Arthur and the Invisibles

In 1960, protagonist 10-year-old Arthur lives with his grandmother 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 recently gone missing and he sees little of his parents (who are away looking for work). Daisy entertains Arthur with stories of his grandfather's adventures in Africa, featuring the tall Bogo Matassalai and the minuscule Minimoys, of whom the latter now live in Archibald's garden, protecting 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 off the debt and discovers various clues left by his grandfather. He is met in the garden by the Bogo Matassalai, who reduce Arthur to Minimoy size. From the Minimoys, Arthur learns that they are in danger from Maltazard, a Minimoy war hero who now rules the nearby 'Necropolis', after corruption by a weevil, by whom he has a son named Darkos.

Arthur, reflecting his legendary British namesake, draws a sacred sword from its recess and uses it to protect the Minimoys from Maltazard's 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 Maltazard's soldiers. In Necropolis, Selenia kisses Arthur, marking him as her husband and potential successor, and confronts Maltazard alone. When Maltazard learns that she has already 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. Thereafter Arthur and his grandfather escape and return to human form, with little time to spare before Maltazard's flood reaches the Minimoys. With the help of Mino, a royal advisor's long-lost son, Arthur redirects the flood 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. edition). Arthur asks Selenia to wait for his return, and her agreement to do so while the film ends.

Live-action cast

• Freddie Highmore as Arthur Montgomery, a newly ten-year-old boy who journeys through the invisible world of the minimoys to find the treasure his long-lost grandfather had hidden. Highmore also voices Arthur in CGI animation. In the French version, Arthur is voiced by actress Barbara Kelsch who also provided the motion-capture performance for the character.
• Mia Farrow as Daisy Suchot, Arthur's grandmother and Archibald's wife.
• Ron Crawford as Archibald Suchot, Arthur's grandfather and Daisy's husband. Crawford also voices Archibald in animation. The character is voiced by actor Michel Duchaussoy in the French version.
• Adam LeFevre as Ernest Davido, the Real Estate Agent. The character is voiced by actor José Garcia in the French version.
• Penny Balfour as Rose Montgomery, Arthur's mother and Daisy and Archibald's daughter. The character is voiced by actress Valérie Lemercier in the French version.
• Douglas Rand as Armand Montgomery, Arthur's Dad. The character is voiced by actor Jean-Paul Rouve in the French version.
• Jean Betote Njamba as the chief of the Matassalai. The character is voiced by rapper Doudou Masta in the French version.

Voice cast

• Madonna as Princess Selenia, the daughter of Emperor Sifrat. The character is voiced by singer Mylène Farmer in the French version.
• Douglas Rand (Original version)/Jimmy Fallon (The Weinstein Company version) as Prince Simono Matradoy de Betameche, or simply Betameche "Beta", Selenia's younger brother. The character is voiced by radio host Cartman in the French version.
• Robert De Niro as Emperor Sifrat XVI, Betameche and Selenia's father.
• Snoop Dogg as Max, the leader of the Koolamassai, a race of beings similar to the Minimoys. The character is voiced by rapper Rohff in the French version.
• Allen Hoist as DJ Easy Low, a Koolamassai. The character is voiced by DJ Cut Killer in the French version. Hoist also voices another Koolamassai, who was dubbed over by Anthony Anderson in The Weinstein Company version
• Christian Erickson (Original version)/Jason Bateman (The Weinstein Company version) as Prince Darkos, Maltazard's vicious but dim-witted son. The character is voiced by actor Marc Lavoine in the French version.
• David Bowie as Emperor Maltazard (also known as the Evil M, Maltazard the Evil, or Malthazar the Cursed). The character is voiced by singer Alain Bashung in the French version.
• Douglas Rand (Original version)/Harvey Keitel (The Weinstein Company version) as Miro, the royal advisor.
• Barbara Weber Scaff (Original version)/Erik Per Sullivan (The Weinstein Company version) as Mino, Miro's long lost son.
• Tonio Descanvelle (Original version)/Emilio Estevez (The Weinstein Company version) as the Ferryman. The character is voiced by singer Dick Rivers in the French version.
• Chazz Palminteri as the Travel Agent
• Rob Corddry and Nate Corddry (The Weinstein Company version) as Seldes
• Erik Per Sullivan (The Weinstein Company version) as the baby bug
• David Suchet (The Weinstein Company version) as the narrator

The animation was produced by the French company BUF Compagnie, 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 photogrammetry, 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 capture, real actors were 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 sync with actors' dialog, the French animators could not cope with the English phonemes. For Madonna and David Bowie, a camera was used to record their lips to help the animators. The animation was done with proprietary software.[5]

After a screening test in the United States, The Weinstein Company re-edited the film.[17] Approximately nine minutes were cut. Most of the edits pertained to the love story between Arthur and Selenia (due to age differences). 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 climbing-rope, and Selenia taking the string back;
• Max referring to their drinks as 'Jack Fire' instead of Genie Soda. Also, when Arthur escapes the bar during the blackout, Max smokes something that resembles a blunt.
• Selenia kissing Arthur before confronting Maltazard, and Betameche congratulating them;
• Selenia kissing Arthur before he returns to his own world;
• Arthur learning of the custom that a princess must wait ten 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.
• Selenia teasing Arthur while crawling into the toy car, causing Arthur to gasp at the distracting display.

In addition to these deleted scenes, The Weinstein Company's version also adds in new narration by David Suchet replacing Ron Crawford's narration as Archibald, along with actors Jimmy Fallon, Emilio Estevez, Harvey Keitel, Rob Corddry, Nate Corddry, Erik Per Sullivan, Anthony Anderson and Jason Bateman replacing various actors from the original version. The entire storyline involving the parents and their greed for money was also deleted, reduced to a short scene and the narrator explaining that worrying over their son was all they needed to reform completely.

The American version of the film was theatrically released on January 12, 2007 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and The Weinstein Company.

The British and Australian versions of the film, also distributed by the Weinstein Company, similarly lacked these scenes.

The uncut version without Weinstein's re-edits was released on YouTube in the US and the UK under the original title Arthur and the Minimoys in 2021 but was taken down and changed back to the Weinstein cut.[18]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur and the Invisibles.

• Arthur et les Minimoys at IMDb 
• Arthur and the Invisibles at AllMovie
• Arthur and the Invisibles at Box Office Mojo
• Arthur and the Minimoys at Keyframe
• Arthur and the Minimoys Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine at CanMag