ARTHUR AND THE GREAT ADVENTURE/ ARTHUR ET LA VENGEANCE DE MALTHASARD

France, 2009, 93 minutes, Colour.
Freddie Highmorel, Mia Farrow, Robert Stanton, Penny Balfour, Ron Crawford. Voices of: Selena Gomez, Jimmy Fallon, Omar Sy, Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed.
Directed by Luc Besson.

This is the second part of Luc Besson’s animated fantasy of the stories of Arthur, from the work of Patrice Garcia. The releases of parts two and three were different in different parts of the world, the original French version and the dubbed English version, sometimes combined, sometimes distinct. They did not break any box office records.

The setting is the United States in the 1960s, with Arthur, Freddy Highmore continuing, undergoing rituals with the tribal men, in the steps of his grandfather, Ron Crawford, to the exasperation of his father, Ron Stanton, and the bewilderment of his mother, Penny Balfour. His father wants to take him back to the city but he escapes from the car, goes back to the Minimoys and is transformed, entering into their world to confront Malthasard. Lou Reed has taken the place of David Bowie as the voice of Malthasard. Selena Gomez has taken the place of Madonna as the voice of Princess Serenia.

Plot: In 1963, protagonist Arthur stays with his grandparents for the holidays, during which the Bogo Matassalai (a fictitious African society) assign Arthur a series of tests including camouflage and environmental nonviolence. Having passed these tests, Arthur prepares to see the Minimoys to celebrate, until his father decides to take him and his mother back to the metropolis. When a spider gives Arthur a grain of rice containing a distress-call, which he believes has come from the Minimoys, he returns to his grandparents' house, where the Bogo Matassalai's attempt to give him Minimoy stature through a telescope fails, and they instead wrap him in vines of increasing tightness until he falls in a drop of sap into the Minimoy Max's bar. En route to investigate the Minimoys' condition, Arthur and Max rescue Betameche, who leads Arthur to the King. He then learns that Selenia is held by Maltazard, who is inspired to invade the human world by increasing his own size. Maltazard tricks the Minimoys into completing this design. The telescope itself is destroyed in the process, leaving Arthur trapped at his Minimoy size. (Wikipedia summary).