Hugo is based on a book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It is about a young boy in Paris in 1931 who works the clocks around the train station all day while avoiding the station inspector. When Hugo first encounters Georges, the old man comes off as brash. At first I disliked Georges, but after Hugo and Isabelle discovered Georges' past, I came to understand the reason for his personality. He is Georges Méliès, the famous film director. In The Film Academy Library, Hugo and Isabelle discover a book full of film directors and movies they produced. They eventually discover "A Trip to the Moon" by Georges Méliès, and this their adventure continues from there. Fun Fact: The "Film Academy Library" scene was actually filmed inside the Bibliothèque Saint-Geneviève, a university library in Paris(click here)!

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The various technology featured in Hugo are clocks, the automaton, early films, and gears. Hugo displays his skill with fixing and inventing clocks and the automaton. After his father passed away, Hugo dedicated a lot of his time trying to repair the automaton. He failed until he met Isabelle, and she was able to help him repair it. Once the automaton was fixed, it drew a picture, as shown in a video I have put in the Clocks & Automaton page. Once film came into play in the movie, we are shown more of Georges Méliès past which was actual true history. Georges and Mama Jeanne went to the Lumière brothers first public viewing of their film, "L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat" or "The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station". Georges went from magician to film maker, notably the first sci-fi movie director. These innovators are definitely honored, and their story historically accurate. The length of films was used to measure how long film stocks were, and it was also possible to color in the film. In the video I have provided below, at 1:17, Mama Jeanne tells the children that they painted the film stock frame by frame. 

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