We are all familiar with heartwrenching stories of abandoned orphans just trying to fit in and find a place in this world. We watch them journey through their sad and depressing childhood until bigger and better things come
their way. Although most of you probably were thinking of Annie, the classic 1982 tale of a musical misfit red-headed orphaned girl, I invite you instead to think about Hugo, an adventurous young orphan who resides in a train station
in 1930s Paris. Meet Hugo on Nov. 23 as his movie, produced by acclaimed actor Johnny Depp, is released nationwide. Hugo Cabret, played by child actor Asa Butterfield, is the boy who lives in the walls of the train station and takes over his estranged uncle’s occupation of
turning the station’s clocks. Hugo is forced to live with Uncle Claude in the station after the death of his father, but soon after Claude himself mysteriously disappears. The station, unaware of Claude’s absence, believes he is still dutifully time-keeping while the audience is aware that it is actually just a young boy doing all the hard work.
While you may be convinced you can never feel as bad
for an orphaned child as you did for the singing Annie, you are sure to be proven wrong as you witness Hugo’s journey with his sole companion, an automaton. The mechanical man symbolizes the last connection between him and
his father, and therefore, Hugo is insistent on fixing him.
What began as a complex task for Hugo ends as a remarkably unforgettable journey. On his quest to find the right mechanics to fix his robot friend, Hugo makes a
career of stealing trinkets from an angry old man’s toy booth in the train station in order to improve his robot. Hugo is finally caught, and the old man takes Hugo’s notebook, which is his father’s booklet of robot instructions. He follows the old man home that night and sees his granddaughter, Isabelle, in the window and wills her to come out into the snow to help him. Isabelle proves to be an even greater friend to Hugo than the automaton, and the blossoming friendship between the orphan boy and the wealthy young girl proves to be even more complex than fixing the automaton. Restrictions are placed on the friendship between the two children as Isabelle’s grandparents do not wish for her to see Hugo, a criminal, any longer. However, the children refuse to spend time
apart, and their unlikely friendship brings the final solution to the robot’s existence. A heartshaped keyhole, which lies in the back of the robots neck, seemed to be a symbol of the impossible for Hugo, but for Isabelle, it was an obvious and familiar solution. She was given a heart-shaped
key necklace by her grandparents when she was little, and it turned out to be the perfect fit. Ecstatic, Hugo sees the robot come to life. He perfectly draws a picture from one of George Milies’, an old filmmaker, silent films. Confused, the children begin to research until they realize that Isabelle’s grandfather is Milies and is believed by most to
be dead. I will refrain from spoiling the movie, but I suggest you check out Hugo yourself on Nov. 23 to find out the rest of the details. Why did Milies let the world think he had been dead for all those years? How was Hugo’s father’s automaton able to draw a scene from a movie from so long ago? Why did Isabelle possess the heart-shaped
key? These questions and more will be answered on Nov. 23. In the meantime, check out www.hugomovie.com to learn more about this 3D flick.