this movie succeeds in the most difficult artistic field: inventing a world. Most of the times, when authors try it, we stumble always on Middle-earth... But here, it's really an original place, between Brazil and Peter Pan… This city looks like a foggy Montmartre at sea and the visual impact is wonderful: the cast has a jewel with the girl playing Miette: she acts like a pro while she is a kid. Maybe her friendship with this big dumb guy could be commented but this exploited kid as a thief and later dreams maker is thrilling and for sure, everything is sublimated by the wonderful sad, melancholic haunting score of Badalamenti as well as his song with Faithful! So it's a real masterwork of french imagination, worthy of Melies and sadly not praised enough in my country!

Set in a dystopian society, someone is kidnapping the children. Krank and his band of clones are using the children to harvest their dreams. Then they kidnap Denree, the brother of One, a fairground strongman. One sets out to find his brother...Quite inane and often incoherent, yet it works (to a degree). Initially quite intriguing, the plot soon become quite random. At a point you stop trying to make sense of it all and just go along for the ride.And what a ride it is. The pace is frenetic and the movie fun and this papers over many of the flaws in the plot.Written and directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also gave us the equally-weird Delicatessen. The City of Lost Children isn't of the same quality as Delicatessen, however, as Delicatessen made more sense in the end and had some interesting themes running through it. The City of Lost Children has no real claims in the themes department and is purely about the fun.

This is really one of the best movies I have ever seen, and it is one of my personal favorites. Its imaginative and powerful premise is brought to life by a creative story, excellent acting, skilled direction, innovative special effects, dreamy visuals, and a surreal atmosphere. The City of Lost Children also has a gloomy and chilling soundtrack that suits the movie perfectly. The movie takes place in a corrupt, dismal town filled with orphans, villains, and miscreants. Most of the adults are portrayed as evil, while the kids are the heroes. However, there is one good adult, who befriends the orphans. His brother is one of the many kids to have been kidnapped by the mad scientist named Krane. The scientist is incapable of dreaming, and makes a machine that connects his head to the heads of children. He uses this contraption to haunt the kids' dreams because he cannot dream on his own. He believes his lack of dreams is causing him to age prematurely. But the kids are stuck on the "island" that is his laboratory. That is a simplified, condensed summary of the movie. It is sometimes hard to follow, though, because of its intricate plot. Many critics have praised its originality, though some have complained that many of its fascinating concepts are not fully developed, or explained. They seem to think that the movie needed to be longer to offer a full explanation. While this argument does have merit, I believe that the movie would have lost momentum, had it been longer. The City of Lost Children is not perfect, but it is a rich and vivid fantasy that is otherworldly, evocative, and moving. It is not for everybody, though; some will be turned off by its nightmarish mood and complex narrative; however, that does not change the fact that it is an engaging and refreshing film in that it is totally original. The City of Lost Children showcases enormous talent and ability, in so many areas: story, direction, characterization, visuals, music, and acting are all top-notch. It is certainly one of the most original movies of the decade, and one of the most imaginative and compelling films I have ever seen.

The critics don't know what to make of this movie but give it a good rating anyway. Me, I definitely know what to make of this movie and consider it a masterpiece of film making. The French are very much the artists. They create the Eifiel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Cannes Film Festival. When it comes to making a movie, they know how to do it, and the City of Lost Children is one such movie.The critics cannot seem to understand the plot, and that is probably because they are too stupid to see it. A scientist, Krank, cannot dream, so he kidnaps children and attempts to steal their dreams. Unfortunately the children cannot have good dreams so he ends up with nightmares which inevitably kill the children. A young boy, Dedree, is kidnapped by the Cyclops, a fanatical cult that have blinded themselves and wear an electronic eye, and is sold to the scientist. Dedree's big brother, One, seeks him but becomes embroiled in an Oliver Twist gang ring led by a siamese twin known as Octopus.This is said to have been the most expensive French film ever made, and visually it shows it. The City of Lost Children is a movie which soars above the Hollywood blockbusters in visual masterpiece. The directors seem to have their own little quirks in here, like the snowball events. That is something happens which causes something else to happen, which ends up saving the heroes. The final one is a classic, where one tear ends up causing a ship to smash into a dock.There are some visuals which call back images of Alien Resurrection, such as the babies in a survival tank. What is interesting is how most of the movie is green and that there is a lot of water. This is a contrast to Delicatessen which is yellow and very dry.The City of Lost Children is a fantasy. It has the feel of a Jules Verne style of science fiction but it seems to be more of a future in the past. Rather that being critical of what should be and what should not be, we should just look at this as being in a realm somewhere between fantasy and reality.