SCREEN RANT: The Inventor Trailer Reveals Animated Leonardo da Vinci Origin Story Movie [EXCLUSIVE]
July 26, 2023
- Screen Rant exclusively presents The Inventor trailer, revealing an animated telling of Leonardo da Vinci's life.
- The movie utilizes both hand-drawn animation with stop-motion animation, continuing a recent trend of multiple styles being featured in one film.
- The film also pays homage to the animation technique of Rankin/Bass productions from the 1960s, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Prepare for an animated adventure chronicling one of the most iconic artists in history with the exclusive The Inventor trailer. Written and co-directed by Ratatouille Oscar nominee Jim Capobianco, the stop-motion movie is set in the Renaissance Era and follows Leonardo da Vinci as he grows tired of the conservative Italian customs and yearns for more in his life. With the help of his friends, da Vinci sets off on a quest to join the French court, where he can freely work on his ideas to invent a flying machine, study the human body and discover the meaning of life.
With less than a month remaining until its wide release, Screen Rant is proud to exclusively premiere The Inventor trailer.
The trailer, reveals the first proper look at the stop-motion adventure movie which chronicles the life story of da Vinci as he ventures to France with the help of his friends to more freely explore his inventive side. The Inventor trailer also offers the first glimpses at its star-studded roster voicing the movie's characters, including The Sandman's Stephen Fry as da Vinci and Star Wars' Daisy Ridley as Princess Marguerite.
The Inventor Keeps The Most Unique Animation Alive (& Revives An Old One)
In a time in which experimentation is becoming more embraced in the field of animation, The Inventor looks to be keeping one of the more unique styles of animation alive in the form of stop-motion. Though it hasn't died out, stop-motion has become a lesser-used technique by most studios in recent years, save for Laika, who have scored Oscar nominations on all five of their theatrical projects, the last of which was 2019's Missing Link. The past few years have seen others look to branch out in this field, including Guillermo del Toro for his Oscar-winning Pinocchio adaptation.
Interestingly, in addition to keeping stop-motion alive, The Inventor looks to be reviving an old animation technique by looking to the styling of Rankin/Bass productions from the 1960s. Utilizing their trademark process known as "Animagic", the animation house was behind some of the most iconic adaptations of holiday children's stories, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, and Santa Claus is Comin' To Town among dozens of others. Capobianco and co-director Pierre-Luc Granjon have clearly looked at the cartoonish designs from said productions for their Inventor characters, namely that of Matt Berry's Pope Leo X.
With a sprinkle of hand-drawn animation amidst its stop-motion, The Inventor also looks to continue a recent trend of blending multiple styles into one movie, with the Spider-Verse movies being one of the more popular examples of such. Though it will have the Marvel animated movie to compete with come awards season, the heartwarming story mixed with a nostalgic style could very well make The Inventor an Oscars contender come next year.
The Inventor will release nationwide on August 25.
