Maverick French director Luc Besson makes a radical departure from the world of sci-fi dystopia, pneumatic breasted fillies and heavy weaponry with this children’s tale of little people who live under the lawn.

The diminutive stars of this busy yarn are a colony of elves – the Minimoys – who offer the only hope for young Arthur (Highmore) when rapacious developers announce they are about to raze the New England home of his grandparents.

To descend into their miniature world, Arthur discovers the secret that will gain him entry in the writings of his grandfather, who mysteriously went missing years before while on an expedition.

Shrinking to a few millimetres high, he tumbles down a telescope to find himself miraculously transformed into a Minimoy, repleted with Troll-like hair and eyes the size of the saucers.

In this strange world, he must battle killer mosquitoes and save his adopted people from disaster with a magic sword while making a death-defying trip to recover a pile of rubies which he will use pay off the developers.

However, he hasn’t reckoned on the duplicitous Maltazard (Bowie), the nemesis of the Minimoys and an all-round bad egg.

This blend of CGI and live action– a kind of Honey I Shrunk the Kids squeezed into the Wizard of Oz – means the overall effect is like putting too much fruit into a blender, whizzing it about and ending up with unappetising mulch.

The setpieces are far too busy and the camera often seems too close to what’s going on, risking the viewer with a severe case of whiplash while your head frantically cranes to follow the action.

If we’re honest, there is nothing particularly original here. The wholesale pilfering of countless other films makes this an unwieldy mess while the paucity of decent adult-orientated gags only serves to disengage a potential audience of mums and dads.

The lowpoint is reached with the pensionable Bowie’s bafflingly pedestrian vocal show as the villain – it’s less Starman and more The Man Who Sold Himself Out.

Michael Kibblewhite