Came across this on The Roku Channel today.

Family oriented animated musical set in Paris in 1910 right after the city had suffered through a (real life) massive week long flood. The best way to describe it would be a very loose adaptation and combination of Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast w/a dash of Frankenstein. Produced by Luc Besson and directed by Bibo Bergeron (The Road to El Dorado, Shark Tale).

Summary

It begins at a movie theater w/projectionist and aspiring filmmaker Emile (Jay Harrington) who is in love with Maude (Madeline Zima). His inventor friend Raoul (Adam Goldberg) arrives to take him on a delivery to the Jardin des plantes de Paris. The professor at the gardens is out of town so the two sneak in to get some footage that Emile can use to make his own movie. While inside they screw around with the professor's experimental potions accidentally dropping two bottles, one a fast grow potion the other that gives the ability to sing on a flea (Sean Lennon) that escapes the lab.

The flea meets Raoul's love interest Lucille (Vanessa Paradis) who after being initially frighted is moved by his singing, names him Francœur, and decides to add him to her act at the cabaret where she works. Soon however Police Commissioner Victor Maynott (Danny Hutson) decides to use the reports of the monster to bolster his mayoral campaign and plans to eliminate the monster by any means possible. Bob Balaban and Catherine O'Hara also ply minor roles though they are so small you might not even realize it's them.

Overall Thoughts

The movie has decent enough animation and while there isn't anything that will blow your mind there are a few sequences that are very nice to look at mostly involving smoke from the potions and some snow set during a musical number. The best part of the movie is the music sung by Paradis and Lennon. The sequence based around the song "La Seine and I" is the standout part of the movie IMO.

The overall story starts a little slow but once the monster is created about 15-20 minutes in becomes much more interesting. Generally speaking the comedy bits with Emile and Raoul are so so and you'll probably enjoy the portions with the monster Francœur and Lucille much more. There is also a chase through the city that is more interesting than your average animated car chase as well. While it never comes close to the anguish a Pixar film can illicit though there are some very sad moments interspersed throughout. The design of the monster was pretty cool and while its not important at all I thought it was funny that Emile bears a striking resemblance to the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

Overall I'd say that it's below Disney and Pixar films but somewhere around Fox Animation/Blue Sky level and above most of (or all depending on how you feel about Despicable Me/Minions) what Illumination puts out. If you're looking for something different I'd say it's worth checking out.

B-/B

Even if you don't see the full movie I'd at least listening to "La Seine and I" as it's a fairly catchy song. song LINK - full scene LINK