THE INVENTOR movie poster | ©2023 Universal Pictures

Rating: PG
Stars (voices): Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard, Gauthier Battoue, Matt Berry
Writer: Jim Capobianco
Director: Jim Capobianco; co-director Pierre-Luc Granjon
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: September 15, 2023

THE INVENTOR loosely follows the last years of inventor, artist, and scholar Leonardo da Vinci. It opens with an onscreen title: “What follows is based on events in the life of Leonardo Da Vinci.” This is also read aloud for pre-reading-age viewers. This tells us something about the film’s target audience. We also get the standard disclaimer at the end about how no resemblance is intended to any actual persons, which tells us what we’ve already discovered about the film’s relation to actual history.

As such, THE INVENTOR is a bit of a puzzle. With its slightly old-fashioned style of puppet stop-motion, this Irish/French co-production is a bit reminiscent of old Rankin/Bass specials. What’s odd here is that the film is paced rather like one of those specials, which were made for youngsters of quite a while ago.

In THE INVENTOR, Leonardo (voiced by Stephen Fry) is living in Florence, Italy, in the service of a cardinal of the Church. His inventions and paintings are appreciated, but his efforts to find the seat of the human soul are vexing to Pope Leo X (voiced by Matt Berry).

Then Leonardo’s cardinal patron dies. Before Leo can outright condemn Leonardo as a heretic, newly-crowned French King Francis I (voiced by Gauthier Battoue) invites the maestro to bring his genius to France.

King Francis wants Leonardo to design objects and events that will demonstrate royal power. The king’s forward-thinking sister, Princess Marguerite (voiced by Daisy Ridley), wants Leonardo to design “the ideal city,” where nature and science will combine for the benefit of its citizens.

Leonardo is intrigued by this experiment in social engineering, but he’s still mainly concerned with trying to learn the secrets of the soul.

There is no doubting the good intentions of director/writer Jim Capobianco and his co-director, Pierre-Luc Granjon. They find ways to gently make points about warfare (any weapon one can create will eventually be copied by the enemy), and physical might versus the power of thought, which can be grasped by even little ones.

But the little ones of 2023 are used to faster-paced entertainment than those who were originally enchanted by, say, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER. It’s also a musical, with Ren Faire-style songs (we hear a lot of dulcimer). The voices and instrumentation are agreeable, if uncompelling. Leonardo’s “songs” consist of rhymed couplets spoken by Fry with musical backing.

THE INVENTOR has a friendly tone, but its lack of urgency may get to even patient adults who generally like the messages, never mind impatient small children.

Still, we can appreciate the artistry and the sentiment here. THE INVENTOR makes curiosity and learning cool. For all the storytelling flourishes, a lot of the inventions shown (like the lion and the wings) were actually made by da Vinci.

The filmmakers also honor not only Leonardo, but those who came after him. It’s hard not to applaud a stop-motion movie that pays specific homage to Ray Harryhausen. Speaking of this, by all means stick around for the end credits, which have some of the funniest bits in THE INVENTOR.

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