Genesis and development A little boy able to enter a world of elves. With this idea, conceived by
Patrice and
Céline Garcia, Luc Besson wanted to make it into a film. Before writing a script, he wrote and published the book
Arthur and the Minimoys in
2002, based on the original idea by Céline Garcia and illustrated by Patrice. Three other books were published subsequently:
Arthur and the Forbidden City (2003),
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2004), and
Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds (2005). Luc Besson then wrote the script for the first film with Céline Garcia, which incorporates the plots of the first two books.
Casting To find the actor for Arthur, Luc Besson conducted an extensive casting process worldwide: "I had a lot of trouble, and was hesitating between three English actors and two Americans when a casting director, who was external to the project, suggested I take a look at the photos of
Freddie Highmore. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had just been filmed, I went to see it and immediately fell in love with him." Even though this film is “100% French” in origin, all the actors come from
Great Britain or the
United States. The film was therefore shot in
English. Besson directed their performances. In terms of
lip sync with actors' dialog, the French animators could not cope with the English
phonemes. For
Madonna and
David Bowie, a camera was used to record their lips to help the animators. The animation was done with proprietary software. In terms of voice casting, several artists, singers, and musicians are featured:
Mylène Farmer as Sélénia, rapper
Rohff as Max,
Alain Bashung as Maltazard, along with
Doudou Masta,
Stomy Bugsy,
Cut Killer, and
Dick Rivers. In the English version,
Madonna,
Snoop Dogg, and
David Bowie are part of the cast. Furthermore,
Barbara Kelsch, who voices Arthur in the French version, also dubbed
Milla Jovovich in
The Fifth Element.
Filming The animation was produced by the French company
BUF Compagnie, which hired approximately 100 animators, most of them from French animation schools and without any previous experience. Besson wanted a
photorealistic environment, and BUF initially used microlenses to film physical environments, but eventually instead used
photogrammetry, where a digitized photograph of a real object is manipulated with a computer. Sets were built to 1:3 scale, which allowed the animators to use natural elements, such as plants and grass. While the film did not use
motion capture, real actors were used as reference, and recorded with 13 to 14
video cameras, but without the markers used in motion capture. While some scenes were shot at the
studios of Épinay-sur-Seine, most of the sets and models were installed in
Pantin, in an old grain silo that Pierre Buffin (the animation director) and his team at
BUF Compagnie transformed into a high-tech studio. 225 people were gathered there for the animation work, which lasted nearly 27 months, notably for the creation of the 3D sequences. The character animation was created using a motion recording system without the usual sensors, invented by
Pierre Buffin, allowing actors greater freedom of movement. The live-action scenes with the actors were filmed in
Normandy. == American version ==