Phantom Boy

PG

Released Jul 15, 2016

1h 24m

Fantasy

Adventure

Comedy

Animation

TRAILER

for Phantom Boy: Trailer 1

List

Phantom Boy: Trailer 1

1:33

Phantom Boy: Teaser Trailer 1

1:07

View more videos

88%

Tomatometer

52 Reviews

73%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

In New York, a courageous detective named Alex is injured by a gangster who calls himself the Man With the Broken Face. Stuck in a hospital, Alex meets Leo, a bedridden 11-year-old who has the ability to leave his body and float around as an apparition. Like a ghost, invisible to all, he flies away and passes through walls. When the disfigured criminal threatens to attack the city's infrastructure, Leo springs into action to help the lawman foil his evil plan.

Read More

Read Less

Critics Consensus

Phantom Boy's stunning animation and old-fashioned charm more than make up for a relative lack of narrative depth.

Read Critics Reviews

Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

It has an interesting premise and seems to be about the dark subject of death and childhood, but then backs out nervously towards cops'n'robbers banality.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 21, 2016

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

It's an entertaining romp, which for me had weird, engaging echoes with Richard Linklater's Waking Life.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 20, 2016

Full Review

Tom Huddleston

Time Out

Frequently beautiful to look at, but the cops-and-robbers angle feels tired.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 18, 2016

Full Review

Aaron Pinkston

Battleship Pretension

Overall, Phantom Boy doesn't have the dense thematic complexity that many animated films have gone for since Pixar became the industry standard but it is a simply enjoyable alternative.

Jan 5, 2021

Full Review

Daniel Barnes

Dare Daniel

Charming and inventive yet modest and unpretentious.

Rated: 3.5/5

Apr 1, 2019

Full Review

Rachel Wagner

Rotoscopers

Phantom Boy is a visual delight but also a throwback to a simple superhero story before cinematic universes changed everything.

Rated: 4/5

Feb 6, 2019

Full Review

Read all reviews

Audience Member

Captivatingly charming to a familiar extent of kinetic style whilst being miraculously harmless, it juggles realistic undertones and Hitchcock's "Rear Window" to an unexpected creative, original and emotional height. (A-)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

While the eng dub can be off at times, It's still brilliant! Like a cross between superhero film and classical Fine Art. Visually stunning, the colors pop, and the cinematic style is particularly good. Highly recommend!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

spencer p

Phantom Boy is blessed with a freely simple animation style and an intriguing protagonist, but the cartoonish fight-against-crime mechanic is a very cliche one by today's standards.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A fun story for kids of all ages.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Late R

The plot is a mostly generic affair and lacks the necessary depth to make it truly compelling, but with the unique aspect of the protagonist's ability, charming characters, and lovely hand-drawn animation with that old-school feel, 'Phantom Boy' is still an entertaining film with a distinct noir feel to it. It's just a shame they didn't delve a little deeper - there was certainly potential for it to be something spectacularly interesting and profound.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

10/01/17

Full Review

Audience Member

I have always enjoyed foreign animated features, especially the French ones like Belleville Rendez-vous and A Town Called Panic, finding them to be a refreshing change from the glorious wonderment of Disney flicks and the Japanese Anime. This is from the same creators behind the well received and Oscar nominated A Cat In Paris, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol. But this time setting the scene in today's New York where a criminal mastermind is at large planning to take over the city. Unfortunately, as this was a early afternoon screening for our younger, British generation, so I had to watch the American dubbed version, replacing the original French stars voices. Big names of French cinema too like Amélie's Audrey Tautou and Tous les Matins du Monde's Jean-Pierre Marielle. Like A Cat In Paris, the film follows an odd yet satisfying pair of heroes as they embarked on an adventure to piece together the mystery in hope to thwart the bad guy's plan. Our main hero is Leo, a hospitalised child who has an unique ability of being able to leave his body while sleeping and venture off in a ghostly manner able to visit his surroundings with being detected. He chooses to help a wheelchair bound policeman, who's broken his leg whilst being in pursuit of our antagonist, The Face. It's simplistic style doesn't deter the enjoyment or the animation in any way. It's very much a stunning piece of work, with a gorgeous use of vibrant colours versus shadows that gives the otherwise flat imagery great depth. The film has a lot of heart, something that is ideal for an audience of children. It's an engaging adventure that feels like those early adventure stories we would read as kids, the ones with basic yet powerful illustrations. This film is much like those, only fully animated in all it's glory. A delightful piece of animation. Running Time: 7 The Cast: 8 Performance: 8 Direction: 8 Story: 7 Script: 7 Creativity: 7 Soundtrack: 7 Job Description: 7 The Extra Bonus Points: 0 66% 7/10 www.spoileralertreviews.co.uk

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Jean-Loup Felicioli

Director

Alain Gagnol

Director

Audrey Tautou

Mary

Jean-Pierre Marielle

L'homme au visage cassé

Édouard Baer

Le policier

Jackie Berroyer

La Taupe

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

89%

72%

ParaNorman

78%

62%

Goosebumps

TRAILER

for Goosebumps

78%

63%

The Boxtrolls

TRAILER

for The Boxtrolls

99%

91%

How to Train Your Dragon

TRAILER

for How to Train Your Dragon

83%

77%

The Book of Life

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Ghostbusters is Certified Fresh

Phantom Boy: Trailer 1

1:33

Phantom Boy: Teaser Trailer 1

1:07

View more videos

View more photos

Synopsis

In New York, a courageous detective named Alex is injured by a gangster who calls himself the Man With the Broken Face. Stuck in a hospital, Alex meets Leo, a bedridden 11-year-old who has the ability to leave his body and float around as an apparition. Like a ghost, invisible to all, he flies away and passes through walls. When the disfigured criminal threatens to attack the city's infrastructure, Leo springs into action to help the lawman foil his evil plan.

Director: Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol
Producer: Emmanuel Bernard, Michel Nicolas, Tim Martens
Screenwriter: Alain Gagnol
Distributor: GKIDS
Production Co: Folimage
Rating: PG (Violence|Thematic Elements|A Suggestive Situation)
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Animation
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 15, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 25, 2016
Runtime: 1h 24m