On the surface, Phantom Boy is a very familiar tale, and maybe the kind of tale that people suffering from superhero-fatigue might choose to avoid at the moment. There's a young boy who finds that he has a special power, allowing him to move quickly, and unseen, around a city that is being threatened by a wannabe-supervillain named The Face. There's more to it than that though, and I would recommend this to people who don't mind trying something a bit different, even if it mixes in many familiar elements.
Leo (Gaspard Gagnol) is the lead character, the titular "phantom boy". Leo has to go into hospital to be treated for cancer, with the one silver lining to that cloud being a new-found ability to astrally project himself around the city. He cannot stay away from his physical body for too long though, otherwise his spirit will begin to disappear. When he ends up sharing some space with a wounded police officer, Alex (Edouard Baer), Leo explains his new super-power, and gives an effective demonstration. This leads to him helping Alex, who is in turn helping an investigative journalist named Mary (Audrey Tautou), who is trying to expose The Face (Jean-Pierre Marielle).
The big attraction here is the lovely animation style. It's clean and detailed, and has a great retro feel, a modern-day adventure with the vibe of something from the 1940s or '50s. From the opening credit sequence to the old-fashioned methodology of the criminal gang, this keeps finding effective ways to round off the corners of what could otherwise have been a more difficult film to enjoy (considering the one-two punch of cancer and child endangerment at the heart of it).
Co-directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, working from a script written by Gagnol, this is a film that manages to feel both refreshing and comfortingly familiar. Take away the fantastical element and you could easily imagine this being a Tintin adventure. The fantastical elements adds so much though, and it's more than whatever is overtly depicted onscreen. Leo has the constant worry revolving around being able to return to his physical body, and he there is an upside and downside to being able to view others who are unaware of his presence (not unlike those who are ill in a hospital bed, but able to hear the concerned conversations of the loved ones sitting around them). The stakes feel high when it comes to the lives of others being affected, but it's certainly not world-ending stuff, and the desperate need for Leo to help out seems to show his need to stay distracted, and to engage in a battle with an enemy that he can see in front of him.
The voice cast all do very well, a great fit for their roles (n.b. I did watch the original version of this, a dubbed version is also available . . . and Vincent D'Onofrio in the role of The Face seems like an excellent choice there), and the script does enough to make their interactions and character development believable, despite the main premise.
I haven't seen the previous feature from Felicioli and Gagnol, the celebrated A Cat In Paris, but I can assure you that it's been bumped up my list of "ones to watch" after finding so much to appreciate in this. Sweet, tense, and constructed with real care and tenderness, this is highly recommended, especially to those who may have dismissed it based purely on the title.
9/10
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