Returning from boarding school, Arthur learns that his Grandmother's house will become the property of real estate developers. Unless of course his long lost Grandfather is found. Following his Grandfather's clues, Arthur unlocks a passageway to a shrunken world filled with mysterious little people. This is where the film transitions from live action to computer animation.


Following the hero's journey (with many nods to the Sword in the Stone king Arthur tale), a miniature Arthur must find his Grandfather and save the Invisibles (a mini-troll like elf species that lives in the grassy backyard) from the evil Wizard's destructive plan, all before the real estate developers arrive in the large sized real world.

As with the story, the animation feels more like cut scenes from a Final Fantasy film than a children's film. Adapted from the first two volumes of the popular french book series, Invisibles suffers in it's english translation. Last year's The Ant Bully is a much better children's film with a similar story, and at the time I didn't care for it much. The film has an ensemble voice cast which features David Bowie, Madonna, Snoop Dog, Robert De Niro, Harvey and Keitel. Unfortunately, you wouldn't know it. Instead, the film plays like a second rate kid's film, and even the young ones will notice the difference in quality.

Luc Besson's first foray into animation was too ambitious and poorly executed. The action sequences are disorientating, a mess from start to finish.

If your young one is a fan of the book series, than they might enjoy seeing the story come to life on the big screen. If they haven't read the book, I would suggest skipping the film adaptation as well. There's far many better things to do with the 102 minutes.

/Film Rating: 4 out of 10