Critics reviews

Felicioli and Gagnol have a lot of fun with references to Manhattan and Gremlins, not to mention the classic noir visuals found in the best of Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak and many more. The dialogue is snappy as well—at one point Alex's angry superior calls him "a cactus shirt I squeeze into every morning." Despite being in French, the script is salty and sassy enough to feel all American.

The style perfectly expresses the magic, grit and dream-like quality of the narrative. "Phantom Boy" adds layer upon layer of plot as well as a huge cast of characters, and there's a little bit too much going on at any given moment. The film can be smothered by the obligations of its plot, but it's still beautiful and original, extremely funny, and sometimes very moving.

Frame after frame, the film carries the imprint of the painstaking and labor-intensive technique. Lines filled with a nostalgic yet effective color palette construct a timeless world with measured suspense and whimsy. Flying around between buildings is stylish, graceful an electrifying all at once. Intriguing and cleverly executed, Phantom Boy is an animated sensation imagined by the spiritual disciples of Hitchcock and Picasso and filtered through the prism of Marvel's most iconic comic books.

Certain details are jarring, though: All the men wear wide-leg trousers, but seem to have unusually tiny feet, accentuated by weirdly pointed shoes. That my focus was drawn to this sort of detail strongly suggests that the movie doesn't do its primary job: eliciting an affinity for its endangered young hero. Instead of maintaining an effervescent fizzle, "Phantom Boy" too frequently sputters piffle.

This is an outsider cinephile's conception of the city (at one point, Leo even swoops by a Woody Allen doppelganger sitting on a bench by the Queensboro Bridge) that's frequently intoxicating, and in spite of the too-safe narrative's sporadically buzz-killing cop-outs.

The noirish plotline is smart and engaging, but this French film is most powerful for its treatment of the young hero's illness; in one scene he uses his supernatural ability to eavesdrop on his family as they discuss him.

The stylish, traditional if not retro, 2-D animation distinguishes the film from other computer-animated releases and helps establish a skillful calibration between its more sophisticated, even darker elements and lighter fantasy.

The film offers up a meaningful alternative to mainstream animated fare, both in terms of content and form. Like other recent French cartoons — ranging from Persopolis to the Kirikou series — this one manages to maintain something personal within a broadly appealing framework: it doesn't shy away from the dark side of life, and in the end, even allows us to enjoy it.