‘The Inventor’ Review: Stephen Fry, Marion Cotillard and Daisy Ridley Help Bring Leonardo da Vinci to Charming Animated Life (2024)

It’s rare that animated films set out to be educational. But that is exactly the purpose of The Inventor, about the later years of Leonardo da Vinci, which also manages to be terrifically entertaining. The film is clearly a labor of love for co-director and screenwriter Jim Capobianco (a Pixar veteran, Oscar-nominated for the screenplay of Ratatouille) who here expands upon his 2009 animated short Leonardo.

While this ambitious feature-length effort may be a bit too sophisticated for younger children, it’s a visually gorgeous, engaging primer that should drive the more intellectually curious among them to want to learn more about the subject.

Employing a combination of Rankin/Bass-style stop-motion and hand-drawn animation, the film is set in 1516, when the elderly Leonardo (Stephen Fry, whose British accent doesn’t exactly cry “Italian”) has run afoul of the Catholic Church in the form of Pope Leo X (a very funny Matt Berry, of What We Do in the Shadows), who accuses him of heresy because of his passion for studying the human body via the use of cadavers.

Instead, he would prefer that Leonardo prove himself useful by creating instruments of war to be used against the French. Leonardo dutifully complies, but cannily creates a scenario demonstrating the futility and self-destructiveness of armed conflict. Seeking a more encouraging creative environment, he flees to France and joins the court of Francis I (Gauthier Battoue), endearing himself to the monarch by pointing out that the new palace he plans on building will quickly collapse due to its too-soft foundation.

At first, Leonardo thrives in his new environment, free to explore the meaning of life and, encouraged by the king’s scientifically curious sister Princess Marguerite (Daisy Ridley), to fulfill his dream of creating an “Ideal City” where mankind could live in harmony with nature. But once again he finds himself having to deal with pressure to use his talents for military and nationalistic purposes, exerted by Francis and his ever-present adviser mother Louise de Savoy (Marion Cotillard, providing some welcome Gallic flavor).

Capobianco’s screenplay concentrates less on da Vinci’s art (although the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” make brief appearances) than his scientific explorations as demonstrated by recreations of his sketches and notebooks, including detailed drawings of human anatomy and proposed flying machines. We also see a very cranky Michelangelo working on his Sistine Chapel ceiling under the watchful scrutiny of Pope Leo.

Despite its heavy-duty subject matter, the film co-directed by Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon is filled with welcome humor of both the visual and verbal varieties. The animation features many amusing touches and there are some wonderfully sly jokes, such as the Mona Lisa being exhibited to crowds that immediately swell to the point where no one can see it. When a royal figure tells Leonardo his plan to inspire a renaissance, the elderly artist muses, “A Renaissance? Hum, I like the sound of that!” There are also several lively musical numbers (perhaps too many), composed by Alex Mandel, that provide diverting respites from the talky proceedings.

As a bonus, the end credits feature behind-the-scenes drawings, photos and videos illustrating the detailed process involved in the film’s making. After seeing The Inventor, younger viewers may have difficulty deciding among being budding scientists, artists or animators.