Let’s celebrate the late summer release of “The Inventor,” a musically animated jewel about Leonardo Da Vinci’s last years that’s certainly the loveliest animated film of the year, thus far.

It’s more kid-friendly than “made for children.” You’ll find it helps to know a little or a little more than a little about Leonardo before watching it. And not every child is interested in Da Vinci’s late life obsessions with dissections and anatomy studies. Yes, it’s a bit of a hard sell.

But with Rankin-Bass reminescent stop-motion animation by Ireland’s Curiosity Studio and lots of lovely 2D dream/nightmare sequences by Cartoon Saloon, a stellar voice cast, pretty tunes by Alex Mandel, all of it conceived by Pixar alumnus Jim Capobianco, it’s simple yet gorgeous and quite the unexpected delight.

In 1516 the great painter, inventor and thinker (voiced by Stephen Fry) is trapped in Rome and under the thumb of the Medici Pope Leo X (Matt Berry of “The IT Crowd”), the heavy-handed and corrupt pontiff who prompted Martin Luther to start the Protestant Reformation.

Leo threatens Leonardo over his obsession with “desecrating” bodies “out of curiosity” and a pursuit of knowledge, perhaps in search of any evidence of where the soul might be in his cadavers.

Leo would rather Leonardo be “a good little painter” like his lad Michelangelo, muttering as he makes fixes to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (actually, Michelangelo was finished before Leo X was confirmed). Leo’s also having military troubles with the French and would love for Da Vinci to whip him up some wonder weapons.

The Great Polymath and his assistants invent animation and whip up a flipbook projection of Da Vinci’s ideas for a tank, an infantry-slicing scythe and what-not, a presentation that ends by showing the French stealing the ideas because “that happens in war” and the two sides pointlessly slaughtering each other.

Which also happens in war.

After pushing the Pope to show himself a prince of peace and end the fighting, Leonardo meets the French king, Francis (Gauthier Battoue), decides he’s young, more open-minded and less dogmatic so he and his two assitants grab The Mona Lisa and his papers and flee to France.

But once there, his ideas for a grand “Ideal City” take a back seat to the need to have him engineer a spectacle for the planned summit of the Great Kings of Europe — Francis I, Carlos V (Max Bamgarten) of Spain, and Henry VIII (Daniel Swan) of Great Britain. Something huge is needed for the French monarch to impress his fellow absolute rulers.

Like much of what we see in this fanciful film, that really happened. Well, sort of. Henry met them both, just not at once at that famous French fete, which included the two monarchs wrestling each other.

Yes, that sounds silly and yes it really happened and yes, it’s funny to see them stop-motion-animate their way into a tussle buried under a whirling cloud of dust (cotton balls).

Oscar winner Marion Cotillard plays the young French king’s advisor/mum, who’d be none-too-pleased if she knew the Italian had moved his graverobbing operation to La Belle France. And Daisy Ridley is the king’s smart, scientifically-curious sister, the one who wants to see Leonardo build his “man and nature in harmony” version of an “Ideal City.”

The estimable Mr. Fry sings, gets across Leonardo’s alarm at the dark, looming figure who chases and traps him in his flying (self-designed bat-wings) 2D animated nightmares. That would be death, determined to get him before his life’s work is done.

This Leonardo walks a tightrope between songs, recognizing that his curiosity has come close to getting him killed “on the heretic’s fire” before and may again, but determined to “learn everything” and inform the world and change it with his knowledge.

“There are three kinds of people,” he lectures at one point. “Those who see. Those who see when shown. And those who don’t see.” Period. Yes, he really said that.

If you’re thinking this review has a lot of linked-footnotes for a piece on “children’s entertainment,” you’re right. The film started life as a short financed via Kickstarter, and grew in thematic depth, animated sophistication and historical accuracy when Capobianco built it into into a feature.

Still, there’s not quite enough slapstick and goofiness — even counting one hide-the-cadaver gag — to keep your average 8 year-old interested.

But that’s no reason to not see it with your child and do a little teaching as you watch, or to cheat yourself of this multi-national treat, especially if you love the archaic animation that showed off Rudolph’s red nose and a burgermeister impressed that “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

Rating: PG

Cast: The voices of Stephen Fry, Marion Cotillard, Daisy Ridley,
Gauthier Battoue, Max Baumgarten, Natalie Palamides and Matt Berry

Credits: Directed by Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon, scripted by Jim Capobianco. A Blue Fox Entertainment release.

Running time: 1:40