3 out of 5

Director: Luc Besson

Well, I can’t recommend making a go of this in one sitting, but Arthur 2 and 3 are an improvement on the rushed feeling original in every way – the funny bits are funnier, the action bits are more exciting, the story is more involving (although 2 is totally just build-up to 3, overall), and the animation feels a lot smoother.  The concept still lacks any kind of real visual zing, which is odd for how much mayhem is committed in part 3, but because the series seems to pick and choose from various kid tales we’ve seen before, and then paint it all in a pretty blase blend of summery greens and yellows, it just doesn’t WOW you when watching it, merely entertain.  Which, hey, some films can’t even do that, right?  So part 1 introduced us to the Minimoys, the miniature race living in Arthur’s Uncle’s backyard.  Now that we’ve got all the culture shock jokes out of the way, we can focus on more of an adventure story and Besson’s better-suited character-based humor, as Arthur must return to the Minimoy’s to first foil a kidnapping and then stop a villain’s rise to power.  Lou Reed is an odd choice for the villain, and since the design seemed to be based more on Bowie (who voice the character in flick 1), his representation is always a little off, but Freddie Highmore adds a proper balance of youth and intelligence to our lead and Selena Gomez is a much more acceptable female lead (over Madonna, who gave the princess to much haughtiness).  While film two does suffer from pacing, it’s worth it to give space to film three, where we start to blend action between the two worlds.  It could’ve been a mess and looked horrible, but somehow Besson pulls it off.  Whether the experience of the first film or the two-film room to tell a story is what helped make this such an improvement, this pair of Arthur sequels is pretty solid kid fare for wasting an afternoon.