Hugo Cabret and Automatons

I brought the twins to see Hugo. The movie was as wonderful as the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, about a boy in the 1930's living in the clockworks at a Paris train station. I can't remember when I've said that. It's different because the book had pages and pages of amazing drawings mixed with the narration. But they both have a place.

We didn't see it in 3D, but there was still that feel of movement through the train station and the clockworks. I think 3D glasses would have been inconvenient, actually, because I had tears in my eyes so often. It's such a bittersweet story.

The other nice thing about the story in film form- you get to see some original footage of the old old films such as A Trip to the Moon. I've watched it on YouTube, but something about seeing it on the big screen made it magical.

My girls and I were discussing if this was a fantasy or realistic story. Though it feels magical and quite steampunk, it's realistic, if you can imagine a boy living alone in a train station caring for clocks to be a reasonable situation. I do. :) Maybe there's a bit of magical realism in it. A new genre perhaps? "Steampunk Magical Realism."

I remember after I read the book, I searched out information about automatons. I'd like to share a cool video of one with you.