Were-Sandwich
2007-02-14, 10:49 AM
As has happened many a-time before, my little sister wanted to go see a fiilm at the cinema, and I was chosen to be the lucky one to accompany her. The film this time- Arthur and the Invisibles.
I was actually surprised. I normally hate kids movies, but I sorta liked this one. The basic premise is thus:
Archibald something-or-other was an explorer and an engineer, who went round africa building stuff. Whilst there, he made some irrigation tunnels* for this tribe of 8ft tall people. These 8ft tall people were believers in the "nature has a balance for everything" sort of thing, and so believed that somewhere, there was a tribe who were there really really short counterparts. They found them, they were called the Minimoi.
To thank old Archie for building their irrigation tunnels, they gave him a big bag of rubies, and taught him how to find the Minimoi at any time. Archie comes back. He has a family. His kids have a kid. His kids have financial problems, so they move to the city to find jobs, leaving their son Arthur in the care of Archie and his Wife. Then one day, archie goes missing (I wonder where(!)), leaving wifey (who's name I can't remember) to look after Arthur. He's interested in all the crap his grandaddy did, so buidl his own little irrigation system to water his granny's radishes (This is important).
Then for a reason I forget, Granny needs money, fast, or she will lose the house. Arthur gets it into his head to go find the Minimoi (who for some reason are in his backyard?) and get his grandads rubies back. He does some snooping and finds out how to shrink down (with the help of the afforementioned 8ft tall guys). He goes to the Minimoi's kingdom (his backyard) as a minimoi (And goes all CGI in the process), where he meets princess Selenia (who, as the main character, he promptly falls in love with) and her little brother Betameche. She's next in line for the throne.
The Minimois are being threatened by Malthazar an evil guy. He's evil. Did I mention how evil he was? anyway, they're being threatened by him, as he plans to flood their entire kingdom, using Arthur's little irrigation system. He wants to do this because he was once king of them and they rejected him because he kissed a pretty weevil (go figure) and got all deformed and diseased. He's actually a pretty cool villain, as kids movies go.
When Arthur arrives, the Minis are going through some ceremony where princess Selzy has to pull a sword out of a stone, which she is unable to do, for some reason. Then Betameche introduces Arthur to the minis, and they all spontaneously like him. Then evil villain's minions attack, and Arthur goes all ninja, pulling out the sword from the stone in the process and fights them off, leaving the minis more in awe of him. He then explains that if he doesn't get the rubies, their home will be concreted over to make housing apartments.
It then becomes apparent that the princess was about to embark on a mission to kill Melthazar, as was her duty as princess (wtf? Isn't that what the army's for?). The king then orders Arthur and Beta to go with her. They go on a big heroic journey, with some fights and advancing of the romantic sub-plot along the way. They get to Necropolis, Melthazar's (inventively named) evil base. There they meet his slaves (Jamaican hippy people), who have a big disco. Then there's another ninja fight on a giant record player, then they end up running through some tunnels for a bit. Then they find a fork in the tunnels, where it splits into two places "Bad Guy's Lair" or "Place to Free Prisoners". The princess goes down to kill the bad guy, whilst the other two go to free the prisoners. They all get captured (strangely, their ninja skills leave them when the plot requires it) and thrown in jail with, surprise surprise, Archie (in mini form). Long story short, they manage to escape, flooding necropolois in the process. Big celebration everyone is happy.
Then the humans unshrink, go back to the real world, find the diamonds (which were part of Malthazar's throne) and everyone live shappily ever after, and the film ends with Arthur (in human form) staring longiingly out the window,with the princess staring back from a tree branch. roll credits.
Overall, it was better than most kdis films, but I can't shake the feeling it was supposed to be longer, but budget cutbacks cut it short. I actually liked Malthazar, he was pretty cool, as kids film villains go. The plot was ok, if a tad predictable. And the sudden on/off toggling of their ninja skills was a bit wierd. Th CGI was very good, although the Minimoi were obviously warcraft night elves, they loked really similar. THe princess's outfit was halfway there, and the ninja skills just sealed the deal. The fact it had hippy voodoo trolls in it gave rise to my theory they filmed it on WoW with some slight reskinning.
The characters were a bit 2-dimensional, but what can you expect form target audience: 7 year olds. It was very funny in places, but the evil troopers deserve a special mention. They had some very funny Red vs Blue esque dialogue, and ere sort of Urak-Hai, with stormtrooper level skill.
Overall a 7/10, a funny, slightly cliched film, but still a nice use of a couple of hours
*This got the History GCSE student in me annoyed. Irrigation channels were invented by the Egyptians, not the romans, as she claims. And she calls them Viaducts. Trains go over Viaducts, water goes along Aqueducts.
I was actually surprised. I normally hate kids movies, but I sorta liked this one. The basic premise is thus:
Archibald something-or-other was an explorer and an engineer, who went round africa building stuff. Whilst there, he made some irrigation tunnels* for this tribe of 8ft tall people. These 8ft tall people were believers in the "nature has a balance for everything" sort of thing, and so believed that somewhere, there was a tribe who were there really really short counterparts. They found them, they were called the Minimoi.
To thank old Archie for building their irrigation tunnels, they gave him a big bag of rubies, and taught him how to find the Minimoi at any time. Archie comes back. He has a family. His kids have a kid. His kids have financial problems, so they move to the city to find jobs, leaving their son Arthur in the care of Archie and his Wife. Then one day, archie goes missing (I wonder where(!)), leaving wifey (who's name I can't remember) to look after Arthur. He's interested in all the crap his grandaddy did, so buidl his own little irrigation system to water his granny's radishes (This is important).
Then for a reason I forget, Granny needs money, fast, or she will lose the house. Arthur gets it into his head to go find the Minimoi (who for some reason are in his backyard?) and get his grandads rubies back. He does some snooping and finds out how to shrink down (with the help of the afforementioned 8ft tall guys). He goes to the Minimoi's kingdom (his backyard) as a minimoi (And goes all CGI in the process), where he meets princess Selenia (who, as the main character, he promptly falls in love with) and her little brother Betameche. She's next in line for the throne.
The Minimois are being threatened by Malthazar an evil guy. He's evil. Did I mention how evil he was? anyway, they're being threatened by him, as he plans to flood their entire kingdom, using Arthur's little irrigation system. He wants to do this because he was once king of them and they rejected him because he kissed a pretty weevil (go figure) and got all deformed and diseased. He's actually a pretty cool villain, as kids movies go.
When Arthur arrives, the Minis are going through some ceremony where princess Selzy has to pull a sword out of a stone, which she is unable to do, for some reason. Then Betameche introduces Arthur to the minis, and they all spontaneously like him. Then evil villain's minions attack, and Arthur goes all ninja, pulling out the sword from the stone in the process and fights them off, leaving the minis more in awe of him. He then explains that if he doesn't get the rubies, their home will be concreted over to make housing apartments.
It then becomes apparent that the princess was about to embark on a mission to kill Melthazar, as was her duty as princess (wtf? Isn't that what the army's for?). The king then orders Arthur and Beta to go with her. They go on a big heroic journey, with some fights and advancing of the romantic sub-plot along the way. They get to Necropolis, Melthazar's (inventively named) evil base. There they meet his slaves (Jamaican hippy people), who have a big disco. Then there's another ninja fight on a giant record player, then they end up running through some tunnels for a bit. Then they find a fork in the tunnels, where it splits into two places "Bad Guy's Lair" or "Place to Free Prisoners". The princess goes down to kill the bad guy, whilst the other two go to free the prisoners. They all get captured (strangely, their ninja skills leave them when the plot requires it) and thrown in jail with, surprise surprise, Archie (in mini form). Long story short, they manage to escape, flooding necropolois in the process. Big celebration everyone is happy.
Then the humans unshrink, go back to the real world, find the diamonds (which were part of Malthazar's throne) and everyone live shappily ever after, and the film ends with Arthur (in human form) staring longiingly out the window,with the princess staring back from a tree branch. roll credits.
Overall, it was better than most kdis films, but I can't shake the feeling it was supposed to be longer, but budget cutbacks cut it short. I actually liked Malthazar, he was pretty cool, as kids film villains go. The plot was ok, if a tad predictable. And the sudden on/off toggling of their ninja skills was a bit wierd. Th CGI was very good, although the Minimoi were obviously warcraft night elves, they loked really similar. THe princess's outfit was halfway there, and the ninja skills just sealed the deal. The fact it had hippy voodoo trolls in it gave rise to my theory they filmed it on WoW with some slight reskinning.
The characters were a bit 2-dimensional, but what can you expect form target audience: 7 year olds. It was very funny in places, but the evil troopers deserve a special mention. They had some very funny Red vs Blue esque dialogue, and ere sort of Urak-Hai, with stormtrooper level skill.
Overall a 7/10, a funny, slightly cliched film, but still a nice use of a couple of hours
*This got the History GCSE student in me annoyed. Irrigation channels were invented by the Egyptians, not the romans, as she claims. And she calls them Viaducts. Trains go over Viaducts, water goes along Aqueducts.