The Big Picture

The upcoming animated film, The Inventor, delves into the personal struggles of legendary inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. Jim Capobianco, co-creator of Ratatouille, is making his directorial debut with The Inventor, intrigued by Da Vinci’s personal life and the impact he had on others through his work. The film features a star-studded cast, including Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, and Marion Cotillard.

From the creative mind behind the Academy Award-winning hit animation, Ratatouille comes The Inventor, an upcoming animated project set in the French capital during the Renaissance period. However, this time, rather than an ambitious rat for its protagonist, Jim Capobianco’s next major feature will revolve around a real-life visionary, the legendary inventor Leonardo Da Vinci (voiced by Stephen Fry). Captured in stunning stop-motion animation, The Inventor delves into the very essence of Da Vinci, showcasing not only his ingenious creations but also the intimate and profound personal struggles that plagued him behind the scenes.

As the trailer highlights, The Inventor is set to focus on Da Vinci’s latter years. The film vividly reflects this singular detail as the famed painter and inventor is pictured sporting a long beard and bald head. The trailer opens with a narrative voice-over of Da Vinci rightly introducing himself as “a rather insightful inventor.” The voice then reveals that the central plot will chronicle how the legendary Leonardo Da Vinci came to be. The trailer brings up several scenes where Da Vinci is hard at work with several inventive creations. While some are thrilled at his genius, his boldness appears to irritate rather than impress some men in authority. Perceiving Da Vinci’s works as a threat to Italian conservative values, they seek to curtail his audacious creations. This unwelcome resistance sees Da Vinci set out on an adventure to France where he can freely explore his genius without constraints.

The Inventor Is Jim Capobianco Feature Directorial Debut
Jim Capobianco is best known for co-creating the original story idea for the 2007 hit animated feature Ratatouille in collaboration with Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava. The Inventor is set to be his first time in the director’s chair. Intrigued by Da Vinci’s personal life, Capobianco had always wanted to make a movie about this aspect of the inventor’s life. “I’m telling the story of [da Vinci] at the end of his life and years in France,” Capobianco said in an interview with Variety. He further shared;

“Having researched him, I learned that he believed that he procrastinated a lot and he thought he didn’t finish a lot of the things he set out to do. So, I thought about what it would mean to this person, this character. I realized it’s about what you leave behind for others and how you affect other people with what you do, how you change other people’s lives while you’re here.”

Image via Blue Fox Entertainment

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Capobianco writes, and executive produces the feature but shares his directing credit with Pierre-Luc Granjon. In addition to Fry, the film also stars Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard, Gauthier Battoue, and Matt Berry.

The Inventor releases in theaters on August 25. Check out the trailer and official synopsis for the animated feature below:

“The insatiably curious and headstrong inventor/artist Leonardo da Vinci (Fry) leaves Italy to join the French court where he can freely experiment, invent flying contraptions and incredible machines, and study the human body. Joined in his adventure by the audacious Princess Marguerite (Ridley), Leonardo attempts to uncover the answer to the ultimate question: “What is the meaning of life?”