By John Corrado

The stop-motion animated movie The Inventor is best described as an elaborate, lovingly crafted tribute to old school Rankin/Bass specials, inspired by the final years of Leonardo da Vinci’s life.

The film begins in Rome circa 1515, where da Vinci (voiced by Stephen Fry) is a kooky inventor with a long white beard (and, in classic Rankin/Bass fashion, a little mouth that appears over it when he speaks), who is seen as going against the Catholic Church.

Da Vinci is challenging Pope Leo X (Matt Berry), who views his scientific inquiries as an affront to the church, and would rather he focus on making war machines instead. The film then moves to France in 1517, where Leonardo takes refuge in the French courts to carry on his work inventing flying machines and searching for the meaning of life through dissecting bodies, finding an unlikely muse in French princess Marguerite de Nevarre (Daisy Ridley).

It’s easy to describe The Inventor as a curious project, one that aims to blend educational movie, and satire about how a visionary genius like da Vinci was treated by the institutions of his time (including some macabre dark humour around his grave-robbing and autopsy work). If this sounds like odd material for an animated movie that otherwise seems aimed at younger audiences with its feel-good messages about scientific discovery, that’s because it is (the film is also a musical, with several original songs by Alex Mandel).

The juxtaposition doesn’t always work, and there is some question of who exactly the target audience for this film is, with its main appeal probably being to art and animation fans who will best appreciate the visually pleasing throwback style. That said, the material sometimes feels a little too dry considering the artistry on display, and the film runs long at 99 minutes, with the fairly simple story running out of steam at points.

But the film is a clear passion project for writer-director Jim Capobianco, a former Disney and Pixar story artist who helped develop the story for Ratatouille. Expanding his 2009 short film Leonardo to feature length, the Kickstarter-funded feature allows Capobianco and co-director Pierre-Luc Granjon to play around with old-school animation techniques, including lovely 2D-animated sequences drawing upon da Vinci’s inventions. The stop-motion sets themselves have a wonderfully tactile feel to them, and the hand-painted look of the characters adds to the film’s simple charm.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)

The Inventor is available on a variety of VOD/Digital platforms as of April 23rd, and is also receiving a limited theatrical run in selected theatres.