Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a genius. He’s outsmarted chess champions, won architectural design competitions, and he considers Albert Einstein to be one of his few intellectual peers. (The fact that Einstein is no longer alive and the two never met is, apparently, beside the point.)
He also happens to be the son of a criminal mastermind.
So, when Fowl, Sr., goes missing while on a “business” trip, everyone naturally assumes it must have something to with his illicit activities. Everyone but young Arty, that is.
To Artemis, his dad isn’t a criminal. He’s the man who read him Irish poems before bed and taught him the folklore of leprechauns, banshees, sprites and goblins. And yeah, Fowl, Sr,. could be a bit of a fanatic when it came to collecting antiques and rarities related to fairy tales. But he certainly wasn’t evil.
Then Artemis receives a ransom demand for an artifact called the Aculos, and he quickly learns that his dad’s obsession with the “little people” isn’t as quite as little as he thought.
Turns out that all those stories about fairies and magic were real. And for the past several generations, his family has been stealing mystical relics from around the world in order to study them and protect them from falling into the wrong hands—the Aculos being one of those objects.
Only problem is, Artemis has no idea what, or more importantly, where the Aculos is. But he figures, who better to locate a fairy artifact than an actual fairy?
Taking a page out of his old man’s criminality book, Artemis sets a plan in motion to kidnap a fairy, find the Aculos and rescue his father before it’s too late.
Domovoi Butler, the Fowl family bodyguard, serves as a mentor to Artemis whenever his father is away. He nearly dies protecting Artemis, and it becomes clear that even though Artemis is his employer, they’re also close friends.
Like Artemis, Holly Short (the fairy whom he soon kidnaps) refuses to believe that her father is a criminal. She and Artemis both go to extreme lengths to prove their respective fathers’ innocence, risking their lives and developing mutual respect for each other along the way.
Artemis Fowl, Sr., is labeled a thief due to his suspected involvement in the disappearance of multiple rare artifacts (which all turn out to be true). However, the reason he steals these objects is to protect them from falling into the wrong hands. And even when his son starts to follow in his footsteps by kidnapping Holly, he only does so to save his father, and he eventually frees Holly after gaining her trust.
Commander Root (Holly’s boss) believes in those under her command. Even when Holly disobeys a direct order to return home, she trusts Holly’s instincts and helps Holly to clear her own father’s tarnished name.
The fairies of Artemis Fowl are based in Irish folklore. They consist of several different mythical creatures, such as dwarves, centaurs, goblins and pixies. These creatures can live for hundreds of years we’re told. (Holly, at 84, is considered young.) And they possess different magical capabilities, such as healing, breathing fire, becoming invisible and mind control. The fairies have also found ways to combine their magic with technology, allowing them to create mechanical wings and devices that freeze time. However, they are subject to certain rules, such as requiring an invitation in order to enter a human’s home.
For the most part, fairies are restricted from using magic on humans other than to prevent those humans from discovering the existence of fairies. However, this rule is broken by Holly multiple times as she heals two humans (one whose injuries would have been fatal) and uses the Aculos to rescue Artemis’s dad. It is also broken by a dark fairy and the story’s villain, Opal Koboi.
Someone calls Ireland the most magical place in the world. Speaking of magic, for families that are concerned about this worldview issue, that’s likely the biggest thing they’ll need to navigate here.
None.
When a troll (literally) crashes a wedding, Holly tries to subdue it until backup can arrive. It throws and kicks people around, tries to eat a small girl and smashes everything in sight. Later, Holly, Artemis, Butler and Juliet (Butler’s niece) fight the same troll at Fowl Manor. They shoot it with Holly’s stun gun and stab it with the horns of a wooden bull before it is finally knocked unconscious from falling on its head. Butler is nearly killed in the encounter after the troll crushes him.
Artemis and Butler fight against multiple fairies using Holly’s stolen weapon to blast and stun them (though nobody is killed). A goblin’s fire-breathing backfires and blasts him and several others to the ground. Holly gets shot with a tranquilizer gun while flying, and she falls to the ground. Someone punches Artemis in the face.
Opal strings a man up by his arms and later attempts to kill him by using her magic to turn him into a rock crystal. We see the skeleton of an animal that was eaten by a troll. Butler and Juliet spar. Police have to restrain reporters trying to gain access to Fowl Manor. A great wave throws a man from his boat.
Opal says she wants to use an army of fairies to wipe out the human race. People make several death threats throughout the film.
Although there is no cursing, fairies use the term “d’arvit” twice, which Eoin Colfer (author of the Artemis Fowl book series) confirms is an expletive in the fairy language Gnommish. Someone utters a phrase that stops short of using a curse word. Holly says, “gods alive.” A character exclaims, “Shut up.” Someone is told to “get the four-leaf clover out of here.”
Guests drink wine at a wedding.
We learn that dwarves have the ability to tunnel, and that they do so by expanding their jaws and eating dirt like a mole. However, the dirt is digested at a rapid rate, causing it to be expelled almost immediately out the dwarf’s backside. And although we don’t see the dwarf’s rear end, we do see excrement flying out of a hole on his underwear.
Mulch Diggums (a dwarf and convicted criminal) pickpockets several people. He insinuates that he shouldn’t be punished for his thievery since it’s in the nature of dwarves to seek treasure. He also admits that he’s been arrested multiple times for theft.
Opal frees a man from prison to serve as her spy against Commander Root. The spy lies about Holly and Root to the other officers and tries to have Artemis and his friends killed. He also admits to feeding a troll some things that it is allergic to in order to make it more dangerous.
Artemis is rude to his school therapist, considering himself to be the older man’s superior. We learn that although Artemis’ mom was a good woman before she passed away, she was never able to discipline Artemis or control this rudeness.
If there’s one thing you don’t want to do to Artemis Fowl, it’s underestimate him. Yeah, he’s snarky and arrogant, and when he says he’s a criminal mastermind, he’s not kidding. But he’s also a good person.
He and Holly break a lot of rules to save his dad, but they also manage to save the world. At one point, Artemis is holding the Aculos in his hands with nobody to stop him from handing it over to Opal. Instead, he gives it to Holly and trusts her to find a way to save his dad without putting the whole world at risk.
Eoin Colfer, the author of the Artemis Fowl book series, described the novels as “Die Hard with fairies.” And some of the action in the film certainly feels like the action thriller. However, Disney has dialed back that violence. People are stunned, not killed. And while the man-eating troll might be frightening for younger kiddos, he doesn’t succeed. And there’s not a single drop of blood on screen.
So although Artemis Fowl may technically be a criminal, he’s really just a 12-year-old kid trying to do the right thing.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
