Movie Reviews

‘The Inventor’ review: Animated look at one of history’s greatest minds

For all ages.

September 11, 2023

The Inventor chronicles the tail end of Leonardo da Vinci’s life when he moved to France. Though already recognized as a great artist and thinker, da Vinci finds himself in the bad graces of the church. He is sent to France to help broker a peace, but soon is caught up in political games.

It only seems right that the film was made using stop motion animation. A natural progression of the stop trick used in the silent film era (though the roots of stop motion can be traced to decades before), the style is one of the most recognizable and important innovations in cinema. The changes it brought are still seen today. The same can be said for da Vinci who was a painter, philosopher, and even laid the groundwork for modern aviation.

The Inventor also uses 2D animated dream sequences that look equally good. Any mixing styles is tough to pull off as it can throw audiences off, but that is never a problem here. The stop motion brings a fun liveliness that computer animation is not always able to pull off while the 2D moments give a peek into the mind of one of history’s greatest thinkers.

The voice acting is stellar with a cast that includes Stephen Fry (Netflix’s The Sandman), Daisy Ridley (the most recent Star Wars trilogy), and Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows). All of them are able to bring the right emotion to their characters and there is a charm to all of them that is engaging. The musical numbers add to the fun.

There is nothing bad about The Inventor, but it would have been better if it had settled on a tone. Not informative enough for those interested in history, but not goofy enough for kids, the animated feature falls in a middle ground that is for everyone without catering to anyone. While animation is seen as less of a children’s medium than ever, it still is noticeable. This will not stop viewers of all ages from enjoying it, though.