
-speaking territories) is a part-animated, part-
live actionIn film, theatre and video, live-action refers to works that are acted out by human actors, as opposed to by animation. As it is the norm, the term is usually superfluous, but it makes an important distinction in situations in which one might normally expect animation, as in a Pixar film, a video...
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
adaptation of the same-name, 2002 children's book and the 2003 sequel
Arthur et la cité interdite /
Arthur and the Forbidden City by filmmaker
Luc BessonLuc Besson is a French film director, writer and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer, including the Transporter series.-Early life:Besson was born in Paris to parents who were both...
, who also directed the film. It premiered in
limited releaseLimited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
on November 29, 2006, and received wide releases in a number of countries in the following weeks. In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it opened on December 29, 2006, for one week in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
, with a wider release on January 12, 2007 and it release in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
on February 2, 2007. The film was
MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B...
's first theatrically-released animated film since 1996's
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is a 1996 American animated family film, and a sequel to United Artists' 1989 animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven. It is directed by Larry Leker and Paul Sabella, and features the voices of Charlie Sheen, Sheena Easton, Dom DeLuise and George Hearn. The film was released on...
.
With a budget of
€The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
65,000,000,
Arthur and the Invisibles was the most expensive French film production until
Astérix at the Olympic GamesAstérix at the Olympic Games is a French movie, adapted from René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's Astérix comic series. It was filmed essentially in Spain in the course of the year 2006. Its €78 million budget makes it one of the most expensive European movies ever...
.
Plot
In 1960, 10-year-old protagonist Arthur is living with his grandmother in a quiet country house. His grandfather Archibald has recently gone missing and he sees little of his parents. His grandmother entertains him by reading stories to him of his grandfather's adventures in Africa. One of these stories is about the friendship of the tall,
MaasaiThe Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups...
-like tribe called the Bogo Matassalai with the Minimoys — tooth-sized,
elfAn elf is a creature of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, who are often pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and underground places and caves, or in wells and springs...
in beings they believe to be their counterparts. After Archibald had helped the Bogo Matassalai, says the story, they and the Minimoys had given him a large amount of rubies in a show of thanks for helping them. After returning home, Archibald brought the Minimoys with him and lent them his garden as their home. According to the story, he gave the Minimoys the rubies to look after them until he needed them. Arthur has become enamoured of a picture of Selenia, the princess of the Minimoys.
It's shown that Arthur's grandmother has been given a two-day deadline to pay a large sum of money to a building developer named Davido, who has bought her mortgage from the bank and plans to evict the two. Arthur therefore decides to find the rubies in order to pay off the debt. After stumbling across various clues written by his grandfather, Arthur finds the key to the Minimoys' world. He accidentally puts his grandmother into a deep sleep by dropping sleeping pills into her water and as she begins to snore, he continues. He is met in the garden by the "Bogo Matassalai", who show Arthur how to get into the Minimoys' world by shrinking down to their
sizeThe word size may refer to how big something is. In particular:* Measurement* Dimensions: length, width, height, diameter, perimeter, area, volume* Clothing sizes such as shoe size or dress size* Body dimensions**Human height**Human weight...
and becoming a Minimoy himself. This is done by means of a
telescopeA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
and the power of a shining
full moonFull moon is a lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun...
. When Arthur is underground with the Minimoys, he learns of a danger to the little people's future, posed by the plans of Maltazard, the leader of an
armyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
of
mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
-riding rebels named 'Seides' living in nearby "Necropolis", who plan to conquer the Minimoys by flooding their city. Maltazard is said to have been a Minimoy war hero corrupted by a seductive
weevilA weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 mm , and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae...
, by whom he has a son called Darkos. After his corruption, Malthazar became a
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
known as the "Evil M", keeping Arrchibald as his prisoner and the rubies as his
throneA throne is the official chair or seat upon which a monarch is seated on state or ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monarchy or the Crown itself, an instance of metonymy, and is also used in many terms such as "the power behind the throne".-Thrones in ancient...
.
Arthur, reflecting his legendary British namesake, draws a sacred
swordA sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used in many civilizations throughout the world, primarily as a cutting or thrusting weapon and occasionally for clubbing...
from its recess, which he then uses to protect his new friends from Malthazar's soldiers. The king gives permission for Arthur to travel to Necropolis, sending with him the princess Selenia and her younger brother. Armed with Arthur's new sword – the use of which they share – the trio embark.
En route to Necropolis, they are numerous times put in danger by Maltazard's soldiers, who are making plans for the coming
floodA flood is an overflow or accumulation of an expanse of water that submerges land. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide....
. During their travel Selenia reveals that at her age (which corresponds to Arthur's), she must find a husband within two days. Over the course of the journey, Arthur comes to fall in love with Selenia, a fact she sees and uses to her advantage.
Eventually, the questors arrive in Necropolis, where the stubbornly independent Selenia takes the sword and leaves the others. Before doing so, she kisses Arthur, marks Arthur as her husband and the future king. Selenia then confronts Maltazard alone. Maltazard wishes the first kiss of the princess to restore his original beauty; after learning she has already kissed Arthur and she can no longer give him her powers, he decides to kill her. She is captured and incarcerated in a cell where she finds her companions, who have also been seized. The kiss scene was cut in the U.S. version, and the order of the scenes was changed.
While in prison, they find Arthur's grandfather, who like Arthur has become a Minimoy. This transformation has altered the proportions of his body, giving him a larger head, thinner limbs, long ears, and broad extremities. He has been teaching his knowledge to Maltazard in exchange for food. Selenia feels defeated, but Arthur comforts her.
Maltazard allows them to escape 3 minutes ahead of the flood, which they do by using a clockwork car that Arthur possessed, in his human form, until Davido kicked it down the drain.
During the adventure, Arthur's crush on Selenia has been supplemented by comradeship, as well as by her own affection for him. When Arthur learns of a Minimoy custom stating that newlyweds should not kiss for the second time until after ten moons, Selenia decides she does not wish to wait and gives Arthur a long, passionate kiss before he returns to his human form. He now has an hour wherein to save the Minimoys from the flood. Archibald returns with him to the human world, and to human form, and is reunited with Arthur's grandmother.
Arthur, with the help of a royal advisor's long-lost son, Miro, redirects the flood to Necropolis by dropping a ball into Necropolis, which smashes drinking straws used to direct the water and blocks the tunnel it was heading through. The Minimoys are saved from the flood; Necropolis is flooded instead. Maltazard abandons the plan, his army, and his son, and flees. The force of the water ejects the rubies and Miro.
Arthur and Archibald pay Davido with one ruby; he tries to take all, but the Bogo Matassalai capture him and give him to the authorities (scene deleted in the U.S. edition).
The story closes with the vows spoken by Arthur in his human form to Selenia, who sits in a tree, to wait patiently until the time is right for them to be together.
The ending credits then proceed, alongside scenes of every significant character (as well as the director, Luc Besson) appearing in Minimoy form to bow.
Characters and cast
- Arthur: Played by Freddie Highmore
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, August Rush, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Astro Boy.-Personal life:Highmore was born in London, England into a show business family...
, Arthur is the main protagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, video game, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to share the most empathy...
. Arthur is 10-years-old and largely lives with his grandmother because his parents have little time to spend with him; a fact Arthur resents. One day, his grandfather mysteriously vanishes; Arthur is determined to find him and the treasure of the Minimoys so that he can pay off the unscrupulous debt-collectors who covet his grandmother's land.
- Princess Selenia: Madonna
Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
, as the daughter of the King of the Minimoys. Despite appearing haughty and arrogant, she is an honourable and caring individual who is determined to protect her people from the evil of Malthazar. She has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with Arthur at first, believing him to be her inferior. However, after he draws the Sword of the Minimoys from the Stone, she comes to respect him. During their journey they fall in love. Selenia is a formidable fighter and possesses great if unexercised intelligenceIntelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn. There are several ways to define intelligence...
.
- Prince Betameche: Jimmy Fallon
James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, musician, and talk show host known for his work on Saturday Night Live...
plays Selenia's 300 year old younger brother. 300 is considered young for a Minimoy. He is a mischievous youth who enjoys teasing his egotistical elder sister.
- Emperor Malthazar: Played by David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. Malthazar, also known as The Evil M, Malthazar the Evil or Malthazar the Cursed is the corrupt emperor of the Forbidden City of Necropolis, moreover the main villain of the film. With his army of minions, the Seides, he is determined to conquer the land of the Minimoys and claim the Princess Selenia as his queen, as he has rather strong feelings for her. He possesses the treasure of the Minimoys and keeps it in his stronghold in Necropolis, where it forms his throne. Malthazar was once a noble warrior, but because of his pride and lust for power, he turned to the path of evil and betrayed his own people. Although the film refers to him as Maltazar, his name in the book was Malthazard and some film versions refer to him as Maltazard. He was corrupted to the path of evil by a seductive weevilA weevil is any beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 mm , and herbivorous. There are over 60,000 species in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae...
; by her Maltazard fathers a boyish bully named Darkos. Maltazard has oddly coloured eyes, much like David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
who voices the character. He reprises his role as the main antagonist in "Arthur and the Vengeance of Malthazar", where he vows to get revenge on Arthur, as the title implies.
- Grandma: Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model. Farrow has appeared in more than forty films and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe award , three BAFTA Film Award nominations, and a win for best actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival...
as Arthur's long-suffering grandmother, a major character in the film and book. Grandmother Suchot possesses a dry sense of wit and is very protective of Arthur given the fact that his parents are not there most of the time on account of trying desperately to get new jobs in the wake of the Wall Street Crash. Her husband, Archibald, mysteriously disappeared a few years ago in search of the treasure of the Minimoys.
- Archibald: Arthur's grandfather, who disappeared in 1957 during his quest for the Treasure of the Minimoys. Grandfather Archibald Suchot is played by Ron Crawford
- Film :*Stingray Sam *Our Feature Presentation as Alexander Weever.*Joulutarina as Gideon.*Arthur and the Minimoys as Archibald.*Home of Angels as Card Player.- Television :...
. The legal courts have declared him dead, but he is alive in the dungeons of Necropolis. He is a brilliant explorer and adventurer; traits evidently imitated or inherited by Arthur. He teaches the Seides novelties in return for food during his incarceration in Malthazar's dungeons. He is known to the Minimoys as Archibald the Benevolent.
- Max, voice acting by Snoop Dogg
Cordazar Calvin Broadus , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is a Grammy Award-nominated American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of producer Dr. Dre's most notable protégés...
, as the leader of the Koolamassai, a race of beings who live near the Seven Lands' Great River. He owns a popular bar and dance club where our heroes hope to hide from Malthazard's minions. Max has kept his tribe free under Malthazar's reign of terror by sheer virtue of the fact his people are the only ones who know how to properly prepare the roots of the candyfruit tree, which the insect-like Seides can't go one day without. * as MaxHis voice in the English dub is provided by rap star Snoop Dogg.
- Ernest Davido (voice acted by Adam LeFevre
Adam LeFevre is an American character actor, poet and playwright who works in cinema, television, theater and commercials....
) is a greedy landowner who presides over and founded the multi-national Davido CorporationA corporation is a legal entity separate from the shareholders and employees. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate...
, which specializes in property development. Davido is determined to evict Arthur and his grandmother from their land so that he can demolish their home and build flats in their vacated land. He also hopes to obtain the rubies called the Treasure of the Minimoys, of which Archibald had told him during a moment of inebriation. Davido appears emotionally immature. Davido functions as an auxiliary villain in the film, though compared to Maltazard, he's not an actual threat.
- Prince Darkos: Malthazar's vicious but dim-witted son is played by Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman is an American actor. After starring in several 1980s sitcoms, Bateman played the role of Michael Bluth on the television sitcom Arrested Development...
. Darkos is the only survivor of seven children whom Malthazar sired through a union with a weevil. Malthazar takes advantage of his son's loyaltyLoyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause.-Loyalty and Marketing:The practice of providing discounts, prizes, or other incentives to encourage continued patronage of a business. Generally, loyalty programs are considered less expensive to maintain than allowing customer defection...
by bidding him remain behind when the flood enters Necropolis. In the film he has cat-like eyes, a mouth full of fangs, and speaks with a lisp.
- The King, father of Betameche and Selenia. Voice acting Robert De Niro
Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer.De Niro is well-known for his method acting and portrayals of conflicted, troubled characters and for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese...
by as a benevolent and kind ruler of the Minimoys. He is balky when faced by violence and also possessive of his children. He rides atop a large, furry animal called a Gamoul so as to compensate for his diminutive size.
- Rosie Suchot, Arthur's mother, played by Penny Balfour
-Selected filmography:*Flawless , as Cristal*Sidewalks of New York , as Young Hooker*Drop Back Ten , as Amanda Bennett*Ash Wednesday , as Callie*Arthur and the Minimoys , Arthur's Mother...
.
- Arthur's Father, played by Doug Rand
- Miro: Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor whose latest work is that of Detective Lieutenant Gene Hunt on ABC's crime drama Life on Mars...
. The son of a royal advisor who helps Arthur save the Minimoys from the flood
- Mino voice acting by Erik Per Sullivan
Erik Per Sullivan is an American actor, best known for his role as Dewey, the younger brother to middle child Malcolm, on the FOX series, Malcolm in the Middle which was on air for 7 years.-Career:...
- Koolamassai played by Anthony Anderson
Anthony Alexandre Anderson is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He has starred his own sitcom All About the Andersons, as well as dramas such as K-Ville, The Shield and Law & Order...
- Travel Agent: Chazz Palminteri
Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale, Mulholland Falls and his Academy Award nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets Over Broadway, which he lost to Martin Landau for Ed Wood.- Early...
- Ferryman, voiced by Emilio Estevez
Emilio Estevez is an American actor, film director, poet, and writer. He started his career as an actor and is famous for being a member of the acting Brat Pack of the 1980s, appearing in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire...
Production
The animation was done by the French company
BUF CompagnieBUF Compagnie is a French/American digital visual effects company, specializing in CGI for feature films, commercials, and music videos.-History:Based in Paris, France and Los Angeles, California, BUF Compagnie was founded by Pierre Buffin in 1984...
, which hired approximately 100 animators, most of them from French animation schools and without any previous experience. Besson wanted a photorealistic environment, and BUF initially used microlenses to film physical environments, but eventually instead used
photogrammetryPhotogrammetry is the first remote sensing technology ever developed in which geometric properties about objects are determined from photographic images...
, where a digitized photograph of a real object is manipulated with a computer. Sets were built to 1:3 scale, which allowed the animators to use natural elements, such as plants and grass. While the film did not use
motion captureMotion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model. Initially invented in Scotland, it is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications...
, real actors were, however, used as reference, and recorded with 13 to 14 video cameras, but without the markers used in motion capture. Besson directed their performances. In terms of
lip syncLip-sync or Lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with voice. The term can refer to: a technique often used for performances in the production of film, video and television programs; the science of synchronization of visual and audio signals during post-production and...
with actors' dialog, the French animators could not cope with the English phonemes. For Madonna and
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, a camera was used to record their lips to help the animators. The animation was done with proprietary software.
Reception
The film was budgeted at €65,000,000/
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
86,000,000. By
Boxing DayBoxing Day is a bank holiday or a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and countries in the Commonwealth of Nations with a mainly Christian population...
,
Arthur earned over US$20 million in France alone..
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the movie's Los Angeles run garnered 20% positive reviews at the critics-aggregate site
RottenTomatoes.comRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
.
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
reviewer Alex Chun wrote that, "Director Luc Besson admits he knew nothing about animation before he started this project, and it shows".
VarietyVariety is a weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the Daily...
s Robert Koehler called it "alienating and dislikable" and specifically noted that, "Having African-American thespAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s Snoop DoggCordazar Calvin Broadus , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is a Grammy Award-nominated American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of producer Dr. Dre's most notable protégés...
and Anthony AndersonAnthony Alexandre Anderson is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He has starred his own sitcom All About the Andersons, as well as dramas such as K-Ville, The Shield and Law & Order...
voice creatures that are basically humanoid monkeys shows poor taste". Many found it derivative of sources ranging from King ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
's sword-in-the-stone to the films The Dark CrystalThe Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film directed by puppeteers Jim Henson and Frank Oz, creators of The Muppet Show. Although still marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. Characters for which they are famous do not appear, but some of the same...
and The Ant BullyThe Ant Bully is a 1999 children's book drawn and written by John Nickle. It is about a young boy named Lucas Nickle , who is the titular character in the book and who likes to torment ants. It was later adapted into a computer-animated film of the same name by John A...
, which itself was based on a children's book written three years before Besson's. "It all simply looks as if [conceptual artist Patrice] Garcia and Besson couldn't decide on any one thing to copy", said Frank LoveceFrank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic-book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
of Film Journal InternationalFilm Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Nielsen Business Media, a division of The Nielsen Company...
, "so they copied them all". Lovece also noted that, "the whole thing gets seriously creepy when [the animated versions of] the grown-up, pinup-beauty princess and the 10-year-old boy fall for each other.
Mary Kay LetourneauMary Kay Fualaau is a former schoolteacher convicted of the statutory rape of a 13-year old male...
comes uncomfortably to mind".
Besson, in a May 2007 interview, blamed American distributor
The Weinstein CompanyThe Weinstein Company is an independent American film studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein in 2005 after the pair left the Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
for the film's poor critical reception in the U.S., saying "Why the critics didn't like Arthur was because [Weinstein] changed so much of the film and tried to pretend the film was American. ... America and the UK were the only countries where the films were changed. The rest of the world has the same film as France".
Awards
On February 1,Tom Jones 2007, the film received the Imagina Award in the category Prix du Long-Métrage.
On October 1, 2007,
Mylène FarmerMylène Farmer born Mylène Jeanne Gautier is a French singer, songwriter, occasional actress and author. She has sold more than 25 million records and is among the most successful recording artists of all time in France...
was awarded the NRJ Ciné Award for her dubbing of Sélénia's voice in Arthur and the Minimoys.
Home media release
The US edition DVD was released on May 15, 2007 with 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 and the local-language version.
Differences between release versions
After a screening test in the United States, the Weinstein company decided to edit the film. Approximately nine minutes were cut. Most of the edits pertained to the love story taking place between Arthur and Selenia. The Scenes were:
- Arthur's arrival at the Minimoy world in the middle of a Ceremony centering on Selenia's coming of age;
- Arthur falling in love with Selenia at first sight;
- Arthur removing a string from Selenia's corset to use as a rope during the river scene, and Selenia taking the string back;
- Selenia kissing Arthur before going to confront Maltazard, and Betameche congratulating them over their wedding;
- Selenia kissing Arthur before he is transported back to his own world;
- Arthur learning of the custom that a princess must wait ten moons (lunar months) before kissing her chosen husband for the second time;
- Davido attempting to steal the treasure from Archibald, before being captured by the Bogo Matassalai;
- Arthur's Grandmother in the antique dealership prior to them arriving at her home;
- Max telling Selenia about his 7 wives while they are dancing;
- Malthazar confronting Selenia about her engagement to Arthur.
The British version of the film, also distributed by the Weinstein Company, similarly lacked these scenes.
Sequel
Besson announced in 2007 that he is directing two sequels,
Arthur and the Vengeance of MaltazardArthur and the Revenge of Maltazard is a 2009 a part-animated, part-live action feature film written and directed by Luc Besson, and starring Freddie Highmore and Mia Farrow...
, planned for Christmas 2009, and Arthur and the War of Two Worlds
, planned for Christmas 2010.
External links
Arthur and the Minimoys at CanMag