La cité des enfants perdus (1995)

 

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

Exuberantly imaginative fantasy (more horror than just a surreal fairy tale) is mesmerizing throughout due to its fascinating settings and visuals, some of them disturbing, too; the plot itself is a bit perplexing in its twists.

Halliwell*: "A bizarre hyper-active fantasy that yields many incidental pleasures, although coherence is not among them."

Maltin***: "Provocative fantasy...Although dramatically uneven, this mix of Oliver Twist and BRAZIL is a marvel of production design, with sumptuous visuals and painstaking invention."