“The Inventor” wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Film in this year’s Oscar race but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching.
Artistically, directors Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon use two kinds of animation to show how the genre’s wheels turn and what they produce. The subject is Leonardo da Vinci, the multi-hyphenate who enjoyed taking flights of fancy to understand the way man works.
As inventive as it is telling, “The Inventor” even brings da Vinci’s celebrated portrait, Mona Lisa, into the picture. She gets a song — and a prominent role in the artist’s life.
Covering the time Leonardo spent in France (and how he won over the king and his family), the film shows how he built a city, devised flying machines and mapped human anatomy. For animation, it sounds quite complex, but thanks to the creative use of stop-motion and 2-D techniques, we understand how natural — and human — Leonardo’s musings were.
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Stop-motion animation has its advantages, director Jim Capobianco says. Here's a scene from his latest film, "The Inventor."
Voiced by Stephen Fry, Leonardo is a sage who’s able to convince Francis, the less-than-brilliant king of France (Gauthier Battoue), he can stand out by funding his projects.
The “ideal” city would show how forward-thinking he is and how others would see him as a true leader and innovator.
Francis, however, is merely interested in impressing his fellow kings. Understanding Leonardo’s vision, Princess Marguerite (Daisy Ridley) helps sell the concepts. In a clever song called “From This Tiny Seed,” we see how it all could evolve. Like the two kinds of animation, music helps build the world few understand, even today.
Fry makes sure Leonardo shares qualities with less-celebrated men. He rants and raves about his benefactor and finds his way into his own soul.
Co-directors Pierre-Luc Granjon and Jim Capobianco combined stop-motion and traditional animation for "The Inventor," their film about Leonard…
While younger viewers may not grasp all the concepts, adults and teens will marvel at the way Capobianco, the film’s writer, has distilled the inventor’s concepts.
If Cliffs Notes made animated films, they might look a lot like this.
When “The Inventor” brings Leonardo’s drawings to life, we’re party to a most remarkable use of animation.
A visual treat (and a great history lesson), “The Inventor” shows how valuable following one’s passion truly is. Seeing is believing.