Arthur and the Invisibles

Arthur and the Invisibles After a creaky half-hour of live inaction set-up, Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles rolls along as a breathless exercise in steam pop. Young Arthur is an imaginative boy being raised on the family farm by his spritely grandmother (Mia Farrow). In the rural town nearby, there is a plot afoot to yank the homestead from beneath the feet of the struggling granny and her charge. But Gramps left behind bedtime-story details for Arthur, and the boy enters the land of tall grass and giant bugs on an epic quest to score a bag of rubies to forestall the foreclosure and also save the world of the diminutive Minimoys from being paved over to make way for a housing tract. The adventure that ensues isn’t entirely cohesive, but once the computer jockeys are set loose on the CGI set, the flick really begins to roll. Touching on elements such as Arthurian legend and visuals that evoke such ’80s fantasy fare as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, the results are a visual treat with that quirky French sensibility that may be off-putting to the youngsters weaned on Pixar pap.