Topic: Hugo is a very underrated movie and not reallly a childrens movie. ( SPOILERS!)
Anonymous A started this discussion 12 years ago #35,921
The movie starts with Hugo, an orphan after a horrific accident, working in a train station. In hiding, he sees the Guard of the train station (that he lives and works in) and judging by his face, he is terrified by the mere sight of him. This is easy to miss because while this horrible moment is taking place, child like music plays in the background. Hugo then shifts his focus on to something else, the fantasy like world
that is taking place in the train station, the fantasy world that seems unaffected by his personal horror.
Notice that the guard himself, has suffered a injury during the great war, an injury that was probably traumatic. The very same Guard causes hugo to feel fear.
Hugo then gets into trouble as he gets caught trying to steal, as a result, the shop keeper takes a look at his notebook and confiscates it. The notebook contains a part of The shop keeper's traumatic past, he sees what is in the
notebook an remarks ghosts
Later in the movie, Hugo talks to the grandchild of the shop keeper (Hugo followed him home to try and prevent his notebook being burned as threatened) and according to her, Hugo is a reprobate. After some discussion
she says she will make sure the notebook wont get burned. The scene then changes to Hugo lighting a match to light a candle. He lights the candle in order to see his so called 'automaton'', Hugo remembers
a moment where he and his father decides to fix it with determination. He reflects on this memory in tears. Instantly after the memory, it is revealed that while Hugo was trying to fix the
automaton/ robotic doll his father died in a fire, his alcoholic uncle (alcoholic because of a trauma?) was the messenger of this news and became is guardian, his uncle brings him to the train station
and teaches him how to take care of the clocks in the train station. While delivering the message, The uncle burns his hand on a cigar. All of this happens as Hugo reflects in tears upon the robotic doll.
The movie changes, now Hugo is again spying on the fantasy world in in the train station. Shorty after he meets the shop keeper again, Hugo explains he needs the notebook to fix something but the shop keeper
has BURNED the notebook. Hugo begins to cry and the shop keeper, who is almost crying, tells Hugo to please just go away. Hugo does go away, in fact, he runs away and here comes something amazing-
He runs into the grandchild (of the shop keeper) and she comforts Hugo and tells him that she needs to talk to him and its every important, but... they can't talk here (in the train station) because they
are to much exposed. So he tells him to follow her, Hugo asks where are we going? and she explains that they are going to the most wonderful place on earth and names a few fantasy books, they
are going to the library.
This to me is the pure example of what this movie is about, it is about dealing with traumatic experiences and how Hugo deals with them through fantasy. The movie hints at this at multiple times but it would take too much time to write it all down. Just notice a picture from the actual movie itself, the more the movie progresses, the more the movie shows surreal landscapes and situations.
(Edited 6 minutes later.)
Lawrence joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 10 minutes later[^] [v] #491,589
I remember it having some pretty awesome visuals. Gotta rewatch that.
Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 1 hour later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #491,596
where is this boy's mother?
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 12 years ago, 2 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #491,597
@491,589 (Lawrence)
Yeah, but the 3D version had a bunch of silly shots that were just to show off the 3D
Yeah, but the 3D version had a bunch of silly shots that were just to show off the 3D