Arthur and the Invisibles

Arthur and the Invisibles or Arthur and the Minimoys (French: Arthur et les Minimoys) is a 2006 English-language French fantasy adventure comedy animated/live-action film directed and co-written by French filmmaker Luc Besson. It is based on the first two books of the Arthur children's books series, Arthur and the Minimoys and Arthur and the Forbidden City, by Besson.

Arthur and the Invisibles was released theatrically in France on 29 November 2006 by EuropaCorp, followed by wide releases in a number of countries. It was re-released in France on 4 April 2007 with nineteen minutes of bonus footage. With a budget of €60 million, it was briefly the most expensive French film production, until it was surpassed by Astérix at the Olympic Games (2008).

It received positive reviews from critics in France but was received negatively in the United States, with criticism aimed at the animation and script, but praises for the voice performances and visual aspects. The film was also a box-office success in France but under-performed in the United States. The film's success in France spawned a media franchise with two sequels, Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009) and Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds (2010), and a spin-off, Arthur, malédiction (2022). It also spawned multiples video games, an animated television series and theme park attractions at Futuroscope and Europa-Park.

It received the Imagina Award in the category Prix du Long-Métrage. Its soundtrack album was released on 9 January 2007.

Cast

 * Live-action cast
 * Freddie Highmore as Arthur Montgomery
 * Mia Farrow as Daisy Suchot
 * Ron Crawford as Archibald Suchot
 * Adam LeFevre as Ernest Davido
 * Penny Balfour as Rose Montgomery
 * Douglas Rand as Armand Montgomery
 * Jean Betote Njamba as the chief of the Matassalai
 * Voice cast
 * Madonna as Princess Selenia
 * Douglas Rand (Original version)/Jimmy Fallon (The Weinstein Company version) as Prince Simono Matradoy de Betameche
 * Robert De Niro as Emperor Sifrat XVI
 * Snoop Dogg as Max
 * Allen Hoist (Original version)/Anthony Anderson (The Weinstein Company version) as DJ Easy Low
 * Christian Erickson (Original version)/Jason Bateman (The Weinstein Company version) as Prince Darkos
 * David Bowie as Emperor Maltazard
 * Douglas Rand (Original version)/Harvey Keitel (The Weinstein Company version) as Miro
 * Barbara Weber Scaff (Original version)/Erik Per Sullivan (The Weinstein Company version) as Mino
 * Tonio Descanvelle (Original version)/Emilio Estevez (The Weinstein Company version) as the Ferryman
 * Chazz Palminteri as the Travel Agent
 * Rob Corddry and Nate Corddry (The Weinstein Company version) as Seldes
 * Erik Per Sullivan (The Weinsten Company version) as the baby bug
 * David Suchet (The Weinstein Company version) as the narrator

Differences between release versions
After a screening test in the United States, The Weinstein Company re-edited the film. Approximately nine minutes were cut. The original runtime was 103 minutes, the Weinstien Company version is 91 minutes. Most of the edits pertained to the love story between Arthur and Selenia (due to age differences). The Scenes were: 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.
 * 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.

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

Reception
Luc Besson, in a May 2007 interview, blamed American distributor The Weinstein Company for the film's failure 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."