An out-of-body experience

Phantom Boy

Four years ago, the French film A Cat in Paris, by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, became one of the most underrated Oscar nominees for best animated feature. Now its makers are back with Phantom Boy, which is set in New York but retains the same distinct hand- drawn style and the same cops-and-robbers theme.

In the English-dubbed ver- sion, Marcus D’Angelo gives voice to Leo, an 11- year- old who is fighting an unnamed disease ( clearly some form of cancer) in hospital. One night, police lieutenant Alex Tanner ( Jared Padalecki) is brought in, having been attacked by ne’er- do- wells down at the docks.

Leo, for reasons unknown even to him, can leave and enter his body at will, and his spectral f orm helps guide Alex’s essence back to his body, presumably saving his life. Much is left unsaid in this gentle children’s fable, mostly because the filmmakers assume kids are smart enough to read between the lines.

Alex is amazed by Leo’s power, but both soon realize it can help them catch criminal mastermind The Face ( Vincent D’Onofrio), whose mug looks like a collaboration between Picasso and Mondrian. Since the wheelchair-bound Alex can’t leave the hospital, Leo will be his eyes and ears, while plucky reporter Mary ( Melissa Disney) will function as his arms and legs.

The Face plans to take over New York City, despite having only a handful of mostly inept henchmen. But Phantom Boy isn’t aiming for hyper- reality or gritty, Batman-style crime fighting. This is a superhero movie for the Finding Dory crowd — which isn’t to say their parents can’t settle in and enjoy the show as well. I assume that’s why there’s a Woody-Allen-i n- Manhattan j oke midway through the film’s 84 minutes.

And everyone can appreciate the beautiful animation, which has the heroic Leo willoming through the streets of the Big Apple, all-seeing and untethered, while the deskbound mayor and chief of police prove incapable of stopping The Face. What child (or childlike adult) wouldn’t feel a vicarious thrill at that kind of joyous power? ΩΩΩ

Phantom Boy opens July 29 at the Lightbox in Toronto