Hugo

Little Kid, Big Adventure

As I've stated before, children are not stupid. The only stupidity children have is from being young, and not knowing everything yet, and yet a fair amount of children's films seem to just plain think they are stupid. They are not just bad films, they are utterly insulting to both the children who will grow up to hate the films, and the parents who will know from the start they wasted their money taking their children to see the film or buying their own copy on DVD, Blu-ray, what have you. But when a children's film gets good, which is when I call it a family film, sometimes you can get instant classics that audiences will always remember. Hugo is easily one of these films, it's the best film I have yet to see made in 2011.

Our protagonist is Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a young orphan boy who lives in the train station clock tower. The boy is a common thief, but only steals his meals, and small gears and other machine parts. He steals these parts to live out his deceased father's and his old plan, to reconstruct an old automaton, which is supposed to be able to write, but is long broken. Hugo himself is a sweet kid, but is also very much a kid. He's a little rough around the edges, but this is because he is fending for himself. He's not mean, he's just not that heroic, he's a three dimensional child living in a three dimensional world. He's a wonderful character.

And I am serious when I call this world three dimensional. Every side character is fully fleshed out, they have their own back story and their own story to tell. While I feel I may be spoiling something, I will add that there is no villain too this story. There is one character who is simple doing his job, which is to catch orphan children and send them to the orphanage. At first, we understand it's his job, then he shows himself to be quite mean about it, and then we see him fawning over a cute girl who works on the same floor. He's just a regular everyday man, and sometimes a certain job can make you end up a bit meaner on occasion. He's understandable, and likable, but still threatening, it's very good.

I have to mention I am one of the few people who did not see the film in 3-D, and I really wish I did. The visuals of this film are nothing short of poetry, and sometimes you can really see just how 3-D would have added to the experience even more. That aside, it is still worth seeing in 2-D, which is not sometime I can say about a lot of 3-D films I liked such as Piranha 3-D or the third Harold and Kumar. The visual style is still breathtaking, it just would have been nice to see it the way it was intended.

Hugo is easily up there with the great classic family films such as Babe and The Neverending Story, it is nothing short of a fantastic film for all ages (Disregard the PG if you wish, it is only slapped on for the fact people smoke in the film). This film is easily 4 out of 5 stars. It's brilliant, it's a masterpiece. If you haven't seen it yet, I believe there is still time. And if you have children or younger siblings you can bring along, they will thank you later, believe me.