Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 21, 2017

Phantom Boy is the second animated feature helmed by co-directors Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol's following their Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris. It tells a magical tale of an eleven-year-old patient who aids an incapacitated police lieutenant in trying take down a criminal mastermind. The opening titles contain wondrous images that will remind one of Saul Bass's famous graphic layouts in so many of the legendary designer's films. Felicioli and Gagnol set the film in contemporary New York City with many recognizable billboards, shops, theaters, and landmarks. However, "the look" of the city, with its old-school 2D handdrawn animation, actually resembles NYC during the fifties and sixties rather than today. There is some architectural drawings that look a bit like Greenwich Village as seen in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). This is particularly fitting since an immobilized L.B. Jefferies must rely on Lisa Fremont to go to another apartment to ascertain suspicious activity of a possible crime in Hitch's classic voyeuristic thriller. Likewise in Phantom Boy, Lieutenant Alex is relegated to his hospital room and must communicate with the stealth Phantom Boy on the outside world so he can relay crime-preventing tips.

Phantom Boy has a funny self-reflexive style that mimics comic books and graphic novels. The movie is book-ended by fantasy scenes in which the boy Leo reads a detective novel to his younger sister, Titi (or vice-versa). Phantom Boy also plays with the film-within-a-film and the audience is presumably unsure if the superhero chasing the bad guy on the roof is part of the "real" diegegis or is a contrivance for the purpose of dramatization by a storyteller. Leo has been sick for a while as evidenced by his hair loss and is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a form of leukemia. Unbeknownst to his parents, Leo has a special ability for astral travel. Whether he is comatose, unconscious, or just plain asleep, his ephemeral spirit can release from his body, levitate, and pass through physical objects like a ghost. Felicioli and Gagnol first establish Leo's story and then cut to Alex's plight. Alex has always been a policeman who took a lot of chances with utter temerity and his encounter at the local supermarket is no different. Alex is with his girlfriend, the newspaper reporter Mary, looking at flowers when, as unseen bystanders, they witness a holdup at a checkout counter. Alex tries to foil the perpetrators' robbery and while Mary and him get out unscathed, the store blows up. Alex is demoted to a watchman at Port Quay 4 and it is here that he first meets the man with the broken face (aka "The Face") and his two goons. Alex seems to have the villains under control when he is abruptly blindsided and badly injured. Leo and Alex are recuperating at the same hospital on different floors and their astral projects meet each other. (Alex was unaware that he also had this power.)

A typical scene from PHANTOM BOY.

Meanwhile, The Face has initiated a city-wide blackout and gives the mayor the ultimatum that if he does not come up with $1 billion, The Face will unleash a lethal Internet virus across the city's electronic channels. Alex discovers some leads about The Face's plans through Mary's diligent reporting and sends Leo's Phantom Boy as his secret spy to gather intelligence. The fun parts of the film are watching the title character fly through the air across midtown Manhattan and by the Statue of Liberty. Alex has an informant that he wants to look further into The Face's nefarious activities so he sends Phantom Boy to observe the informant's physical movements and whether he's telling the truth or not over the phone.

The relationship between Alex and the Phantom Boy reminds me of Dick Tracy's with The Kid in Warren Beatty's 1990 film. Just as Alex takes Leo under his wing as a crime-fighting understudy, so too does Tracy adapt The Kid as his protégé. The Kid helps Tracy escape a precarious situation and gather intel on Big Boy Caprice and his gang. The Face reminds me of one of Dick Tracy's rogue gallery of villains as well as Two-Face. If Phantom Boy has a weakness, it is that Alex's boss, Captain Simon, is written as a one-note character. Not only is Simon completely unlikable but his erroneous judgement is contemptible. After he demotes Alex who later ends up in the hospital, Simon will not listen to his advice or take leads from any of Alex's informants. The egotistical Simon thinks that he can solve The Face's plans without any of Alex's assistance; he treats him like he's permanently crippled and unofficially off the force.

Phantom Boy compensates for lack of characterization in the writing with some breathtakingly beautiful animation. The aesthetics are reminiscent of eighties cartoons, particularly "Inspector Gadget" (and that's meant as a compliment). The movie also boasts excellent voice talent, with Vincent D'Onofrio performing The Face on the English version and Audrey Tautou performing Mary on the French version.

Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Phantom Boy makes its worldwide debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios and its offshoot, GKIDS, on this AVC-encoded BD-50. The movie appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and looks practically spotless. The colors are densely saturated with excellent detail. The digital master used for this transfer looks newly minted with no compression artifacts to speak of. One critic called Phantom Boy's palette "charcoaled colors" and I am in the affirmative. Some of the hues have shades of soot in them. There was also a cherry red to a couch early in the film that stood out. Aerial views from the Phantom Boy's perspective look majestic with three-dimensional depth. Shadow detail is flawless.

Universal has created twenty bookmark-enabled chapter stops.

Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal supplies the original French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound track and a dubbed English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option. The former has French titles/credits and the latter English titles/credits. English subtitles are available on the French version and optional English SDH can be accessed on the English version. I listened to both tracks and they simulated what it was probably like to hear the film mixed in the recording studio. Sound waves created a very enveloping acoustical environment in my home theater. The strings on composer Serge Besset's original score soared as did the swooshing sounds of the Phantom Boy. Both tracks had outstanding balance. The front channels exhibited seemingly unlimited depth on occasion. The surround channels never missed a beat either. Gunshots, footsteps, the opening/closing of an elevator, et al. showed strong and distinctive separation on the rear speakers. Dialogue is uttered faster on the French version but enunciation is consistently clear and intelligible on both tracks.

Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Felcioli (8:29, 1080p) - Gagnol and Felcioli answer a series of questions about what went into writing and creating Phantom Boy. In French, with English subtitles.

• The Making of Phantom Boy (12:46, 1080p) - a compilation of six mini-featurettes: "The Animation," "The 3D," "The Color Palette," "The Storyboard," "The Sound Effects," and "The Scenery." Each are plaintively and lucidly narrated in English by Sophia Harvey. Each also show the animators at work in their studio. The pieces touch upon general and abstract techniques that animators engage in creating the animation, using Phantom Boy as an illustrative example.

• One Heck of a Plan – An Animated Short from the Directors of Phantom Boy (5:56, 1080p) - a short film also co-directed by Gagnol and Felcioli that's a good bookend to the main feature. It's about a burglary and features two thieves similar to the henchmen in Phantom Boy as well as a little dog. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:36, 1080p) - an American theatrical trailer for Phantom Boy. In English, not subtitled.

• More from GKIDS - a half-dozen trailers from other GKIDS titles that are presumably available on Blu-ray. These load after Universal's mini-logo and can be skipped. They are also accessible on the Bonus menu.

Phantom Boy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Phantom Boy is a delightful fantasy adventure and detective yarn. Universal delivers absolutely superlative visuals and sonics on this BD-50. While I would have liked the supplements to be longer, they are informative for the info they bring and should be helpful to animation novices. If you're a fan of Felicioli and Gagnol's A Cat in Paris, you will not want to miss their follow-up picture. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.